The Babe-breasted Warblers go birding

I am a little late but I am catching up

Just a word about where we went birding,  We stay for the most part in Glynn county and added McIntosh County in the afternoon.  We had a great time.  We saw a lot of birds.  It is always fair weather when good fellows get together.    

Here is the report:

The Babe-breasted Warblers

(left to rigght, Becky Valentine, Lynda Wiggins, Cheryl Kanes, Nita Wynn  and Lydia Thompson,)

enjoyed a fine day of birding, April 28, in Glynn County  and Altamaha waterfowl Management Area Mc Intosh County for the 2013 All Women's Birding Bust.
We began the day at 6 AM with the chorus of Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Northern Mockingbird and, in the distance, a Great Horned Owl calling. Next we found a local pond where a Wood Duck floated serenely along the edge. On our way to a marshy area where the tide had pushed up a Seaside Sparrow we found a couple of American Robins. By then the sun had completely risen and we still had over 125 more birds to find before we ended our day. We birded marshes, ponds, swamps, pine forests, woodlands and beaches as the warm, rainless day unfolded. We birded some new locations and some tried and true. We had some unusual sightings: Our lone Little Blue Heron was perched on a snag in the middle of a scrub field.

We spotted a Common Nighthawk in the middle of the day routed and chased by a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds. Found two lingering Lesser Scaup, a single Black Scoter and a Chipping Sparrow. Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were sitting on their nest boxes at Altamaha WMA. Usually uncommon Loggerhead Shrikes were popping up everywhere. We had some notable misses: Gray Kingbird, Swallow-tailed Kite, Waterthrushes, several species of expected Warblers, Mallard.
On our big day everyone had a job: Cheryl was our driver, Lydia was our navigator, Lynda verified questionable bird calls and songs, Nita and Becky kept track of our sightings via checklist and Birdlog. We ate well (sandwiches, fruit, cheese, gourmet trail mix), arrived everywhere safely and never got a ticket! Along the way we were (jokingly?) suspected of being part of a movie production crew filming in the area and the owner of the restaurant we schlepped into for dinner at 8:30 PM told us he remembered us from last year.  So we had fun and laughs too. After dinner we still had a few hours so we tried for the Eastern Screech Owl and Chuck-will's-widow but we were unsuccessful. So we ended the day with 135 species of which three were unshared. Look below for the list.

 in picture left to right Lynda Wiggins, Becky Valentine, Cheryl Kanes,Lydia Thompson and Nita Wynn

 

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Lesser Scaup
Black Scoter
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Wood Stork
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Mississippi Kite
Cooper's Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Clapper Rail
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Solitary Sandpiper
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Whimbrel
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Sanderling
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Stilt Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Least Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Marsh Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird (Eastern)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Prothonotary Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Parula
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Huddling from the cold

While most of Georgia was dealing with snow, we were dealing with rain and cold. On Monday when driving over to Wild Birds Unlimited to work, I stopped at one of my hidden birding spots. Huddled in the marsh grasses were Willets, Greater Yellowlegs and a few herons & egrets.


There was not a lot of business at the shop so I did inventory and watched the feeders. Even when it rains on Jekyll, it is still fun.

Swallows on the beach

I guess you could say that swallows fascinate me. I can not wait for August to see when the barn swallows start streaming through. Hot does not bother me when I have 400 barn and bank swallows swirling around me. Then there are tree swallows in November.
On Thursday November 18 I did not have to worry about the heat. The day was perfect. Blue skies, perfect temperature, great tide level and good company. Now add swallows and it is hard to beat it.

Priscilla and I were walking on St. Andrews Beach at the south end of Jekyll Island. The tree swallows were all around us. First they were in the dunes all those dots are swallows then on the beach swirling and twirling. Wow!

Hordes of Tree Swallows

Thursday was warm and wet. Friday was chilly and breezy. It is quite a change. On the way on to Jekyll, I had to stop.

Tree Swallow were amazing. Look! This was on Friday. On Sunday they were still swarming but not in the hordes on Friday.

On Monday April 27, I posted about the horseshoe crabs laying eggs. Thursday May 7th I was out on my Thursday Morning Bird Ramble and watched in fascination as shorebirds feasted on these eggs.

Here are a bunch of Sanderling.

There were lines of Sanderlings, Dunlins, Willets, Ruddy Turnstones and a few Red Knots.

This is a Sanderling with three Dunlins Here a Red Knot enjoying the group.

They would crowd around and eat, then they would all run to the water edge splash around then run back to continue feasting. What a sight!

