Happy Thanksgiving from the gang

November 10 the tide was high at the south end of Jekyll. There were lots of surf clams and other tasty morsels for the birds. Willets, Red Knots, and Sanderlings all gathered up. Some American Oystercatchers flew in for a while. They all joined in the feast. Plus they took a little time to rest together. Happy Thanksgiving from my gang to yours.

International Beach

Last Saturday, I was on the beach early. To my surprise, there were still a good number of Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, a few Semipalmated Sandpipers and Red Knots. One of the Red Knots was banded and flagged with an orange flag. This bird had flown from Argentina. It was very thin but otherwise looked all right. Jekyll's beach is an international rest stop!

In the meantime, Wilson’s Plovers are still on the beach. I only found one chick this time. There were 2 other male plovers and one female…..Stay tuned.

Digiscoping attempt

My old camera gave up working back in April. I brought a cheap digital camera. It does not take the pictures I see but no camera has ever done that for me, that is why I am an artist. Any way I have been playing around with digiscoping. It not great but I do love shorebirds.
Here are some red knots at the south end. Here is a ruddy turnstone with a red knot at the southend of Jekyll.

beach stuff

Monday was so much fun. It was foggy so it was hard to see the rafts of ducks out on the oceans. Instead we looked at our feet. Here is a small collection of beach stuff we saw. The tiny shell in the top middle is a dwarf surf clam. I was told that Red Knots eat these. There were Red Knots present. But I do not know what this is in Hallie's hand. Can anyone tell me? Thanks

Red Knots

These days, I am working with a great team of folks to pull together the details of our annual Georgia's Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival October 8-12. My goal is to share some of the special places on our coast. In that spirit here is a post from Brad Winn. He is the Senior Biologist for GA Department of Natural Resources studying shorebirds on the GA coast.
Thanks Brad for the work that you do and thanks for sharing this information and these great photos. These are four Red Knots in flight.
Since 1996 GA Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Divison, Nongame Program has been documenting red knot use of the Altamaha River mouth during a late summer and early fall staging event there. This year the number of knots appears to be up slightly from the last several years. Tim Keyes, Stacia Hendricks, and I had about 2,500 knots feeding on the mud banks of Wolf Island NWR on September 1. ( Here is part of this flock of knots.)
We will end up with more than 100 individual band codes from those bird. This flock will spend the winter in the SE US after dispersing from the Altamaha later this month. High counts in 2000 and 2001 were approaching 12,000 knots. The Western Atlantic knot population has been tanking.
We are lucky to have these birds staging in GA. Let's keep the Altamaha waters flowing and clean to maintain the health of the food for these birds on our coast. (Lydia's comment: Counting these birds must have been a challenge. Look at the flock!)

On Monday April 27, I posted about the horseshoe crabs laying eggs. Thursday May 7th I was out on my Thursday Morning Bird Ramble and watched in fascination as shorebirds feasted on these eggs.

Here are a bunch of Sanderling.

There were lines of Sanderlings, Dunlins, Willets, Ruddy Turnstones and a few Red Knots.

This is a Sanderling with three Dunlins Here a Red Knot enjoying the group.

They would crowd around and eat, then they would all run to the water edge splash around then run back to continue feasting. What a sight!

A Windy Birding Day

May 10, 2007

Sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday a weather system formed out beyond the Gulf Stream. This system had a classic circular cloud movement like a tropical storm. It was heading south and west. It crossed the Gulf Stream and it picked up strength. It was named sub-tropical storm Andrea. Andrea was heading toward Jekyll just in time for my Thursday Morning Bird Ramble. Even with the wind, birding was going to be fun. I warned Carole and Anna that we were going to be bouncing around to find birds.

Well the storm didn’t turn out to be an event but we still had fun looking at some interesting birds. The beach near the shopping center was windy and so

only the sandpipers were working in the runnels and surf. The Sanderlings were becoming brick red hooded birds. They were piling up in bunches rushing up and down the surf. A little higher on the beach Least Sandpipers were working the runnels. Runnels are depressions formed by wave action at high tide then at low tide these depressions hold water. All these birds were nervous. At one point I had some Semipalmated Sandpipers. But they didn’t stay long the wind and surf keep them scurrying.

We ended south to the 4-H center and walking around the south end of Jekyll. We found we were shelter from the wind. Gulls, terns and skimmers were taking a break from the wind as well. One Wilson’s Plover briefly came out of the dunes to watch us then turned and ran right back in. We were rewarded for walking all the way to Jekyll Point for there were Red Knots in their summer plumage as well as a brilliant Rudy Turnstone. A lone Snowy Egret was working the surf. Watching the knots and egret a duck appeared. A Lesser Scaup was drifting along just behind the courting Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls.

As we turned to go back to the car a family came out to the beach with their dog. I was about to say that it was good they had the small terrier on a leash when the boy turn loose of the leash. The terrier took it and began shaking it. Then it ran in circles. My heart sank. I know that education is the key to preventing the killing of birds by our own beloved pets. But who could do this education? Jekyll is perfect place for education. Is there any funding out there for this? Let me know.

Moving on we made a few more stops as we headed to the campground. The sanctuary in the Jekyll Campground is a wonderful place to visit. The squirrels are busy scoffing up all the seed on the ground. The bird drip is attracting all kind of birds. A little female Common Yellowthroat works it way through the under bush to the bath first. Then to our delight a male Black-throated Blue Warbler jumped into the pool. A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird is working the feeders. Every once in a while he would flash his ruby throat at us. There were several female Painted Buntings and one male Painted Bunting at the feeders.

Late in the morning we finished at the Amphitheater. The wood storks seemed unaffected by the winds in fact there were little head peaking over the top of the nests. Baby Wood Storks are so cute. They look like fuzzy stuffed toys. Now we are waiting for the Anhinga babies. Stay tuned…..
With Georgia’s wildlife on my mind, Good Birding1
Lydia