Rare birds will warm you up

OK, I am a southern. I have lived in the southeast United States for most of my life. It can get cold but not often. If it does get cold you hunker down, it will warms up in a couple of days. Well this week, it got cold-real cold. There was no hunkering down, there was work to be done so I layered up and out I went.

You know when you spot a good bird the cold seems to go away? I discovered that this week. Jonathan Gray called me. He had just seen a Western Kingbird at the Jekyll 4-H Center. I happened to be on the island so I ran down. The bird had flown over the trees and was gone by the time I got there. While Jonathan and I looked for the bird, he told me about a Canvasback on the Amphitheater pond. It is a beautiful duck, see.

Then it was off to work at Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop so no more birding for that day. But the next morning I was out at the south end of Jekyll looking for the Snowy Plover. I realized I was out there at low tide. This is not a great time to be out at Jekyll Point. There are exposed sandbars way out in the sound. All the birds are out there, just dots in the distants. Anyhow, I was there and there was a small shrimp boat with lots of gulls and pelicans following it. I was watching the shrimp boat, when a huge white bird flew into my view. It had the body size of a Great Egret but it was not an egret. The wings were too short and the head was all wrong. It was a gull, a Glaucous Gull. I attempted to get photos but it was moving too fast. Here is the best shots I could get.

While I was watching the gull, four other birds caught my attention. White Pelicans were flying over Raccoon Key. It might be cold but it was OK. Rare birds can warm you up fast.

When I left Jekyll Point, I drove around the 4-H Center to try to see the Western Kingbird. I thought I was skunked but I wanted to photograph Jekyll Island's large bonsai forest. These trees are being saved while the new convention center is being built. They will go back to the sight when construction is complete. They are across the street from the 4-H Center.

See don't they look like over grown bonsai trees.

I was rewarded for stopping for the Western Kingbird was on the line across the street.

It been a good birding week on Jekyll.

Glaucous Gull in Brunswick

It started with Bill Flatau‘s photograph.
Humm? I just had to jump in my old van and go. All the way over there I warned myself not to be disappointed. Sure enough there were no birds around the road out to Andrews Island. Don’t give up look around I told myself. So, I looked across at Brunswick’s Landings Marina on the other side of the waterway and there on the dock were gulls. With those gulls sitting on a large piling was a large white gull. Well if I drive around the waterway is the bird still going to be there? The birds looked settled on that dock. I gave it a try. The gull stayed! On top of that it was easy to see that it was a Glaucous Gull. It it is very early for this Glaucous Gull but this bird is here. It has been very warm here the last few days. Temperature has been hovering around 80 and very humid during the day. I called a couple of people and I hope they can get more photos. If I get more I will post them.