Friday was a little warmer

On Friday, it began to warm up just in time for the annual Weekend for Wildlife.
This is a weekend put on by our Georgia’s Department of Nature Resources, Wildlife Division Nongame program. This state group watches over our Painted Buntings, shorebirds as well as other migratory birds and animals. The Georgia car tag with a Bald Eagle or hummingbird is one funding source. The other funding source is the great weekend. The Environmental Resources Network, TERN for short, helps puts on the event at Sea Island’s Cloister Resort. I enjoy being part of the weekend by contributing art for auction and by helping lead a Friday birdwatching outing. This year we had a nice size group.
The first bird we all watched was a Piping Plover but a Bald eagle stole the show. This bird landed on the beach scattering the Double-crested Cormorants, gulls and shorebirds.

We finished the day at the Jekyll amphitheater looking at the collection of egrets, herons and even an alligator. It has warmed up!

The Challenge of Low Tide

June 7, 2007. Low tide was at 8 a.m. today. This created a problem for me logistically. You see, we have six to nine foot tides here along the Georgia coast. This means that at low tide, the habitat is exposed and the birds are spread out across the wide expanse of complex marshes, making it harder to predict where the birds will be feeding. Under these conditions, going to the beach first would not have been productive at all; it would have been better to go to the south end around mid tide, but that would have put us out on the hot beach in the middle of the morning.

These kinds of tide levels make me fall back on experience. After years of birding here, you learn to read the signs, and that has to be done in the field, not the day before when you're making plans! It is truly living in the moment. So when I met Diane and Amy, I warned them that this was going to be a challenging Ramble. This was their first time to trek for birds so they were excited to see how this challenge would play out.

yellowlegs in marsh

It was intriguing to watch beginner luck kick in; hard-to-see birds were popping out at almost every stop! We did find one Roseate Spoonbill way out in the marsh, and along with the spoonbill, there were two Black Skimmers skimming along behind it. The Loggerhead Shrike was nowhere to be found, but instead, a Great Crested Flycatcher was on the tree, calling and flycatching. This is a bird that is often very elusive, so I was trilled!

The next stop was the Glory Boardwalk, which is located next to the soccer field at the south end of Jekyll. This boardwalk was named in honor of the 1988 movie Glory, and was built to create a safe path for the movie crew to get out to the beach from the field staging area. (The movie company worked very hard to be environmentally sensitive as well.) The last scene in the movie, where the valiant troops are charging down the beach, was filmed south of the boardwalk. At this stop I was after one bird: the Wilson’s Plover that nests north of the Glory Boardwalk. We did see a female who was obviously directing our attention away from the male and the nest. We left her to her job and were rewarded with great views of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers being chased by a male Northern Parula! Whoa! This was turning out to be a pretty good morning!

We topped it off with two male and two female Painted Buntings at the campground. When I pointed out the calling Pileated Woodpecker, Amy expressed an interest in seeing the bird, so we walked in the direction of the call. Just as I was warning them that these birds could be hard to find, one flew into the tree just in front of us! That was impressive in and of itself, but then a second one flew in and landed! Amy (as well as the rest of us) was elated!

We finished the morning at the Amphitheater. The majority of the Wood Stork’s nest made it through Saturday’s rains from Tropical Depression Barry. Unfortunately, one of the dead pines that had at least three nests was gone, and there appeared to be a few pairs of adults just listlessly hanging around together; could these have been the pairs who lost their nests? This just points out the fact that life in the wild is not easy. Then we moved on to find that the Anhinga had made it through the storm: there was at least one still sitting tight on a nest. The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron sitting near the Amphitheater was the finishing touch on this challenging Ramble.

On the way off the island I stopped by the entrance to Jekyll, and sure enough, there were two Gull-billed Terns sitting out in the marsh! These elegant birds were a good way to end the June 7th Ramble.

With Jekyll’s birdlife on my mind, good birding!
Lydia

Thank you Mary Beth for stepping in and being my editor!

