Wilson's Plover update

For the last couple of weeks I have been looking for nesting Wilson's Plovers on Jekyll Island. All I have been able to find so far is one Wilson's Plover nest. Yesterday, the female was sitting tight. Once she got up to chase off a ghost crab then she settled back. Here is a drawing I did.




I moved down the beach to look for any others but no luck. I will not say that there are no others. There may be a pair or two tucked up out of sight. Time will tell so I will keep watch.

I reported to Tim Keyes a Georgia Department of Nature Resources research scientist. He wrote back that it has been hard on the Wilson's on Egg Island Bar & Wolf Island. But the ones on south end of Cumberland Island are doing well so far. I am waiting and watching. Here one more drawing I did yesterday.

The Gray Kingbird

They are back. Well at least one is back. There are birds I watch for everyday during a season. The Gray Kingbird at the shopping center on Jekyll is one such bird. This year April came and I started looking for the Gray Kingbird….no bird. May 15th came but no bird. I was sad, so sad. These kingbirds are just a delight to watch. They swoop down catch a bug then back up the wire. Good news, yesterday one Gray Kingbirds was on the wire singing it cheerful song. It was just late very late. Does anyone else notice that a lot of our bird species are late this year?

My camera quite working in mid April so I am depending on folks to share their photos. This last weekend, I had the pleasure of being part of an Atlanta Audubon's Shorebird Workshop weekend. It was awesome! Dunlins, dowitchers, willets and oystercatchers, oh my, all gorging themselves on horseshoe crab eggs. Red Knots were found at several locations. On Sunday we had a huge flock at the south end of Jekyll. There were several birds that were banded. Here is a photo taken by Pat Leary. The horseshoe crabs are in the foreground with the knots and sanderlings fanatically feasting.

Well, I could not find the nest of the spoonbills. It did look promising. Oh well I will keep watching.
Now the Wilson's Plovers at the south end of Jekyll are nesting. Any day now we are going to have little plover chicks racing around the dunes. Here are two of the Wilson's Plovers together taken back in April.

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.

Willets in the marsh

Last week, we had a Willet on the south end of Jekyll. It looked very different because it was an eastern Willet returning to nest. They are the long legged shorebirds sitting on the wires on the causeway. The western Willet are the gray guys eating all the small clams on the beach. They should be heading out to the Great Plains soon. As we walked back to the van we crunched through lots of those tiny clams. Look that is all those tiny clams.

Cedar Waxwings

Sorry guys it has been a very long and cold winter. Good news things are looking up. Speaking of looking up, for weeks now the Cedar Waxwings have been gathering. They are helping each other prepare for the migration north. Beautiful birds!