Rambling on November 30, 2012

Got a chance to ramble around to a couple of my favorite places on Jekyll.  Jekyll Point has taken a beating from the wind and super high tides.  Still the skimmers love it. 


At the Amphitheater Pond, the alligators were out in force.  It was good to see them.  Last April, the pond was at it lowest point.  There were around 30 nests of Wood Storks. Almost over night the nests were gone- just gone.  What got them?  Well,  it is thought that raccoons climb the tall pine trees and ate the eggs.  Alligators protect nesting egrets, herons and Wood Storks from raccoons but the pond was so low. The alligators couldn't do there job.  Over the summer the rain restored the water level.  Here is a picture of a mama gator with her kids. This is a very large gator.  She isn't the only big alligator in the pond.  I wonder how the nesting egrets and herons will do next season?

 

I tried to show all the creatures surrounding this big gator.

 

Learning about birds on Jekyll is fun. Here is a picture of Sandy learning about a Western Palm Warbler.  This warbler is one of our most common warblers in October.  Evan is a good teacher.  

A few weeks later I had a group of teacher on to the beach to learn about shorebirds.  It was early morning but they were enjoying every moment of learning about birds on Jekyll.

Even the birds wanted to help.  Here is one of the groups of  birds at Jekyll Point.

Super high tides and a White-winged Dove

 High tides are to expected. We have two each day. Some high tides are not as high as other high tides. It is all about the moon and the sun and where they are in relationship. The moon is the key player. Full and new moons the tides are very high. 

 However, the wind can make the tide higher. This week the moon is a new moon and the winds were from the north. We had super high tides.  

 This caused me to go other places to look for birds.  At the Jekyll Island Club Pavilion, we found a White-winged Dove.  I guess it was looking for a new place away from the tides.

Cool bird, it just let us watch it for awhile.