Horseshoe Crab 



Sand Dollar 



many parents take an interest in the 

 marine life at the waterline and will 

 join their kids there, bucket in tow, to 

 hunt mole crabs and coquina clams, 

 he says. 



In their ever-shifting burrows, 

 these creatures are also easy prey to 

 the beak of the gray-and-white sand- 

 erling. This supercharged bird, only 

 2 or 3 ounces, skitters behind the 

 waves to eat creatures exposed by the 

 backwash. Unlike many shorebirds 

 that feed in the marsh at low tide and 

 the beach at high tide, the sanderling 

 is primarily a beach feeder. 



It can be seen fraternizing and 

 eating with the ruddy turnstone, an- 

 other common shorebird. The name 

 turnstone comes from the bird's 

 feeding habits — it turns over shells, 

 stones and seaweed with its beak in 

 search of beach fleas, fly larvae and 

 other animals that are found in the 

 drift line. Its distinctive black bill is 

 short and slightly upturned. It ap- 

 pears to be wearing a black vest, with 

 a black-and-white face mask and or- 

 ange legs. 



A third bird that patrols the 



shoreline is the willet, which is most 

 easily identified in flight. Only then 

 does it flash its unusual chevron pat- 

 tern — a wide V — of white and 

 black stripes across its wings. It 

 stands a foot tall, considerably larger 

 than the sanderling, and wanders the 

 waterline probing with a long bill for 

 mole crabs and other small animals. 



These birds entertain center- 

 stage on nearly all North Carolina 

 coastlines. But perhaps the best- 

 known shorebirds are gulls and terns. 

 Because they are similar in appear- 

 ance — white with black or gray 

 markings — they are frequently mis- 

 taken as the same bird. 



"Most people don't know much 

 about shorebirds," says JoAnne 

 Powell, curator of education at the 

 N.C. Maritime Museum. "They see 

 terns diving, and because they're at 

 the beach they think these are sea 

 gulls. To them, terns are gulls." 



But differences do set the birds 

 apart. 



For one, the tern is more slender 

 than a gull and has a straight, slim 

 bill and forked tail. The gull has a 



thick bill and square tail. 



And any beach picnicker knows 

 that a gull will circle overhead, beg- 

 ging shamelessly for scraps. It fishes 

 occasionally, picking its prey from 

 the surface of the water. But it prima- 

 rily scavenges, gathering quickly at 

 feeding sites in reply to the call of 

 the first gull on the scene. 



The tern, on the other hand, is a 

 pursuit-oriented predator. It doesn't 

 scavenge, but fishes with headfirst 

 dives from the air. It typically swal- 

 lows its catch while flying or takes it 

 back to its offspring. 



Gulls and terns also have differ- 

 ent ideas about rearing their young. 

 A parent tern, for instance, carries 

 tiny fish in its beak and thrusts them 

 into the youngsters' gullets. A gull 

 simply regurgitates already-swal- 

 lowed food onto the ground and the 

 offspring scoop it up. 



supratidal 

 zone 



This beach zone is where you 

 see the oiled-down sunbathers 

 stretched across blankets or matched 



4 JULY I AUGUST 1993 



