Oops!  I have been very busy for the last few months.   For a while I will try to catch you up with I've been doing.  First, I enjoyed a bird walk with teachers in August.

Ending the year with an Amazing Day

It was an amazing day. The people made the day a delight. I met my Bird Ramble group at 8 a.m. Amanda from Canada and Katy from Chicago joined me. There were lots of Sanderlings, Dunlin, a few turnstones and six Red Knots. While we watched, a Merlin flew by and took one of the birds. Whoa, it was quick!. It became very quiet after that incident. We moved on to see White Pelicans at St. Andrews Picnic Area. These birds are a challenge for they move up and down the Jekyll Creek. The Buff-bellied Hummingbird was a life bird for both Amanda & Katy. Thanks Pam for being so nice to see this bird.

When we arrived at the amphitheater, Blue Jays were going crazy. Amanda spotted the reason. A very large Great Horned Owl was eating a immature Little Blue Heron.

It was lunch time so I say goodbye to Amanda, Katy had to leave a little earlier. I had a little extra time so I went to the campground and watched for titmice at the feeders. Chickadees and titmice just brighten the day.

I ended the day meeting Bret and Mary of Green Global Travel. We were off on a late afternoon Golf Cart Nature Tour. A couple of highlights made the short tour special. One the adult Bald Eagle soared over our heads to land in a pine. As the sun set, we watched as hundreds of egrets came into roost. It was a great way to see the old year out.

Going To watch birds

Making new birders is a goal of mine so when Nell called me for a Bird Ramble with her granddaughter I went for it. It was a short Ramble. Lilith was right with me the whole time. On the beach, there were quite a few small horsecrabs. She had a blast finding them. It is important to make the connection between other creatures and the birds. We talked about the differences in the birds on the beach. Here is Lilith helping to finish some of the drawings. Toward the end of the Ramble she was looking for birds on her own. She had a great time.

Thursday's ramble

Man, did we luck out Thursday. I did a bird ramble with Jean from Bucks Co PA and her niece Charlie. The day stayed overcast. We were able to enjoy the birds without passing out from the heat. The first birds to greet us were the Gray Kingbirds at the shopping center. They were being territorial. Could they be nesting again? Keep your fingers crossed.

We were able to find a few shorebirds, Black-bellied Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, and one Semipalmated Sandpiper. Of course, the most common shorebirds were the Willets. They were in marsh and on the beach. Everywhere we went we heard their calls.

Since I last visited the south end of Jekyll, the tides have been very high. The water was pushed into the primary dunes changing the look of the beach. I was concerned for the Wilson’s Plovers but they were fine. I found all three young one. You can’t call them chicks for they look like they can fly.

This is the male keep an eye on us.

Here is the youngster watching as well.

As we walked back to the van, we enjoyed a few wildflowers.

Aren't these little Sea Pinks pretty?

The morning glories were in full splendor.

We finished the morning at the Amphitheater. There were a few young Wood Stork youngsters hanging out high in the pines.

Thursday in the field

Thursday is my day to Ramble on Jekyll. For those who do not know I conduct a birding tour of Jekyll Island on Thursdays. It is a morning of birding and fun which starts at 8 AM and goes until….well really it should end at 11 AM but I keep birding until my stomach growls. I like to limit this tour to six people so we can have conversations about the birds we saw as we travel between places. From January through April I am overbooked. Starting this week there is room on this morning bird outing.

The goal of my Rambles is to see birds in their habitats, to see the variety of coastal Georgia habitats and most of all to have fun. I want you to forget the stresses of your life, leave them behind, and experience the wonders around you.

This last Thursday I had the pleasure of birding with Nancy Crosby. She is writing a feature article on the Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival for Georgia Outdoors Magazine. Nancy is enthusiastic about birding. Here I am at the end of April the height of migration and I have the pleasure of a morning with a passionate birder. Perfect, the birds did not let us down. To top it off, we had one of those National Geographic moments. We were sorting through the gang of birds at the south end of Jekyll. It was the normal cast of gulls, terns, skimmers and shorebirds. They had been just resting, all doing what they do, preening, snoozing, courting and chatting when all of a sudden they were in the air. They were frantic. We looked around and low and behold an adult Bald Eagle flew right over our heads and into the screaming mass. Wow! The eagle landed and waited for the birds to settle down. He wanted them to forget him and land. He waited and waited and waited. Those birds were not going to land while the eagle was sitting there. He finally gave up and left. Nancy and I went on to bird. At the last stop we popped out of the van and were greeted by a Veery right out in the open but it did not stop there. Right at the end when our stomachs were growling we were amazed by an Ovenbird walking along. It was a great morning.

one answer and lots of questions

Last night I asked Georgia a question. She is helping me understand the beach and marshes. On Thursday, I saw a wave wash across the sand. When the water was there, I saw bubbles coming from holes in the sand. So I took a video and posted it so she could see it. I asked my question. What is this?

