April arrives

Well it is April and a couple of my favorite birds have returned.
The Chimney Swifts were over my house on April 1. I just completed my column on the amazing birds the day before so I was trilled to hear and see them overhead. I don’t have a photo of the birds. Years ago I followed Chimney Swift for a seasons. I sketched these wonderful birds. I found it awhile back and scan it and did some play with the background.


The next bird arrived on April 4th here. These Great Crested Flycatchers are peaking down from their high perch on the magnolia tree. What a great call they have. This is one of the most common summer birds around.

Putting up Plover Sign

On Tuesday April 1, Gene Keferl, John Galvani and I put up the Wilson’s Plover nesting signs at the southend of Jekyll. Another Jekyll person Bob Reed helped in the area that he walks. He is a big help during the season letting us know how these birds are doing.
Any way it was a plover day. We had 8 PIPING PLOVERS from the Water Tower on the east side around to the south end. When we were about out of energy we were rewarded by John finding the SNOWY PLOVER with the banded Piping Plover. These birds have been here throughout the winter season. The Snowy Plover is very elusive. We also had 3 WILSON’S PLOVERS and a Black-bellied Plover. These birds were mixed in with good flocks of Sanderlings, Dunlins, Least Sandpipers and Willets. Right at Jekyll Point the gull and tern and skimmers were piled up. In this mix was one Lesser Black-backed Gull. It was a super afternoon.
Good Birding

Nesting time

Last week was a blur. I did two rambles there is a lot of action going on right now. Wood Storks have done a lot of bill clacking, wing slapping and are now gathering sticks. Some of these birds are already sitting still of their nests. Over the next few months, we’ll watch these wonderful birds and see what happens.

The Wilson’s Plovers have returned. We are privileged to watch these amazing birds as they pair up, display, nest and raise their young. They are singing right now. It is a series of notes that sound like- “kit, kittery, kit, kit.”

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher rule

Sorry I don't have a good photo of a gantcatcher so I just put in the Brown Thrasher we watched.













Thursday was another wonderful birding day on Jekyll. We had perfect weather. The tide was way out so we bounced around a lot. At the end of the morning we had seen or heard over seventy species. The stars were Blue-gray Gnatcatchers which were all over the place in little gangs of three to six birds. Next bird was the Yellow-throated Warblers my goodness. Everyone keep tell me they wanted to go to the Campground Sanctuary so we squeezed it into the morning. Yet again we were rewared by a Northern Parula at the bird drip. Around noon we were at the Amphitheater pond. Guess what those crazy Wood Stork are building nests while one lone Roseate Spoonbill looks on with little real interest on the process.

Wood Storks gathering sticks.

March 8, Atlamaha Coastal Georgia Audubon Field Trip

Sorry this is a late report but it was so much fun to have so many folks turn out to enjoy birding along our Georgia Coast.

Coastal Georgia Audubon Society is trying to increase membership. In order to give people a chance to come to all our field trips, we are holding our Field trips at usual times.

So at 3 pm on March 8, we met at the service barn on Butler Island. It seemed folks liked that time. We had 33 people. There were several good sighting including a brief look at an American Bittern. Good looks at Glossy and White Ibis were on the northern side of the area. We had King Rails calling and Blue-winged Teal flying all around.

And there were lots of Tree Swallows

Marching into March

We are marching right into March and March the 6th was wonderful. The weather was perfect. The tide was just right to rush down to the south end. We were ahead of most groups. At the pole ( I call 4-H west) on west there were birds. The first bird we catch sight of was a Wilson’s Plover sitting close to the banded Piping Plover that been around since October. we had seven Wilson's Plovers down there so the season begins. On down the beach there were American Oystercatcher and Avocets with the gang of gulls and terns. Bird song is everywhere. Yellow - Throated Warblers have been singing since the middle of February but just the day before March 5th I heard my first Northern Parula. At the Sanctuary, the Cardinals were all over but the bird of the day was a Black & White Warbler. This bird was all over the place in the birdbath on the trees. It even almost landed on one of my guests. As is my habit, we finished at the Amphitheater pond with Wood Storks, herons egrets, alligators. There at the very end we were treated to a pair of Red-tail in love. Those hawks were flying wingtip to wingtip and even did a little talon locking. It was a dynamic end to a stunning day.

Sapelo Trip

This was a trip that had been planned for a long time. So when the day February 26 arrived and rain threatened we went anyway. Despite dodging the rain we had a blast. The van was a riot. NO really a riot, it bounced, groaned, and shuttered. When the rains came it rain inside almost as hard as it rain outside. Still we had a blast saw lots of good bird. (Of course I’ve never seen a bad bird) Top of my list were the Bonaparte’s Gulls and Dark-eyed Juncos just to name a few.