Dauphin Island - Week #2

Monday, April 13th, we made the long drive back across Louisiana and lower Mississippi. We know prayers work and that God was looking out for us - there was a huge thunderstorm that came through High Island, TX about 5:00 am, but it had passed by the time we were ready to leave a little before 7:00. Then, according to the radar, we followed that storm all day with another one behind us. We never had any rain to drive through, but a lot of times the pavement was wet and the big trucks were throwing up water. There was a big rain in Dauphin Island before we arrived around 4:30 -- the streets were flooded and water was ponded up in all the yards. Our campsite was wet, but at least it wasn't standing in water like some of them were. The guy camping next to us had a rain gauge out and he said they had 5.5 inches of rain in just a couple of hours.

The birding was very good starting on Tuesday -- the storms had really brought the birds in. There's a lot of difference in how many birds we are seeing now versus a couple of weeks ago. We got in a good morning of birding Tuesday, but another storm came through Tuesday afternoon and we got another 3 inches of rain.

We know this must be the high point for the migration -- there are LOTS of birders here this week. There are birding tours every day and every where you go there are groups checking out the birds!

We had good weather all day Wednesday and it was a good day of birding. Here are a couple of Tanagers we saw that I was able to get pictures of.

Summer Tanager

 

Scarlet Tanager

 

Thursday we took off a day from birding and went to Pensacola, FL to visit some good friends, Dewey and Diane Fowler. I graduated high school with Diane and obviously, we have known each other a long time. We visited with them at their home for a little while, then went out for lunch at the "Fishing Hole" -- outstanding catfish dinner!!

Friday was another good day - no rain, beautiful weather. In addition to the normal birding sites that we go to, we took a ride out to the Dauphin Island pier and walked out on it. There is no water under it anymore. A guy we talked to said the shore line changed in 2004 and left the pier high & dry. He said at one time there was 26 feet of water at the end of the pier. Off the coast here are lots & lots of oil rigs. Just panning from left to right we could see over 20 of them.

Also, there are a lot of really old and beautiful trees that have weathered the hurricanes over the years. Here's just one old Oak at the Shell Mounds birding site.

We always put out birdfeeders in our campsite and scatter seed on the ground which always draws a lot of birds - Cardinals, Blue Jays, Grackles, English Sparrows, Doves, and Indigo Buntings.

Indigo Bunting

 

Eurasian Collared Dove

 

Brown Thrasher

 

Grackles & Others

 

The big draw during Spring Migration is all the various warblers and other small birds that come through. They come in, hang around for a few days, then move on. Here are some of the ones we saw.

Yellow Warbler

 

Black-whiskered Vireo

 

Prothonotary Warbler

 

 

Yellow-throated Warbler

 

Cape May Warbler (this one deserves two pictures)

 

 

Of course, probably our favorite is the Painted Bunting. They have been plentiful, but are shy and hard to get a good picture of. The Indigo Buntings have also been very plentiful. Sorry, but these were long shots and not as clear as I would have liked them.

Painted Bunting & Indigo Bunting

 

Also plentiful are Swallows - both Barn Swallows and Cliff Swallows. They seem to be all over. Here is a picture of a juvenile Cliff Swallow.

Young Cliff Swallow

 

As I said above, this has been a very good week. Today is Saturday and it is raining again. We went out early before the rain started and saw some of the same birds again. According to the radar, looks like it will slack off later today and we'll be out again chasing the birds!!

Tomorrow we plan on going to church in the morning, maybe do a little birding in the afternoon, then get ready to head toward home on Monday.