Spoonbills on the Jekyll Island Causeway

On Sunday August 30, I was headed to work at Jekyll Island Guest Information Center but I was early. It was high tide so I drove past the toll plaza and pulled over. This is a favorite place to see spoonbills. Today was no different. What a treat to watch before going to work helping people discover Jekyll Island.

Here is a look through the palms at the gathering. 

Good News for the plovers and bad news for a deer

It was an exciting Wednesday July 27. First, I heard from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center’s Turtle Patrol that at least one of the Wilson’s Plover chicks made it through the rains and high tides. It must have been hiding in the dunes. That the way these birds survive. So now the chick watch begins.

I had a nice family last night for the Golf Cart Nature Tour. It was fairly quiet. There were Brown-headed Nuthatches all around us. An Eastern Kingbird was hawking for insects. There were lots of insects to find. They were finding us. However the insect couldn’t bug us too much at the tee at Pine Lake number 7.
There is a pond. In that pond there were Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks, Anhingas but something else caught our attention.
There was something moving in the water. It looked like a brown ball. It was bouncing around. Then the alligator head popped up. It was pushing the brown ball around. The gator then proceeded to turn in the water. There was lots of splashing and the water around the brown ball turned dark. Oh my goodness, the brown ball was a deer. If that was not enough across the pond a large alligator began swimming for the brown ball and smaller alligator. This gator just ran into the ball and splashing followed by the big gator holding the brown ball. Wow! That is second time I have seen gators fighting over food this year.
Sorry there are no pictures of the food fight. I will leave you with a more peaceful picture of another pond on Pine Lakes number 7.

Will They nest this year?

The Roseate Spoonbills are back at the Amphitheater Pond. They appear to be adults. Will they nest here this year?

Roseate Spoonbills

Wow! Last week, I remembered how powerful an experience drawing outdoors can be. Drawing and painting outside is called Plein Air. There is nothing like it. You are living in the moment; more than that you are recording the moments. Here are Wood Storks trying to nest at the amphiteater.

Glynn Art Association invites a few of their artists to take part in a fund raiser for the children’s art programs called the Plein Air Affair. This year, I was asked to be part of this event. I choose to draw at the Jekyll amphitheater. The birds are nesting there so they are sitting still. They are much easier to draw that way. Love is definitely in the air. While I drew a pair of egrets, I witness a first for Georgia. I witness the first pair of Roseate Spoonbills mating. We birders have been waiting for this for years. Where would they nest? That question was on everyone’s mind. And because I was drawing and sitting still, I was able to document this for science. Art and science go hand-in-hand for me.

Roseate Spoonbills

For the past few winters we have had Roseate Spoonbills wintering on Jekyll. Just last Thursday there were 4 at the amphitheater pond. Here are 3 of them across the pond.They seem to like to hang out with the night-herons.

Five pink birds

A few weeks back I posted about the wonderful Roseate Spoonbills at Overlook Park in Brunswick. Well one image just was screaming at me to work. Here is the drawing that I worked on in the evening.

In the pink

Well, it has been a long haul. All the calling, emailing, talking we did to get all the field trips lined up along with the seminars and workshops but the Georgia's Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival booklet is at the printers and I am in the pink for the weekend. In celebration I thought I would show some of the pink things I watched today. I was coming back from Jekyll Island. There is a long traffic light while sitting there I look over and this is what I saw.

Can you blame me for pulling off and admiring them?

On the way out to the south end of Jekyll I stop to photograph these Little Pinks. I just held up my little point and shoot and fired away. I am an artist to the core. I didn't care about sharpness of the shots. I wanted to show off how these delicate flowers bring a softness to the hot, harsh environment of the dunes.

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.

Rambling along on Jekyll in the pink

Thursday is finally here. I get to really go out and look for and see birds on Jekyll. Don’t get me wrong I watch birds everyday. This week the Tufted Titmice have fledged two young. They were back and forth to the feeder with the little “darlings” in toe several times a day. The Blue Jays are in and out of the bird drip all day. The Great Crested Flycatchers are whipping around in the tops of the trees. At several stops around as I attend planning meetings for the Georgia Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival as well as promoting birding for our coast I am hearing Orchard Orioles. What a wonder song!

