Oystercatcher Working Group Reporting In

I reported a couple of colored bands on American Oystercatchers to the AMOWG last month. I’ve received reports back, allowing me to see where else these birds have been reported.

This one (yellow 8U horizontal), which I’ve saw twice at Plumb Beach during August, was banded at Breezy Point on 4/19/2013. Breezy Point is 2 miles away from Plumb across the Rockaway Inlet. On 5/29/2017, it was sighted on Plumb and reported to be limping. On 6/03/2017, also at Plumb Beach, the bird was reporting missing its right foot. So for 9 years, the bird has been toughing it out with one foot and a stump. All the reported sightings have been on either Plumb Beach or Breezy Point.

This one (red A/JP triangle), which I saw at Fort Tilden during the last week of August, was banded 2/14/2017 at Battery Beach, Fort Pulaski National Monument in Chatham Co., Georgia. Two months later it was sighted on a Sandy Hook, New Jersey, beach. From 2017-2022, it would alternate between GA (winter) and NJ (summer/breeding season). In 2023 it started showing up on the Rockaway Peninsula, the southwestern edge of Long Island, and since last year the reports have all been from the Fort Tilden Beach.