Georgia tells me they are Ghost Shrimp. Now that makes sense.

At a teacher's workshop a few years back Georgia was able to dig one up for us.

Here is a ghost shrimp. The other thing is a fancy tube a worm built to decorate it's tunnel.

Here is what is looks like up close.

I looked up Ghost Shrimp in Georgia's Amazing Coast. I found out it is a subterranean animal. It tunnels under the sand on our beaches. To quote the book. "It extracts bacteria and detritus from the mud for nurishment."

My goodness, there is so much to learn and understand.

I love watching shorebirds. They are the ultimate travelers. Dunlins and Western Sandpipers along with other shorebirds winter along our Georgia coast. In April and May, they change from brown things into stunning birds. About that time, they leave. They are on amazing flights over the continent to their nesting grounds. How do they do that flight? What on our beaches & marshes sustains them? I have so many questions. I hope you all don't mind if I throw them out every once in a while. Let's see if we can learn more together.

BEN comes to Jekyll

I am catching up on the last couple of fast paced birding weeks. From Sunday February 22 thru Wednesday February 25 The Jekyll Island Club hosted the second National Gathering of the Bird Education Network. It was long hours of sheer educational fun. There were panel discussions,

break out sessions and of course a lot of good birding going on.

One of the big thrills for me was being part of an instructional Bird Ramble. One of my big goals is to reconnect humans to the outdoors. What is the best way to do that? Going outdoors is a good start but there is more to it. And that is what we discussed on these two rambles. The Tuesday morning Ramble was easy as far as finding birds was concerned. High tide had gathered up some pretty neat birds. The main issue was that there were so many birds to watch. How do you balance the interesting birds right in front of you with the understanding the time limitations of the walk?
The Wednesday afternoon Ramble was the opposite. How do you keep the groups interest when the birds are spread out and some are just little brown dots on brown mud? To save us we finished at the amphitheater with large white birds and a Great Horned Owl.

It was a once in a life-time event for me. Yes, I was able to show off my adopted home Jekyll Island but I was being able to rub shoulders with a great group of dedicated teachers. There were so many wonderful people at this gathering. I would like to thank Paul Baicich, Josetta Hawthorne and Geoffry Castro for pulling this together.
For great pictures of this gathering click on this website http://www.flickr.com/photos/35932775@N07/page1/

And a special thanks Paul Baicich, Kenn & Kim Kaufman for helping lead the rambles.

Kenn Kaufman and Paul Baicich are discussing some ideas for improving bird walks.

Kim Kaufman was an inspiration with her insights on how to get young people involved in birding.

Interesting birds on Jekyll

Amphitheater pond on Jekyll Island

Thursdays are just fun. I get to explore Jekyll Island. Finding interesting birds is a bonus. Well this Thursday, I found a bird species that is an old friend which I don't see much any more. Years ago I volunteered at California's Point Reyes Bird Observatory for three months. What an experience! I learned to band birds and how to do surveys. One of the surveys was monitoring the house flock of White-crowned Sparrows. The birds were color banded so they had names and we knew their history. It was eye opening to find out about these birds from the notes we had on them. It changed the way I looked at birds. So on Thursday when one popped up on a branch near the dunes, I was thrilled. We follow the bird for a while. I tried to take some pictures but the bird did a good job of staying just out of range.

The White-crowned Sparrow is there you just have to look sorry about that.

Toward the end of the morning it was getting quite warm. In fact, we set a new high for the day. Anyway we were looking at all the night-herons roosting around the Amphitheater pond when I spotted a Roseate Spoonbill. This is the third year that this species has been on Jekyll in December. Will it winter here? I will keep you posted.

This is a picture taken back in January 2008. The bird was in the exact same place on Thursday.

