| Latest Bird Sightings: Winter's arrival seems to be heralded by the appearance of the Hooded Mergansers in our little ponds. For the past few years now, they have come for the winters. At last sighting, there are at least two males and about 4-5 females. A Great Blue Heron has also made the pond it's home again. We're assuming it too is a migrant, not a local since this one only appears this time of year... if it had been local, we would have seen it more often, I suppose. And of course, our Anhinga has returned! A Great Egret and a Snowy Egret have also been hanging around - almost everyday now, I see the Great Blue hanging out on the tree stump in the water, the Snowy Egret walking by the grassy edge with the Great Egret nearby, the Anhinga drying it's wings on the other cluster of tree stumps in the center of the pond... and of course, our Belted Kingfisher flying around from the trees... and don't forget the little Hooded Mergansers... it's quite a site! I will post pictures of them soon! |
Birding in the Golden Isles... Coastal Georgia is situated on the Eastern Migration path for birds migrating from North to Central and South America. Given the combination of salt marshes, fresh water wetlands, tidal rivers, coastal waters and estuaries and hardwood forests and pine stands, it's no wonder this area attracts birds of all types both seasonally and year-round. This is truly a remarkable birding environment! Little St. Simons Island is one of the most prestigious birding sites in the country. Accessible only by reservation for a minimum two-night stay or for shorter day-trips, boats leave daily from the Hampton River Marina on the north end of the Island.  Personally, I picked up birding several years ago while living in New York City. Most people don't realize what an incredible concentration of resident and migratory birds you get through New York City, mainly Central Park and out in Jamaica Bay near JFK Airport. I can safely say that I know Central Park like the back of my hand, having crawled around every last inch of it on the search for some sort of hawk, heron, warbler, woodpecker or whatnot. Each migration season, I would take the "A" subway line out to Jamaica Bay and view everything from Black Skimmers, Glossy Ibis and Black Bellied Plovers to all sorts of Warblers (Northern Parula, Cerulean, Chestnut-sided, Pine, etc.), Woodcocks and Scarlet Tanagers etc. Traveling as I did for work, I had wonderful opportunities to bird in other locations, my most favorite being the heart of Cajun country in Lafayette, Louisiana at Lake Martin and out in St. Vincent Parish where I saw my first Roseate Spoonbills, Common Gallinule, Anhinga and hundreds of American Avocets and Black Necked Stilts. But my trips down here to St. Simons Island yielded me my first look at Painted Buntings, who come annually to the Island, and Wood Storks.
 Since moving here permanently, I have enjoyed spotting lots of varieties of birds simply driving to and from work or running errands. There's something still amazing to me about a pelican lazily flying overhead as you cross over the marshes and rivers of the causeway heading onto the Island or seeing Woodstorks rising on thermals over the marshes. One day, I caught sight of what I thought was an Osprey in the bare branches of a dead tree in the marsh. Slowing my car down, I realized it's head was too white and something wasn't quite right... then I realized it was a Bald Eagle!
While I admit, I haven't had the time to get out and actually bird lately... I'm extremely fortunate. Around here, sometimes a great birding moment can happen just outside my own house. The road leading into my neighborhood is flanked by two small ponds.  Every time I drive by, I don't know what I'm going see. For awhile, we had a resident Anhinga nesting in a low branch over the water. This past winter, we had several Hooded Mergansers grace the ponds, two males and several females. On any given day, I can count on a Great Blue Heron, Green Heron or a Great or Snowy Egret to be fishing in the waters and the Belted Kingfisher can always be spotted flying from one side to the other. On several recent evenings, we've spotted a Great Horned Owl in the oak tree in our back yard... at which point, we rush our small dog into the house for fear of her becoming owl-food... but the clamor usually sends our guest flying silently off into the early evening sky. In early Spring, we watched for almost an hour from behind our sliding glass door as an Osprey made a meal of a large fish on the same branch where the Great Horned Owl usually sits. Apparently, it's a popular perch for birds... During Spring Migration last year, while walking though our neighborhood, we came across a couple of dozen immature White Ibis, wandering along the street, yards and golf course and it made me laugh to think that I live in a place where I can walk with Ibis...  And don't forget the Pileated Woodpecker...a bird I searched for but I never saw up north. They are a common sight here on the Island and among my favorite, although I'm afraid with all the continued development of the land, their numbers may be in trouble here as well.
 With my schedule, it's been even more difficult to get out to the beach to look for shorebirds, but I was pleasantly surprised a couple of years ago at find a Piping Plover among the many little 'peeps' scampering about the water's edge at low tide. I used to spend late summers in Cape Cod where awareness of the Piping Plovers plight on the endangered list is forefront in local birders' minds and was thrilled the first time I came upon several in the dunes at Nauset Beach. I struggle with shore bird identification, but after Cape Cod, I'm comfortable with the identification of a Piping Plover... so imagine my surprise and elation to find one randomly at Coast Guard Beach here on St. Simons Island!
I'm always open to finding birding partners to encourage me to take the time and make the time to get more active in birding. My husband and Jack Russell Terrier, unfortunately, make poor birding partners... | | For information or resources on birding in Coastal Georgia, check out the following: Georgia's Colonial Birding Trail Coastal Georgia Audobon Society Okeefenokee Swamp NWR 
Wildbirds Unlimited
Located on Jekyll Island
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There are other great places all over the Islands and the mainland to view birds, essentially, any stretch of marsh has the potential for seeing something spectacular. Jekyll Island has hiking trails which are ideal for birding.  Coast Guard beach heading up towards Gould's Inlet on St. Simons Island at low tide is a wonderful place for sighting shorebirds of all kinds. Bring your binocular or spotting scope and take a stroll along the waters. There are sand bars that stretch out into the ocean at low tide and little rivers, pools and islands created by the waters attract all types of shorebirds all year long.
Anywhere you drive in the area presents itself for potential birding. Marshes and rivers provide terrific environments for a great many species. Between I-95 and the brand new Sydney Lanier Bridge offers spectacular stretches of marshes as does the drive from the bridge to the Torres Causeway leading to St. Simons Island. The Colonial Coastal Birding Trail runs up Georgia Coast from Cumberland Island at the Florida border all the way to Savannah and Tybee Island at the northern part of the Georgia Coast. Along the way, there are noted areas for birders - check out the map below and get to learn more! According to local birding guides, the following are some of the many varieties of birds you can expect to find in the Golden Isles! Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Northern Gannet
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Reddish Egret
Green Heron
Black-cr. Night-Heron
Yellow-cr. Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Clapper Rail
King Rail
Sora
Purple Gallinule
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-bellied Plover
Wilson's Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Whimbrel
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Sanderling
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Dunlin
Stilt Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Dowitcher (sp)
Wilson's Snipe
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Hooded Merganser
Laughing Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Black Skimmer
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Barn Owl
Eastern Screech-Owl
Barred Owl
Great Horned Owl
Rock Dove
Eurasian Collared-Dove Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove | Chimney Swift
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Tree Swallow
No. Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Sedge Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Golden-winged Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated. Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Clay-colored Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Nelson's Sharp-tld. Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sharp-tld. Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
House Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Boat-tailed Grackle
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
European Starling
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
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