Coastal Georgia Audubon takes a boat ride

On Saturday, Coastal Georgia Audubon Society went for a boat ride with the Dolphin Tours. It was wonderful. We went down to the south end of Jekyll. This was a wonderful way to see how these birds are gathering. We also saw Molly one of Operation Plover Patrol volunteer on the job. Here are some pictures taken by another Operation Plover Patrol Volunteer, Janice Browning. Walkers unaware of the birds walked right thru the resting bird. Operation Plover Patrol will help folks to appreciate what these birds are doing here.
Cormorants galore They are generally the first to leave when disturbed.

Kids and Bluebirds

Coastal Georgia Audubon Society is a small group but its members do big things for the community. Chris Daughtry is one of our member that fits that description. Through the years he and a group of Audubon members made bird houses by recycling the oak pallets he finds. This group puts the houses together and then takes them apart, mark them and then tapes them together. These kits are ready for children who visit our booth at Coastfest. Coastfest is our Coastal Department of Natural Resources' way of showcasing the conservation groups who are working on our coast. The event was Saturday October 3.

Here is Chris giving instructions to the Home Depot staff that are going to help the children build the birdhouses. Notice the box in the foreground. I have made 200 Georgia's Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival Nature Day Flyers to give out with the boxes.

Here are a couple of happy children putting together their own bird house. Several families told me that birds used the houses they made the year before and how much fun it was to watch the birds choose the box and following to fledging the chicks.

Here is the display. Another hard working Aududon member made 12 posters for us. Look at some of Carole Lyons wonderful posters. The gates open at 10 AM and between 10 AM to 3 PM the volunteers worked nonstop. There were 200 Bluebird houses built. Incredible! Parting image of the crowd waiting to build a birdhouse.

Teaming Birding with Art for Nature

I have just gotten home from a full day of birds and art. Back a few years ago I suggested to Diane O Shea that we should do an art show and sale to raise money for Tidelands Nature Center. When we got that going, Eric Garvey, and I wanted to do something for birders that were wintering on Jekyll. It was a perfect match so we do the art show and birding around The Great Backyard Bird Count. This was an opportunity to get beginning birders out with good birders in a spirit of learning and counting birds.
Here is my idea. Jekyll Island is eleven miles long and just a few miles wide at the widest point. I divided the island into sections with no overlap of areas. This year four guides volunteered to help, so there were four areas. We met between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. at the Jekyll Island Convention Center. I put up signs about the areas, the guides and the rigor of the field area. The folks choose who they want to go out with to learn. At 9 a.m. the teams are off to count birds. It is important to get an accurate count but it is just important that the beginners learn something from the group. The areas are divided up so there is no rushing around. Take your time to count the birds you see. then talk to each other about the birds and why they are there. Then around noon come back to the Jekyll Island Convention Center to gather around a computer table and see how to enter your data. When we are finished, there are wonderful arts and crafts to look at and take home. We have some incredible artists with wonderful work. It is a great opportunity to take home a little piece of the islands.
My group went down to the south end of the island. It was not as good as Thursday but it was still great. Look!
We carefully counted 710 Dunlin, 55 American Oystercatchers, and 26 American Avocets. To top it off , we had a large pod dolphin just beyond the beach. No not a bad day at all.

A little cold

Well since Monday, it has rained and cleared up. A wicked wind blew out of the northwest making it very, very cold. It was too cold for some people, others tried anyway. On Wednesday, I hosted a Coastal Georgia Audubon Society's lawn chair birding event at Wild Birds Unlimited on Jekyll Island. The birds huddled on the bird feeders as a few hardy souls huddled on the porch.
Just a few of the hardy souls that ventured out to birdwatch on Wednesday
From left to right is Carl, Lynn, Len and John.

We ended up going inside and watching from the window.



Unabashed endorsement: Please stop by and visit Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop, Jekyll's "natural" shopping destination. We are proud to be able to give you the latest Jekyll birding information. I am generally there on Wednesdays. I love to meet you and hear about the birds you are seeing.

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

January 31 was Coastal Georgia Audubon Society’s annual field trip up to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. Ten people went despite the cold. John Galvani, our president, wanted to see if the Fox Sparrow was still at the entrance area. He had seen three on his visit in December. We walk around to the spot and the sparrow popped right up.

What a lovely sparrow.

Please forgive these pictures. I tried to take pictures all day with only minimal luck.

See, the Fox Sparrow in the tangle.

Well any way we all saw some very nice birds.

Like this Black & White Warbler

Here is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that was being very still.

Here we are looking at the Black & White Warbler and the sapsucker.

The Wilson's Snipe won the prize of the day for it was a challenge to find. We had stopped to watch some Ruddy Ducks. Marge's goal is to get photos of plants and animals to use as flash card for her teaching. She aimed her camera at a bird. She said, “That was a snipe!”

The bird very well camouflaged. We all looked. We could not see it, well until it moved.

Yep, it was a snipe all right.

Do you see the snipe? It is near the middle coot.

Here it is out in the open.

We finished the field trip and tallied up the birds seen. It was a nice list of 62 species. Great day of good birding

Lawn Chair Birding October

Well, it was a little chilly Monday evening but Coastal Georgia Audubon members met at Gould's Inlet for a little birding. This time we were watching gulls, terns, shorebirds, wading birds. A couple of artists added a little charm to the afternoon.