With the full moon our tides are very high and the wading birds are feasting on trapped fish. I met Janet and her sister Sue. Sue is a photographer birder so the first stop is the pond under the Sidney Lanier Bridge. It is easy to watch the huge concentration of egrets, herons, and storks from Gisco Marine Drive. The Roseate Spoonbill is the first bird the scope lands on talk about luck. There are several lingering immature birds, dowitchers, Semipalmated Plover and Semipalmated Sandpipers. As we peruse the edges of the pond I spot a pair of Black-necked Stilts. I move the van in a better position to watch these birds closer and we notices the terns flying over the pond. Most of the terns are Least Terns but there are two Gulled-billed Terns wheeling around over the surface of the pond as well. What I am learning about myself is that terns fascinate me. I am not sure if it the way the fly or that they have that classic sleek look but it is a trill to see them. Gull-billed Terns are no exception. Since we have wide expanses of marsh for these marsh birds to spread out finding a place to watch them up close is significant. They appear to be mostly white and pale gray except for that sleek black cap and blunt black bill. “Just stunning!” is all I can think to say.

Pulling us away is all I can do for we have some many other places to visit we head back toward Jekyll. As we drive it become clear that we need to stop at a little roost for the storks and spoonbills.
Janet had had a little accident early in the week so she decided to stay with the van as we creep into the roost area. It was a rewarding stop Sue and I snapped away as seventeen Roseate Spoonbills loafed on a skeleton of a tree. When we head back to the van, Janet is resting comfortably having seen some of the spoonbills fly around the area.

Hoping to add Wilson’s Plovers to the day’s experience I decide to walk the south end from St. Andrews Picnic area. This pair of plovers were elusive and today was no exception but we add the ever courting Royal Terns to our list as well as late Ruddy Turnstones.

To finish the morning of course we go by the Amphitheater. The Wood Storks are the stars of the shows. One good sighting was the Anhingas. There were two females sitting tight on nest. Let’s hope that they will raise a few young. There is nothing so fascinating than Anhinga chick. Stay tuned.
With Georgia birdlife on my mind-good birding
Lydia

A day of Roseate Spoonbills and warblers

May 3, 2007

Well after finally getting over a cold that knocked my off for a week, I am headed birding!

Rob and Robin Ostermann joined me. I have been talking to Rob for several months as they planned their trip to our area from north east Oregon. They arrived at the meeting place beside the Jekyll Island Pharmacy at 8 am. I felt like I knew them.
Actually I have Sheila Willis to thank for this nice couple. When they were looking around for a place to go, they called Sheila. Sheila, with her exuberance for all birds and especially birds of this South Georgia area, told them they needed to stay on Jekyll.

Finally here they were. Naturely I ask what birds they wanted to see. Robin jumped right in with a Clapper Rail and Roseate Spoonbill. “What no Painted Bunting?” I ask. “Oh that would be nice but we have been enjoying them at the bird feeders at Tidelands Nature Center. We have had two males and a few females there.” Both Rob and Robin agreed that any bird would fine. Well for me it was set. We were going to look for the rail and spoonbill.

Out to the causeway we went. The stop at the Welcome Center was OK, The birds were a bit too far out. I drove to the roost but I could tell it wasn’t right so I turned around and headed for Gisco Marina Road.

Now there we hit the jackpot! I drove right to the mitigation pools. Low and behold while we were gazing at some Semipalmated Plovers, a Clapper Rail sauntered out and crossed the little creek. It walked past the plovers up the mud threaded through the thin grass. It stay in view for quite a while. Robin had her rail in fact it was a thrill for me as well. Rails are not the easiest to see, so anytime I get a chance to watch I watch!

Turning around and heading back to the causeway I stopped to help them with heron identification. Rob was working along the row of Wood Storks, Snowy and Great Egrets when he said, “There is something out there that is pink.” Sure enough a Roseate Spoonbill was working up and down the little creek. The bird even came out of the creek in plain view sat up on a branch and began to preen. We watched and were amazed when a second one joined it.

The place was magic. Each time I started to leave a new bird would fly in. We laughed and rack up the species.

I had to swing by and see the Loggerhead Shrike who was on his territory before heading to the south end of Jekyll. Gulls, tern and skimmers entertained us. The Wilson’s Plovers were not going to be left out. There were at least three showing off in the dunes.
Time was flying by. It was getting late but I had two more places to go. First was the campground. It was great. Warblers were the highlight. We saw a good many Black-throated Blues most of these were females but there were a couple males around to balance things out. American Redstarts and one Ovenbird made their appearance at the bird drip along with the resident North Parula. With the drought this bird drip is invaluable to the birds.

We finished the morning at the Amphitheater. We were able to see a Common Yellowthroat bouncing between the palmetos. We spied on the nesting birds. Everyone was sitting tight on eggs. . Stay tuned the Wood Storks should have babies soon!

I did find out that Rob and Robin did get to go out with Sheila on Saturday. Sheila led them on a bird walk at Stephen Foster State Park on the west side of the Okefenokee Swamp. Then they were off to see Red-cockaded Woodpeckers before head home. I do hope they enjoyed the wonderful birds of the Georgia Coast.
With Jekyll birds on my mind, good birding! Lydia