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

Birding on April 5, 2007

April 5, 2007 Jekyll Island Birding

The day started surprising cold. The few days before it had been unseasonably warm. The blood thinned preparing me for the hot steamy days of summer but this cold front was a shook to the system. Well also I should have grabbed my coat. But it was in the closet. The tide was too right not to go shore birding. The strong west caught us off we braved that cold wind. The first stop was the Welcome Center and there were the normal cast of character out there. These were willets, dowitchers, westerns, dunlins, and black-bellied plovers but none of these really close to watch so we moved on quickly. I couldn’t help myself before we could go out to the south end I wanted/needed to look for our resident Loggerhead Shrike. It was there sitting atop the straggly trees just south of the convention center. These straggly islands of thorny oaks are home to a pair of shrikes. I pulled the van in and started to get out and the bird flew off! "Man, where are you going!" I muttered. It is my normal reaction when the bird I want to see flies off. I knew he would return so we waited. Patience is an important trait in birding. Sure enough we were rewarded when it came back with a big fat juice bug. For the first time in my life I watched as it impaled the bug on one of the many thorns. Each one of us got to watch as it tore at breakfast. Now that was worth the stop.
We moved on to the area at the corner of St. Andrews and Macy Lane. This is the area of Jekyll I call bird corner for it just seems to have a good variety of birds. The birds were in there. We got great looks at northern parula, blue-gray gnatcatchers. We listened to Yellow-throated Vireo, white-eyed vireo, and a surprise bird a hooded warbler. Boosted by the little birds we hit the beach. There were not a lot of shorebirds but the gulls and terns were out in force. There were a lot of herring gulls. It has been a long time since I’ve seen that many herring gulls. I did hear one Wilson’s plover. Could it be they were pulling back into the dunes to nest already? Time will tell.
I lead my group east inching up on the other large group of gulls, terns and a few shorebirds. I think the special bird of the day was the piping plover who was skulking along under the “Stay Back, Wilson’s Plover Nesting Area” sign. These are just beautiful little birds. We were also treated to ruddy turnstones, dunlins, sanderlings, least sandpipers and one western sandpiper. The bonus was the western was walking along near the dunlin so everyone got a chance to compare. As we turned to walk back to the van, we were entertained by a pod of dolphins fishing or something. At one point they were churning up the water as one jumped totally out of the water. WOW! The group of six of us was stringing back I was still looking when a pair of buoyant gulls caught my eye. The Bonaparte’s gulls were so delicate I couldn’t let the group miss them so I called them back.
We had spent almost all the morning on the south end. There wasn’t much time left so I made a hard decision to leave off the bird sanctuary in the campground. We went finished the morning watching and counting the wood storks. There were twenty-six of them. There were fourteen nests in some state of being build. A couple of the nest had wood storks sitting tight. The wood storks were not the only ones nesting. Great Egrets, snowy egrets, and Anhingas were all flitting and counting and carrying sticks. I thought we were going to miss the yellow-crowned night-herons but they were at the last look out over the lake. Let’s hope they nest as well.
List of the birds seen is below.
Good Birding!
BIRDS FOUND ISNAND WIDE
Mourning Dove
Boat-tailed Grackle
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Cardinal
Turkey Vulture

DOWNING MUSGROVE CAUSEWAY
2 White Ibis
1 Cooper’s Hawk
2 Bald Eagle
2 Clapper Rail
1 Marsh Wren
10 Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-winged Blackbird Not counted
WELCOME CENTER
3 Tricolored Heron
3 Little Blue Heron
4 Great Egret
20 Willet
10 Short-billed Dowitcher
100 Western Sandpiper Est. count
10 Dunlin
15 Black-bellied Plover
3 Fish Crow
1 Marsh Wren







JEKYLL ISLAND SHOPPING CENTER
10 Eurasian Collared-Dove
3 Blue Jay
5 Fish Crow
1 Loggerhead Shrike
15 Cedar Waxwing
2 Brown Thrasher
1 European Starling
2 House Sparrow
2 House Finch
1 Northern Parula


GENERAL SOUTH END OF ISLAND
400 Tree Swallow

SOCCER FIELD COMPLEX
3 Barn Swallow
BIRD CORNER
1 Chimney Swift
3 Fish Crow
1 White-eyed Vireo
1 Yellow-throated Vireo
2 Carolina Wren
4 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Northern Parula
1 Hooded Warbler
3 White-throated Sparrow
1 Eastern Towhee Female
3 Brown-headed Cowbird
SOUTHWEST BEACH AREA
20 Brown Pelican
6 Sanderling
1 Wilson’s Plover
6 Ring-billed Gull
30 Herring Gull
2 Bonaparte’s Gull
100 Laughing Gull
50 Royal Tern Est. count
40 Forster’s Tern





4-H WEST
3 Willet
4 Ruddy Turnstone
1 Western Sandpiper
5 Least Sandpiper
5 Dunlin
3 Black-bellied Plover
1 Piping Plover
10 Herring Gull
50 Laughing Gull
50 Royal Tern Est. count
35 Forster’s Tern
12 Black Skimmer
TIDELANDS NATURE CENTER AREA
1 Tricolored Heron
1 Little Blue Heron
1 Osprey
1 Merlin
3 House Finch
3 Brown-headed Cowbird














AMPHITHEATRE POND AREA
1 Pied-billed Grebe
100 Double-crested Cormorant
14 Anhinga
8 Snowy Egret
1 Great Blue Heron
16 Great Egret Nesting
8 Yellow-crowned Night Heron
2 Black-crowned Night Heron
26 Wood Stork 14 Nests
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Pileated Woodpecker
1 White-eyed Vireo
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Carolina Chickadee
2 Northern Parula
2 Pine Warbler


After formal Ramble
HISTORIC DISTRICT
1 Great Crested Flycatcher



NOT SEEN ON THE RAMBLE
BUT IMPORTANT TO REPORT
1 Baltimore Oriole
Seen by Jim & Nancy Reed 04/003/07
1 Least Tern
Seen by John Galvani 04/01/07