Gray Kingbirds on St. Simons Island

We have a few pairs of Gray Kingbirds that nest on St. Simons Island. One pair is at the St. Simons VIllage. They like to hang out in the little oaks in the pier parking lot. In June, My birding buddy, Melanie and I discovered the kingbirds had fledged a couple of youngsters. 

There was an adult always around. One adult was busy chasing a Fish Crow.

One was just hanging out above the fledglings. 

But there is one pair, I love to watch. The birds are in a most unlikely place. They are in the parking lot of the Winn Dixie. It is fun for me because I enjoy hearing them sing. Look at where they are hanging out.  See the one on top of the light?

 This is him or her on the light.

This is right down the street from my home. I watch them all the time. It makes my day perfect.

The Gray Kingbird

They are back. Well at least one is back. There are birds I watch for everyday during a season. The Gray Kingbird at the shopping center on Jekyll is one such bird. This year April came and I started looking for the Gray Kingbird….no bird. May 15th came but no bird. I was sad, so sad. These kingbirds are just a delight to watch. They swoop down catch a bug then back up the wire. Good news, yesterday one Gray Kingbirds was on the wire singing it cheerful song. It was just late very late. Does anyone else notice that a lot of our bird species are late this year?

Gray Kingbird

I have a fascination with certain birds that visit our coast. One of those birds is the Gray Kingbird. It arrived a little early this year around April 17th. It is not a wildly colored bird. In fact it is multiple shades of gray and white with a black patch around the eye. As I go on and on about this wonderful bird the folks around me are generally looking around for some more interesting bird. But think about it this bird spends it winter in the Caribbean then it comes to spend the summer here on Jekyll. Gray Kingbirds have been coming here since 1981. Every year I can count on this species spending the summer here. This is about as far north as it gets. The last few years it has started nesting in Savannah so it is moving north.
Well I look at this bird sitting on the wire or in the live oak around the shopping center every chance I get. When my friend and new birder, Debbie Mumford, sent me a picture of a Gray Kingbird in Brunswick I was stunned. A bird I thought I knew so well looked different. It was the great angle she got on the bird. Look at the bill! I always see it up high on a wire or a limb. She was in her truck right at eye level. Great Shot! Thanks for sharing.

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

Talk and tours

Thursday April 19, 2007,
I didn’t go out birding today. Well, I did do some birding but I just didn’t go out just to bird. Instead today I did a talk. The High-timers are active retired folks from my church St. Simons Presbyterian Church. This talk is titled “FROM THE BACKYARD TO THE BEACH: BIRDING ALONG THE GEORGIA COAST”. My goal in giving talks is reconnecting people to the outdoors. What better way to do this than through birds. Birds are generally everywhere. There are some very beautiful birds are active during the day so we see them. The more people who are feeding and watching birds, the more folks who will understand the fragile connection we have in the world. There is so much ugly news these days. People complain that life is exhausting and overwhelms them. This cycle seems to permeate our society and clog up our lives. Birding is a great way to break that cycle and help give us prospective. So at noon as I was reaching for the computer case, I made note of the Great-crested Flycatcher singing. Inside I got set up and asked how many feed the birds. I was surprised to find that a lot of the group didn’t feed the birds. This was perfect for them. When I got to the part about common birds that don’t come to bird feeder, I told them about the Great-crested Flycatcher singing. Several days later I had some nice comments on the talk. There was one person who asked me the Great-crested Flycatcher. She is planning taking her grandson out in the backyard to find it. Bingo one more person watching out for our birds.

Friday April 20, 2007 The weather map lied today. The way it looked it was clear. It wasn’t clear in fact it looked like rain. We need rain. And to top it off it was cold and the wind was howling out of the Northeast. Birding Jekyll today was going to be a challenge. The shrike was hiding. The Gray Kingbird stayed very low on the guide wire but we did see him! Wind really puts the birds down in the middle of the trees behind leaves therefore they are harder to find. So we bounced around today spending a few minutes in each place. At around 9:30 we attempted a walk north of the “Glory Boardwalk”. The wind just pushed us back so I just gave it up. Wilson’s Plovers were not going to be out in this wind anyway. The one redeeming part of this stop was running into fellow birder Cheryl Kane. Cheryl had been bouncing around too and had some very interesting sighting. After we exchange news, we were off to check out the very north end of Jekyll. Our luck began to turn around. We added Least Tern, Great Black-backed Gull and surprisingly an immature Northern Gannet. The campground sanctuary was out of the wind and the birds were busy feeding. Our last stop was the Amphitheater. It was again quiet and the birds were helpful. We ended the day with great looks at Scarlet Tanager Maybe the wind was howling, maybe the light wasn’t right, maybe we didn’t see the Wilson’s Plovers but still any day is a good day when you are birding.

