Gray Kingbird

I have a fascination with certain birds that visit our coast. One of those birds is the Gray Kingbird. It arrived a little early this year around April 17th. It is not a wildly colored bird. In fact it is multiple shades of gray and white with a black patch around the eye. As I go on and on about this wonderful bird the folks around me are generally looking around for some more interesting bird. But think about it this bird spends it winter in the Caribbean then it comes to spend the summer here on Jekyll. Gray Kingbirds have been coming here since 1981. Every year I can count on this species spending the summer here. This is about as far north as it gets. The last few years it has started nesting in Savannah so it is moving north.
Well I look at this bird sitting on the wire or in the live oak around the shopping center every chance I get. When my friend and new birder, Debbie Mumford, sent me a picture of a Gray Kingbird in Brunswick I was stunned. A bird I thought I knew so well looked different. It was the great angle she got on the bird. Look at the bill! I always see it up high on a wire or a limb. She was in her truck right at eye level. Great Shot! Thanks for sharing.

A Warbler Wave

Thursday morning I spent a little time on Jekyll. At the south end, I had 3 groups of 5 Prairie Warblers then 2 groups of 3 Prairie Warblers a couple of other birds fly by me. I have one photo that shows they were on the move. There were also a few American Redstarts flying around. I had two adult males flitting around the tree together at the Amphitheater area. It was glorious.
When I got to the beach, it was low tide. At first, there were just lots of Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls and a few Black Skimmers. I am working on a drawing of Black Skimmers so I sat down to draw. In a little while, I was rewarded for my patience three Black Terns flew in with a immature Common Tern.

Art of oystercatchers

In keeping with the art theme, here is a photo taking by Gene Keferl. American Oystercatchers are striking birds. There are times when they gather up on the south end of Jekyll Island. Here is a watercolor I created a while back of a group of them.

Drawing

Well best laid plans....I had planned to have a few days to work on my art. But Monday and today I had to work on Georgia's Colonial Coast Birding Festival stuff. It is alright for I think we are creating a great festival for everyone. Please think about coming. We are preparing for preregistration starts August 23 at 9 am.

This afternoon I glanced out at my bird bath drip, there sitting as beautiful as she could be was a Summer Tanager. She stayed long enough for me to grab my binoculars and then she flew off. It was fleeting but beautiful. That also describes my two days of drawing. See

I am not finished but almost finished. It needs just a little tweaking. Drawing is wonderful. I bird to draw & I draw to bird.

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.