Georgia Ornithological Society Field Trip

Saturday April 21, 2007
Jekyll Island
What a difference a day can make! Today there were no gale force winds. It was a beautiful day. Clear skies and a little breeze gave the Georgia Ornithological Society’s field trip groups the perfect weather for watching birds. At the end of the day the two groups had seen one hundred species of birds. There were some birds missing from our list. The Wilson’s Plovers are here but that storm had them out of sight. Here some of the high lights for our group:
Gray Kingbirds put on quite a show. They were playing hide and go seek. They first showed up flying from down the road then around the shopping center to their favorite tree.
There were several species of swallows around the historic district.
We made several stops on the north end. At one point the group was laughing. They thought we would have made better time if we had walked. It seemed we stopped every few feet on the road from Clam Creek Picnic Area to the campground. There were wonderful birds singing along the way. One stop we had great looks at a male Painted Bunting singing in a bush not ten feet from us. Yellow-throated Warblers and Northern Parulas were everywhere singing. We did make it to the campground sanctuary and the amphitheater before lunch.
We ended the day at the south end of Jekyll where we had five species of terns and a Piping Plover. The group with me was great. We took our time at each stop. Everyone got to see birds. At the south end we learned that it pays to wait for the birds are always changing.
The complete list of birds seen is below.
With Jekyll’s wildlife on my mind
Lydia

There were 100 species seen on Jekyll by two groups of Birders

"Red-breasted Merganser", 3 Gisco Marina Rd
"Northern Gannet", 1,"Our group saw one but several groups reported them in the area
"Double-crested Cormorant",
"Anhinga", Amphitheater
"Brown Pelican",
"Tricolored Heron", 3 Historic District
"Little Blue Heron", 1 Historic District, 1 Welcome Center
"Snowy Egret",
"Great Egret",
"Cattle Egret", Airport
"Green Heron", 1 Causeway
"Yellow-crowned Night-Heron", Amphitheater
"Black-crowned Night-Heron", Amphitheater
"White Ibis" 3 Amphitheater
"Wood Stork", Amphitheater
"Black Vulture",
"Turkey Vulture","
"Osprey", Amphitheater
"Cooper's Hawk", 1 Shopping Center at the last minute
"Red-tailed Hawk", 1 Amphitheater
"Clapper Rail", Welcome Center
"Spotted Sandpiper", 1 Clam Creek
"Willet"
"Ruddy Turnstone Jekyll Point Beach
"Short-billed Dowitcher” Historic District
"Sanderling", Jekyll Point Beach
"Semipalmated Sandpiper", Historic District
"Least Sandpiper", 4 Jekyll Point Beach
"Dunlin, Historic District, Jekyll Point Beach
"Black-bellied Plover", Jekyll Point Beach
"Semipalmated Plover", Historic District
"Killdeer" 2 Shopping Center
"Piping Plover", 1 Jekyll Point Beach
"Ring-billed Gull",
"Herring Gull", 16 Jekyll Point Beach
"Bonaparte's Gull", 9 Jekyll Point Beach
"Laughing Gull",
"Caspian Tern" 6 4-H East & Jekyll Point Beach
"Royal Tern", Jekyll Point Beach
"Sandwich Tern", Jekyll Point Beach
"Common Tern", 1 Jekyll Point Beach
"Forster's Tern", Jekyll Point Beach
"Least Tern", Historic District and Clam Creek
"Black Skimmer", 20 Jekyll Point Beach
"Eurasian Collared-Dove", Shopping Center
"Mourning Dove",
"Yellow-billed Cuckoo", 2 Campground
"Chimney Swift", 3 Historic District
"Ruby-throated Hummingbird", 1 Campground seen flying away
"Red-bellied Woodpecker",
"Downy Woodpecker", Amphitheater
"Pileated Woodpecker", Amphitheater
"Gray Kingbird", 2 Shopping Center flying in & out"
"Blue Jay" 1,"Campground
"American Crow", Historic District
"Fish Crow",
"White-eyed Vireo",
"Red-eyed Vireo", Historic District
"Loggerhead Shrike, 2 south of Convention center 1 north of Convention Center
"Cedar Waxwing"
"Gray Catbird", 1, 4-H East
"Northern Mockingbird"
"Brown Thrasher",
"European Starling",
Thrush species??" The bird was either Hermit or Gray-cheeked but key field marks were obscured
Wood Thrush, Clam Creek singing
"Marsh Wren", Welcome Center
"Carolina Wren",
"Blue-gray Gnatcatcher", 1, Amphitheater
"Purple Martin", Historic District
"Northern Rough-winged Swallow", Historic District
"Barn Swallow", Historic District nesting
"Ruby-crowned Kinglet", 2 Clam Creek
"Carolina Chickadee",
"Tufted Titmouse", 2 Campground
"House Sparrow", Shopping Center
"Northern Parula",
"Yellow-rumped Warbler",
"Yellow-throated Warbler",
"Pine Warbler", Amphitheater
"Prairie Warbler", 1 Clam Creek
"Black-and-white Warbler", 1 Campground
"Ovenbird", 1,"seen by other group
"Worm-eating Warbler", 1 Campground seen by other group
"Kentucky Warbler", 1 Campground
"White-throated Sparrow", 6 Campground
"Chipping Sparrow", 1,"some of my group saw them Amphitheater
"Eastern Towhee", Clam Creek
"Summer Tanager", Clam Creek
"Rose-breasted Grosbeak", 1, Campground seen by other group
"Northern Cardinal",
"Painted Bunting", 1, Clam Creek, 1 Campground
"Orchard Oriole" 1 first year male Clam Creek
"Red-winged Blackbird",
"Boat-tailed Grackle",
"Common Grackle",
"Brown-headed Cowbird",
"House Finch", 2 Campground
"Peregrine Falcon", 1 Clam Creek