With winter upon us, we're all looking for warmer weather. One of the birds our coastal biology team banded last summer has done just that. Read on to learn more about the coastal travels of one spry oystercatcher!

Last summer, three American Oystercatcher pairs nested at the south end of Wrightsville Beach. All of them raised at least one chick successfully, and one of those chicks--who hatched in mid-June and fledged around 35 days later--received dark green bands with the letters "YC" engraved on them. Banding birds, the practice of placing plastic or metal rings on their legs, uniquely identifies individuals helps researchers learn about movements, demographics and survival. This is information that cannot be obtained any other way, as to human observers one oystercatcher looks the same as the next.

YC spent its teenage weeks on the sound side of Wrightsville Beach among fishermen and other beach goers. Its parents brought it oysters and other shellfish and we started seeing less of YC as it learned to fly with its parents to feeding areas. The last time we counted it on a shorebird survey was September 5. We thought we might spot YC hanging out on docks on the Intracoastal Waterway, where as many as 100 other oystercatchers spend their falls and winters. Though we saw another Wrightsville Beach chick there, YC was absent.

But then on February 16 surveyors found YC again on the sound side of Folly Beach, SC! They were counting oystercatchers for the second-ever range-wide survey and resighting as many bands as they could. YC happened to be roosting on a dock in a group of other oystercatchers--possibly one or two of them were its parents--waiting for the tide to fall again and expose the shellfish it eats. I was delighted when I received a notice a few weeks after the survey spotting our green-banded YC! Anyone can report a banded oystercatcher to the American Oystercatcher Band Database through a simple web form. The online database and the improved band reporting form were developed by Audubon North Carolina. Now all band information from over a dozen years of banding is in one place and available to researchers, and the public can easily report bands and find out where else their oystercatchers have been.

Oystercatchers are not champion migrants, but some travel over 1,200 miles as the crow flies from Massachusetts to southwest Florida. YC had it easier: it moved just about 150 miles south. But we don't know everything there is to know about YC and its travels. For example, how did YC get down the coast? Did it strike out across open water, or did it follow the shoreline? Did it make other stops along the way, or had it been in the Folly Beach area since its disappearance from Wrightsville Beach in September? The only way to find out is to see more of YC.

Researchers can't survey the entire coastline, but there are people along almost the entire Atlantic seaboard. Since oystercatcher bands are relatively large and therefore relatively easy to read, especially with a long zoom lens on a camera or a spotting scope, members of the bird-loving public (and members of the public who don't yet know they love birds) can also read bands. This year Audubon will be working to engage members of the public in oystercatcher research and conservation all along the coast through workshops, volunteer opportunities, and the internet in the hopes that more people will be on the lookout for--and enjoy observing--birds like YC.