THE "REDBILL"
A recent beach walk on a lovely day afforded me an incredible and memorable black oystercatcher experience. For right there, quite close to me - close to the shoreline as well - stood one of those sizeable shorebirds.
On a dull overcast day it would have been a nice sighting. But backlit in the waning afternoon sunlight, this resident bird's bill was indeed a noteworthy image. Red with a hint of orange, it simply glowed - seemingly fluoresced. The sunlight appeared to penetrate and then some of it pass right on through the colorful and somewhat translucent appearing structure. At any rate it did most assuredly grab and hold my attention - 'twas both fascinating and beautiful!
But fascination and beauty aside, an oystercatcher's bill is most utilitarian. It's this marvelous bill - this multi-purpose tool - that allows the jet black bird to dine on oysters, mussels, barnacles, clams, limpets, snails, chitons, small sea urchins, crabs, seastars, worms and other marine life.
To me the bill appeared to have been vise-flattened or compressed from the sides, resulting in a rather thin blade-like affair some have likened to the double-edged knife of an oysterman - hence the name.
This incredible bill allows oystercatchers to probe. The "long red one" can probe down into sand or mud seeking vittles - also pry their often shelled prey from low-tide shoreline rocks or underwater places of attachment. And that same long slim bill they can slip into a bivalve and use as a knife - simply and effectively cutting the muscle that is responsible for shell closure - exposing - voila! - a marine meal.
Or if some of the above tactics aren't successful, they can use the bill as another tool - a hammer - using brute hammering force to pound their way into a shell and then as a forceps-like implement to pluck eats from shells.
But oystercatchers possess other physical features that aid in grabbing a bite as well, like their keen bright yellow eyes encircled in red - all the better to see their prey with. Their lengthy, sturdy, slender, pink legs and slightly webbed three-toed feet - all the better to walk or wade to the potential food source. And returning once again to their most distinguishing attribute - those long red bills - all the better to probe for, hammer, pry, slice, and snatch their invertebrate eats.
Oystercatchers are not the most numerous of shorebirds by any means, but they can at times be seen on the massive rocks off West Beach at Deception Pass State Park and other rocky shores of Island County. Watch for them!
Pat Nash
Beach Watcher
Class of '94