Birding in migration Thursday September 18

Here is a real quick post about last Thursday’s Bird Ramble. Often migration is going on and we just don’t see it. That is the way it was Thursday. I could hear the Common Yellowthroats all around us but only a few would pop out. They were everywhere on the island. Another common species this day was Red-eyed Vireos.
On the way out to the southend beach, there were Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Jason Carter who works at Laura Walker State Park was on the ramble he took the picture of the gnatcatcher as well as the Red-eyed Vireo.
We hit the beach at high tide. There wasn’t a lot of mud for shorebirds but Gwyneth Moody pick out a dowitcher in the middle of the Black Skimmers. See it really helps to have more than one pairs of eye looking when you are birding in migration

Dodging rain was the trick of the day.

Gray Kingbird Sea Pinks are in bloom

Jekyll bird Ramble June 21, 2007
I was excited for I was joined by long time rambler, Jean Barrel. A few rain showers were not going to keep us from this bird rambling. It was the first day of summer and showers were welcome after a very dry spring. Jean had lots of news about the birds on the golf course. She was thrill after sixteen years of coming to Jekyll for a family reunion some of her folks were beginning to pick up bird watching. She found her reward for her creating new birders at the southend of Jekyll. She had great views of three Wilson’s Plover chicks with their parents. In fact we were joined by another birder from Tennessee who was also on the island for a family reunion. While we watched the antics of the three chicks we exchanged the typical birder’s information.

“What birds were where? When the birds were seen? And the question to me is: “Where else can I go see birds?” In the course of the conversation I found out there were other birders birding on Jekyll that week. It goes to show how nicely we blend into the area.

After the nice exchange, we hurried on still dodging the rain. We had Painted Bunting at both Tidelands Nature Center and the campground sanctuary. I had to see what was going on at the Amphitheater. The Wood Storks are still doing ok in the dead pine but the rain caught before I could really see how the Anhingas were doing. They were there so there is hope. Now to finish I looked for the White-eyed Vireo nest. It was still on the nest this week.
With Jekyll’s birdlife on my mind….Good Birding
Lydia

photos by Lydia

Growing up Wood Stork

Shrimpboat at Jekyll Point

Friday Morning Bird Ramble May 18,2007

This is a Friday Ramble on Jekyll Island. It has been planned for a few months now. Thursday was awful because the winds were out of the west. The day was very smoky I was a little worried about Friday. But the skies were blue. There was a slight chill in the air. “Perfect” I though!

After meeting with Georgi, Sharon, Joan and Pricilla we walk over to the convention center to get Pricilla her life Gray Kingbird. He was right by his tree standing guard over his nest. What a stately bird.

From there we went to the Beach Deck area near the Days Inn. I always want to check out the beach there. While we were watching Sanderling scurrying around the edge of the surf a woman came up to us. It turned out that Emilie had been looking for us and wanted to join us. The group just took her right in. This was Emilie’s first time to bird. She told us that if she just learned one or two birds that would make her happy. Well, OK we were off to the Welcome Center where the tide was already come in but we walk around to the east side and found shorebirds in summer plumage. The Black-bellied Plover was stunning. The Dunlin was a dandy. But the Whimbrel was the showcase bird.
I wanted to wait for the tide to fall before going to the beach so the next stop was the Campground Sanctuary. We got there around 9:30. This place is wonderful. We had both male and female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Painted Buntings were in and out of the feeders the entire time we were there. A female Black-throated Blue Warbler came into the bird bath a few times. But the real treat was the male American Redstart that popped in to check out the drip. Emilie was hooked when she saw the male Painted Bunting but it was over the top when she learned about the tiny wood warblers like the redstart. What a treat to see someone enjoy watching birds!
The real cap for Emilie and all of us was the Amphitheater Pond. There is just something about babies Wood Storks. Yellow-crowned Night-herons and growing Great Egrets chicks were a plus.
We dropped off Emilie for she had an appointment that her husband had made for her. Did I say this was her birthday? Yes, she wanted to going birding for her birthday. She left very pleased saying she learned a lot more than just one or two birds. A New Birder! Yea.
We finished the morning with Royal Terns, Black Skimmers, and Wilson’s Plovers at the south end of Jekyll. We decide to continue the fun with a lunch at Sea Jays. On the way there a surprise Mississippi Kite flew over the van. Man could it get any better but at Sea Jay’s we were serenaded by a Yellow-throated Warbler. No better way to spend a morning than with good people and beautiful birds. At the very end after I told the group bye I ended my Jekyll Bird Ramble with two Gull-billed Terns. This is the second time I’ve seen Gull-billed Terns in the area around the Gisco Marina Drive. Stay tuned I’ve got my fingers crossed that these birds will hang around here during the summer.
With Jekyll Birds on my mind., good birding.
Lydia