Exploring LeConte-Woodmanston Plantation

Exploring is part of the fun of birding. Where are some unique new places to go birding?
On Sunday afternoon, a group of ten Coastal Georgia Audubon members headed north of Brunswick for about an hour to explore LeConte-Woodmanston Plantation. Mary Beth Evans, the Executive VP of the LeConte-Woodmanston Foundation, Inc., welcomed us and gave us a delightful tour. . LeConte-Woodmanston Plantation was a rice plantation that was established in 1760 by John Eatton LeConte. There were three generations of LeContes that lived at Woodmanston. They were educators and scientists. People like John Bartram and John J Audubon visited the plantation. Louis LeConte cultivated and built an extensive base of knowledge about native flora.
It was a fun Sunday afternoon. We saw where the LeContes experimented with horticulture in the old garden sight. We walked diked gum-cypress swamps. What a great place for all those hardwood bottomland birds. While we walked, I hear and saw Acadian Flycatcher, Northern Parula, and Red-eyed Vireo. The highlight for me was seeing a Hooded Warbler. It is a wonderful place to explore. Thanks to Mary Beth Evans for the tour.
Here is the website. http://www.leconte-woodmanston.org/index.htmll

Wilson's Plover in June

During the month of June I did a few surveys of our Wilson’s Plovers families. It was very clear that three families raised young this year. One of the birder who went out me captured this picture of a Wilson’s with her two chicks safely tucked away from harm. Notice the six legs...

Surprisingly most of the chicks made it thru the flightless stage. The chicks grew stronger and started flying. The three pairs seem to have at least two juveniles that survived. . These birds appeared to be feasting on mud fiddler crabs on the west side of Jekyll Point. Man, those juveniles can run! I don’t see how the parents keep up but they do it. Here one of the parents with a chick

Birding festival update

Oh Dear! I just got a very nice comment so I checked in on my blog. I am sorry for being so far behind. It has been a wild couple of months. For the most part I have been up to my eyeballs in details as a few of us pull together the booklet for the Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival October 9-13. It is a complex of field trips up and down our coast, workshops, seminars, socials, and a special family day on Saturday. The idea is to show off the wealth of wildlife we have here on our coast. My goodness do we have a wonderful area. After a couple of years living on the road birding, I was asked where I wanted to live. The decision was easy. Jekyll Island made it easy. Here is a place you can come stop and rest. You can walk, ride a bike and not worry about being run over. If you want to go a little faster you can rent an electric car. Talk about green, it is an escape to a slower time. If you area a birder, in just a leisurely morning of birding you can see and hear around fifty species of birds. After more than twenty year I still love this place and want to share it.
This is the reason I have dedicated myself to this festival, so we can show it off. This festival takes a lot of planning. The field trips are a big part but there is also a special Nature Day on Saturday with an interactive exhibit area. Some of the top optics and camera folks are there to help you find the best equipment for you. I could go on and on but you can check it out yourself. The dates are October 9-13, 2008. Our website is http://www.coastalgeorgiabirding.org/
We are still putting up the information so hang in there. It will be up in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, I did slip away a little to bird.

June 19, 2008 Ramble

It was going to be a good day. I had 5 keenly interested people eager to get out birding. Margaret, Elizabeth, Patty, and Marilyn are all teachers. It sounded like they were a learning spree. They had been to Sapelo Island and explored barrier island ecology. Today they were learning about birds. Katy is a birder from Chicago who I met back around Christmas. The first bird that flew right at the group was the Gray Kingbird. As we gathered around introducing ourselves a pair of Bluebirds flew up to the power line. The male was the closest to us. What a great start. We had 5 Rosette Spoonbills with a Great Blue Heron and a Snowy Egret. At the south end Wilson’s Plovers were checking us out. There was one female and one male. Least Terns were feeding juveniles s on the beach.

While we stood there watching the plovers a Gull-billed Tern fly by us. Mixed in the regular cast of characters, Royal Terns and Laughing Gull was a Sandwich Tern. I had been looking for Sandwich Terns for my Glynn County year list so there he was! A brief stop at Tidelands to look at the feeders a female Painted Bunting was feeding away. We finished up with Anhingas, night-herons, and baby Wood Storks. There is nothing like good company and good birds.

Painted Bunting

One of our common birds on Jekyll is the multicolored Painted Bunting. They have a soft jumbled song. Hearing the sweet song and then seeing the beautiful male sitting there really helps takes the "hot" out of a summer day.

A little sketch

While looking for the Wilson's Plovers north of the Glory Boardwalk on Jekyll Island, I saw a Snowy Egret in the surf. So I sketched it.

Babies on the beach

Today I was out very early looking for nesting Wilson's Plovers. There were three family groups with two chicks each. These were just west of the 4-H boardwalk on Jekyll Island. Later I met the Master Naturist class, everyone got to see and watch these plovers. The parents were very busy herding the chicks and chasing off anything that looked dangerous. There was one even chasing a Willet. It was a very busy morning.

I have been told of two more pairs so I will go out in the next couple of days. I want to thank Coastal Georgia Audubon for funding this project of data gathering.