Piping Plovers on East Beach, St. Simons Island

Today, I went to East Beach for a beach walk. This wonderful little section of beach is ruined for me because of loose dogs. There is a lack of respect on the part of the owners of these dogs. They do not pick up after their dogs. However, I could live with that but there are a lot of shorebirds on this beach. The dog owners use these birds as dog toys. They delight in having their dogs chase the birds, sending the shore birds flying time after time.
Anyway this is my pet peeves…Sorry for the rant.
Well today, Priscilla & I were on a quest. We wanted to see a Piping Plover. The Piping Plover like this beach. I pulled up to Gould’s Inlet and the first bird I saw was an American Oystercatcher. It was banded with a yellow leg band. This bird was banded in Massachusetts. Right next to it was a Marbled Godwits. They were both on a sand spit so no dog could get to them. There 100’s of birds mostly skimmers resting out on the sand spit. Everything was still there when Priscilla pulled up. Then we started the walk. This area is always changing but the large pond in the middle of the beach was still there. As I looked around the edge it looked bleak when I spotted 5 birds hunkered down in the wrack grass and small dunes. Four were Piping Plovers. Yea! We could see one was banded. It was so good to see them. See. Georgia Graves has turned these color band sequence into the banding lab. More later.

Bath Time at Jekyll's Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop

For the last few weeks, I have been watching the bird bath at Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop where I work. It has been so dry that the birds are just jumping into the bath. It is so much fun watching the frenzy of Bluebirds and Cedar Waxwings.
Here is another view of the birds.

There are other special birds coming as well. There are three Yellow-bellied Sapsucker coming to the bath. Here the female.
I would like to thank Priscilla and Ted Fleshman and CCS for donating a laptop to my bird conservation efforts on Jekyll Island. Thanks guys!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, May 2012 bring good times for all our special places and the special people who work to keep them special.