Scarlet Tanager Swallow-tail Kite Wow

April 19,2007
Oh my gosh! I just was on the phone talking about putting together the Registration Booklet for the Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival when I notice him! I have a wonderful drip birdbath with bushes near by so the birds can drop from the top of my old live oak tree down to the myrtle tree to the bath. There sitting on the top of the drip was a drop dead gorgeous SCARLET TANAGER. I know in migration that they travel in flocks. There are times at some hot spots where they all over. Here I have been working to make my yard bird friendly. I was just rewarded with this special bird.
This is a good time to update you on the past weeks birding on Jekyll and around the Golden Island. Last Thursday morning we had White and Brown Pelican as well as at least three Wilson’s Plovers at the southend of Jekyll. In the afternoon having dropped off seed for the feeders at Tidelands I was driving back to Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Cottage in the historic district when I became fascinated by the line of vultures flying north. As I watched my day was made for a SWALLOW-TAILED KITE dripped into my sights. Naturally I pulled over to just watch this agile flyer for awhile.
Saturday, I was on St. Simons Island helping with the Glynn Art Spring Festival in the St. Simons village area. It was a beautiful clear morning with just the right chill in the air. Walking to see how the various artists were doing setting up I heard GRAY KINGBIRDS. They have returned for I heard from a friend that they were on Jekyll as well. Jekyll host at least two pairs of Gray Kingbirds every summer. That same day which was April 14 the PAINTED BUNTING males started showing up at feeders along the coast. Spring is in the air.
With Georgia’s wildlife on my mind
Lydia
THURDAY APRIL 12, BIRD LIST
ISLAND WIDE
Yellow-throated Warbler
30 Turkey Vulture
Seemed to be moving North. Strings all along the Island
Mourning Dove
Tree Swallow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Northern Cardinal

DOWNING MUSGROVE CAUSEWAY (before Ramble)
3 Little Blue Heron
10 Snowy Egret
1 Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
3 Green Heron
Red-winged Blackbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
SOUTH DUNES PICNIC AREA
1 Belted Kingfisher
JEKYLL ISLAND SHOPPING CENTER INCL. BEACH AREA
2 Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
1 Loggerhead Shrike
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
1 Northern Parula

SOUTH END OF ISLAND
100 Tree Swallow Really 100 plus
BIRD CORNER
2 Little Blue Heron
5 Cattle Egret
1 Northern Harrier male
2 Common Ground Dove
2 White-eyed Vireo
Carolina Wren
1 Northern Parula
2 Savannah Sparrow
3 Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
10 Common Grackle
3 Brown-headed Cowbird

SOUTHWEST BEACH AREA
6 American White Pelican
8 Brown Pelican
6 Blue-winged Teal
1 Snowy Egret
25 Sanderling
1 Black-bellied Plover

4-H WEST Southend area Jekyll
1 Double-crested Cormorant
15 Brown Pelican
2 Willet
3 Wilson’s Plover
8 Ring-billed Gull
2 Herring Gull
100 Laughing Gull
75 Royal Tern
10 Forster’s Tern
250 Black Skimmer
1 Chimney Swift

SOUTH RIVERVIEW DRIVE
3 Fish Crow

TIDELANDS NATURE CENTER AREA
Anhinga
2 Brown Pelican
2 Green Heron
1 Osprey
1 Cooper’s Hawk 5 Spotted Sandpiper
3 Belted Kingfisher
5 House Finch
6 Brown-headed Cowbird



CAMPGROUND BIRD SANCTUARY
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
5 Blue Jay
2 White-eyed Vireo
Carolina Wren
4 Carolina Chickadee
4 White-throated Sparrow
6 Common Grackle

AMPHITHEATRE POND AREA
2 Pied-billed Grebe
1 Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
4 Snowy Egret
1 Green Heron
6 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
8 Black-crowned Night-Heron
2 White Ibis
26 Wood Stork 14 nesting
1 Black Vulture
3 Osprey
1 Red-tailed Hawk
2 Red-bellied Woodpecker
3 White-eyed Vireo
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Northern Parula
25 Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler


SEEN AFTER THE RAMBLE:

BEACH PAVILION Mid island
15 Cedar Waxwing
HISTORIC DISTRICT
1 Pine Warbler
1 Great-crested Flycatcher
TIDELANDS NATURE CENTER AREA
1 Swallow-tailed Kite
Flying with vultures
DOWNING MUSGROVE CAUSEWAY
3 Barn Swallow


WELCOME CENTER
1 Orchard Oriole Male
25 Semipalmated Plover
30 Western Sandpiper
20 Dunlin
50 Short-billed Dowitcher
14 Whimbrel
1 Greater Yellowlegs
10 Blue-winged Teal
1 Osprey
20 Willet
10 Black-bellied Plover