After the birding some of us went over to hear about Amercian Oystercatchers in Georgia. Brad Winn, Gerogia Department of Nature Resource Coastal Resources Division, and Terry Norton, Director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center were talking about the research being conducted here on Amercian Oystercatchers. It was fascinating to learn about these birds which are found all year on the Georgia coast.

Here is a drawing I am working on. No surprise it is a study of American Oystercatchers.

Lastly here is a list of the thirty-five species we saw at Gould's Inlet from 5 pm to 6:30 pm

Double-crested Cormorant, Brown Pelican, Reddish Egret, Tricolored Heron, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, White Ibis, Wood Stork, Osprey, American Kestrel, Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, Short-billed Dowitcher, Sanderling, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Piping Plover, Ring-billed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Laughing Gull, Caspian Tern. Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Forster's Tern, Black Skimmer, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Tree Swallow, Palm Warbler, Song Sparrow, Boat-tailed Grackle,

If you are in the area next Tuesday, we are meeting at 3 pm at the new viewing platform at the Jekyll Island Welcome Center for another Lawn Chair Birding event.

Coastal Georgia Audubon helps children go birding

Too many children spend too much time indoors. Parents pass on fears of their fears of spiders and snakes. Growing up in the south, my friends and I were out doors even when it was hot. Those times we just sat in shade. I was fortunate. Today with air conditioning, TV and x boxes most kids just do not play out doors.

For the last two day as representatives of Coastal Georgia Audubon Society, Gene Keferl & I worked with a group of Gateway kids. These children come from diverse backgrounds. We were asked to work with these children on a unit of bird watching. We did this in two sessions. Yesterday we did a class room session. Gene, a retired college professor, worked out a very good outline for the class session. I pulled together a short power point program to go along with that outline. We discover in working with the class that we need about an hour and a half. The first third is spent getting the children to think about the reasons for bird watching and how to go about preparing to go bird watching. The second third is the power point to get the children to think about what to look for and some cool fact about birds they would see the next day. The last third is how to use binoculars. Using binoculars is crucial to watching bird and it does take practice.

This morning we met the group at Honey Creek. Honey Creek is the camp and conference center of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. This center is located south of Brunswick Ga on 100 acres. It has mixed pine and live oaks tree along a tidal creek. It was a wonderful place to meet the children. Gene was ready so we brought out the binoculars. These binoculars were part of a grant Coastal Georgia Audubon received last year. Our group is looking for ways to reach out into our own community. We are looking for children who show an interest in birding. Our goal is mentor these children .
The group today was a good size group for we could help them one on one. My hope is that these children will be a little more aware of a world out doors.

The Whimbrel Watch, May11, 2007

As the old song goes “Standing on the corner watching all the …..” That is what happens for Whimbrels at Gould inlet from the middle of April into May. Before I write about this wonderful show of Whimbrels let me get you oriented. Gould’s Inlet is on St. Simons Island. It is created by Postel and Rainbow creeks coming together and pouring into the Atlantic Ocean these two creekd are what separate Sea Island from St. Simons Island. The fact that these creeks are tidal and wash over drifting sand flats is the reason the gulls, terns, shorebirds and other water birds gather here.

A while back Brad Winn discovered that in the spring Whimbrels gather here in the evening in good numbers. These Whimbrels seem to use this area like a gathering point something like a bus stop. In the evening they would fly in to preen rest. They waited to almost too dark to see them then they would all leave at once. Brad thought they were flying off to roost on sand bars and small treeless island in the mouth of the Altamaha River. The Altamaha River spreads out into a delta area just north of St. Simons, Sea, and Little St. Simons Island. It is a rich diverse area. It is an area you can only see by boat. Egg Island Bar is one of four bird islands just set aside for birds to rest and nest. These sand bars and island are treeless too far out for the relentless predator, the Great Horned Owl.

The really neat aspect of Gould’s Inlet is you can drive right up for there is a small parking area. There are benches to sit on in other words it is very easy for any one to and watch this show. So I suggested as a Coastal Georgia Field trip. We meet here at 7:30 p.m. I was there at 7:20 and people were already there. It is a dream come true when I can drive up to an area and see birders. Scopes and binoculars at the ready folks are looking through them and chatting about the glories of past birding days or the next trip they are planning. Years before when I spent a little over a year just traveling to see birds there would be times when I would see no birders. Then I would turn into some famous birding spot and there the birders would be all line up scopes point in one direction. Birders were whispering, pointing and smiling as the special bird someone had spotted. So here I was getting out of my van and seeing quite a few birders. Man it just did my heart good. Grabbing an arm load of books I walked over to the group. It is important to me that everyone is included from beginners to experts, so I always try to bring bird books to share.

Looking over to the expose sand bar, there weren’t any Whimbrels yet. The group was enjoying watching the Red Knot in their summer finery. There were Semipalmated Plover, Sanderlings, Willets, and Rudy Turnstones to look at as well. I point to the sand bar and the group looked over there and because there were no Whimbrels there yet they went back to the terns, skimmers and other water birds. A few minutes later the Whimbrels started quietly gather. The group was amazed at how quickly these fairly large shorebirds just came in. In the end we had about one hundred or so Whimbrels on the sand bar. As the light was fading around 8:30 pm the Whimbrels all opened their wings and flew off. It appeared choreographed. They flew in a line across the tip on Sea Island before gaining height. As they gained altitude they bank left and disappeared into darkness.
With Georgia’s Wildlife on my mind, Happy International Migratory Bird Day!
Lydia