Drawing egrets

Lately, I have been inspired to draw. I want to back off color and concentrate on line and value. Here is one of those drawing.

Coastal Georgia Audubon helps children go birding

Too many children spend too much time indoors. Parents pass on fears of their fears of spiders and snakes. Growing up in the south, my friends and I were out doors even when it was hot. Those times we just sat in shade. I was fortunate. Today with air conditioning, TV and x boxes most kids just do not play out doors.

For the last two day as representatives of Coastal Georgia Audubon Society, Gene Keferl & I worked with a group of Gateway kids. These children come from diverse backgrounds. We were asked to work with these children on a unit of bird watching. We did this in two sessions. Yesterday we did a class room session. Gene, a retired college professor, worked out a very good outline for the class session. I pulled together a short power point program to go along with that outline. We discover in working with the class that we need about an hour and a half. The first third is spent getting the children to think about the reasons for bird watching and how to go about preparing to go bird watching. The second third is the power point to get the children to think about what to look for and some cool fact about birds they would see the next day. The last third is how to use binoculars. Using binoculars is crucial to watching bird and it does take practice.

This morning we met the group at Honey Creek. Honey Creek is the camp and conference center of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. This center is located south of Brunswick Ga on 100 acres. It has mixed pine and live oaks tree along a tidal creek. It was a wonderful place to meet the children. Gene was ready so we brought out the binoculars. These binoculars were part of a grant Coastal Georgia Audubon received last year. Our group is looking for ways to reach out into our own community. We are looking for children who show an interest in birding. Our goal is mentor these children .
The group today was a good size group for we could help them one on one. My hope is that these children will be a little more aware of a world out doors.

Just for fun

Becky Valentine & I went birding on Saturday. We went to Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area (WMA) Butler Island unit. This is the remnants of an old rice plantation. Some of the highlights of this area were:
The Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks about 22 of them, they were spread across the island some resting others flying around. While we were on the viewing tower watching several Mottled Duck families, 5 Black-necked Stilts flew by at eye level. Whoa, what a sight! Those elegant birds with white bodies black wings and long slender legs were effortlessly flying around the tower and toward the Altamaha River. As we were walking back around the dike we followed three Orchard Orioles who were flying from tree to tree just ahead of us.
From there we went to Jekyll. I wanted a chance to look at the new bird island off the north end of Jekyll near the Clam Creek parking lot. The island is far enough out there that you do need a good scope. There were lots of pelicans around the edge of the island and ever once in a while a cloud of skimmers would fly up and around and back down again. At the campground bird sanctuary, the place was jumping. There were 3 male Painted Bunting, 1 immature male American Redstart, 2 Northern Parulas, a male Summer Tanager and the normal mix of cardinals & chickadees.
It was a wonderful day to bird on the Georgia coasts.

Shorebirds return

A few shorebirds do stay here in June. There are not large numbers of them but they are around. We are now beginning to see some of our arctic nesters returning. Thursday there was a nice flock at pond on Gisco Point Road. Dowitchers, yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers were all loafing on the little island in the middle of that pond. Yea! The shorebirds are returning.

On a totally different bird note, we made a stop under the M.E. Thompson (Jekyll Island) Bridge. Low tide exposed a lot of the mud and grass so we were able to watch five Worthington's Marsh Wrens. They were very gray. It was a rare treat to watch them as they worked their way around in the marsh grass right below us.

Build A Bird with Georgia

Georgia working with children in 2007

July is summer camp time at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. Sue Andersson, who heads up the program, invites Georgia Graves and me to do a morning program Georgia calls Build A Bird. Georgia introduces the children to what makes a bird a bird. I follow it up with how to find birds. We learn how to use binoculars and scope.

Georgia is a wonderful teacher. She engages the kids in an interactive way that keeps us all on the edge of our seats.

This year I was thrilled to a family of five had already been out birding. Their list would be the envy of a lot of birders for they had already seen Painted Buntings, Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills.

I would like to thank Sue for the pictures.

Georgia's Colonail Coast Birding & Nature Festival Booklets

Hi Everyone,

At long last the Georgia's Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival registration booklet are in the mail. Let me know if you need one. I'll sent to you or just look online at http://www.coastalgeorgiabirding.org/. This festival just keeps growing. Want to help? Volunteers are welcome.

Here are some of the valuable volunteers preparing the mailing. I want to thank, Beth Roth and Regi Sonnen from Savannah's Ogeechee Audubon and Debbie Mumford, Harriet Roberson, Carole Lyons, Gene Keferl from Coastal Georgia Audubon for coming out to help make easy work of complex job.

We are looking for a two very special volunteers

One person to help coordinate the Saturday seminars

One person to coordinate the Silent Auction

A day for the herons

It was raining. It didn’t look that bad when I got into my van. By the time I got to the stoplight at US 17 it was pouring. I thought it was maybe a scattered show. By the time I got over the Sidney-Lanier Bridge the bottom had dropped out. Looking around I could tell the day was a wash.

While I was over on Jekyll causeway, I ducked, well more like bushwacked, into one of my favorite places. A couple of years ago Georgia Power did some work on a power pole. This opened a path to a pond. It is a pond that the Roseate Spoonbills love. I was not disappointed. There were Wood Storks, herons, and Roseate Spoonbills.