areas in Carteret, Craven and Jones 

 counties. And Camp Lejeune has hired him 

 to locate, map and count endangered and 

 threatened birds, particularly the Bachman's 

 Sparrow. 



On a late November day, Fussell takes 

 some time to visit Bird Shoal, a man-made, 

 shifting spit of sand among the mud flats, 

 salt marshes and tidal creeks of the Rachel 

 Carson reserve. This birding hot spot is 

 only accessible by boat. Joyce Bland, 

 overseer of the reserve and director of 

 education for the N.C. National Estuarine 

 Research Reserve Program, captains her 

 skiff for the trip. 



"I like shorebirds because they in 

 general are very approachable," says 

 Fussell, as he anchors and steps ashore. 

 He warns that there is more high ground at 

 low tide, and the birds will be spread out. 



The first bird sighted is the black- 

 bellied plover, but Fussell hears it first. 



"Chir-eee," he calls, aiming his 

 binoculars toward the sound. "I like the 

 black-bellied plover call a lot. It's a clean, 

 wild sound." 



He points out the low-flying bird, 

 which has distinct black markings in its 

 armpits. Though its breast is black during 

 breeding season, it never actually has a 

 black belly. However, the golden plover 

 does, says Fussell. 



Learning bird calls is like learning a 

 foreign language, Fussell says, and the 



Forster's terns 



Laughing gulls 



earlier you start, the easier. "The bird 

 songs I learned in college or later, I have 

 to put into words — tweet, tweet, tweet," 

 he says. It's like translating French to 

 English in your head as you hear it. 



Treading through the muck of the 

 mud flats, Fussell points out two red knots, 

 which have a rusty hue and yellowish- 

 green legs. He also sights a mddy 

 turnstone, which can be identified by a 

 distinctive harlequin pattern on its back 

 and wings during flight. 



A bird's song, its physical markings 

 and its flight patterns all aid in identifying 



its species. But other variables can be 

 helpful too, Fussell says. For example, it's 

 easier to identify species when they're 

 assembled in a group. 



"I can identify knots by how they 

 look relative to other shorebirds," he says. 



It also helps to consider where you 

 are, Fussell says. Long-billed and short- 

 billed dowitchers can be difficult to 

 differentiate. "But the long-billed dow- 

 itcher shuns intertidal areas, and the short- 

 billed doesn't," he says. "I've seen two 

 long-billed dowitchers out here, but it's 

 very unusual." 



Fussell is helping Bland develop a 

 field checklist for Bird Shoal; so far 140 

 species have been counted. 



The list for the day grows quickly — 

 oystercatchers, dunlins, godwits, Forster's 

 terns, least sandpipers and semipalmated 

 plovers. Fussell even counts eight of the 

 threatened piping plovers — one an 

 individual (identified by its banding) that is 

 making its fourth winter appearance here 

 from North Dakota. (For more on piping 

 plovers, see story on page 15.) 



Most avid birdwatchers compile "life" 

 lists comprised of every species they've 

 sighted; many will travel great distances 

 to add a "lifer." 



Fussell says he varies the game to 

 keep from becoming jaded. He keeps a 

 "state list" of all the birds he spots in North 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 7 



