Feb. 7, 2016 - American Oystercatcher
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One day, as I was leaving St. George Island, I saw this American Oystercatcher at the boat landing. I slowly drove toward it so I wouldn’t frighten it away. It let me approach to within 30 feet. That’s the closest I’ve been to one of these spectacular birds. I stayed in the car and put my photo beanbag on the opened window. The Oystercatcher ignored me and I was able to get several nice photos.
Oystercatchers are large, 18 to 20-inch shorebirds, about the size of a crow. They have a long, orange bill which is chisel-tipped at the end. They mostly eat oysters (as you might expect), clams, mussels, and marine worms. When feeding, their knife-like bill is used in two different ways. If they find an oyster with its shell partly open, they quickly slide the bill in and cut the muscles of the oyster. Then they can pry it open and eat the oyster. At other times, they just use the bill to hammer on the oyster shell until it breaks.
Oystercatchers are strictly coastal inhabitants and are found all along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. They look for areas with plentiful food and appropriate shore habitat for nesting. They are not found in large groups, preferring to be alone or in small family units. (Correction: my friend, John Murphy, tells me that Oystercatchers do form large feeding and roosting flocks in the winter.)
The foam seen on the shore in this photo occurs naturally along ocean beaches. It’s usually white, but it has a tan color in this photo. I think that’s because there is a lot of silt in the bay from all the rainwater flowing down the Apalachicola River.
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