Spring Trip 2015 - Final Post

Saturday afternoon after the last post, the rain stopped and we were able to get in a little birding time. There still seems to be a lot of birds around - lots of warblers and other small song birds.

Here's an interesting story - we went to the Dauphin Island Airport and LaVerne spotted a real rarity for this area - a Vermillion Flycatcher. This bird is usually in Texas and Arizona. It was on a Gladiola on the far side of the runway. She pointed it out to a couple of other folks who were there and one lady (a local) jumped on her cell phone and called a few other folks and within literally 5 minutes I think half the birders on Dauphin Island were there. I mean cars were flying into the parking lot and folks were jumping out with their binoculars and spotting scopes to see this bird. I got a picture, but it was a very long shot and not nearly as clear as I would have liked.

Vermillion Flycatcher

 

Sunday we went to the Dauphin Island Baptist Church for worship service. This makes three Sunday's within the last month we have attended church service here. We like it. It's a small church, and they have good music and the pastor has a good message each week.

Dauphin Island Baptist Church

 

It was rainy early, but Sunday afternoon was beautiful weather and we went to the usual birding sites and saw lots of birds.

Here are a few more birds we saw (some repeats) Saturday and Sunday afternoons - plus one interesting critter.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

 

Wood Thrush

 

We don't discriminate -- saw some Guineas

 

A repeat of a Prothonotary Warbler

 

A repeat of the Painted Bunting

 

A Summer Tanager - not in full color yet

 

A Red-headed Skink

 

Late Sunday afternoon we packed it all up and then pulled out Monday morning (yesterday) headed north. It was a good ride up I-65 to Wetumpka, AL where we checked in at Ft. Toulouse State Park for the night and then visited with Scott & Pam and the grandkids. Had a great supper at the San Marcos Mexican Restaurant.

Today (Tuesday) we made it back into Georgia to McKinney Campground on Lake Alatoona near Acworth. Had a good visit with Randy & Jody and the grandkids and picked up our mail that we had forwarded to them.

Tomorrow we'll make the final leg of the trip and hope to arrive at home early afternoon. This has been a fabulous trip - a little over 2800 miles - and we have really enjoyed it. We had some really good visits with family & friends and have seen lots of beautiful birds - as well as other sights along the way. We were glad to have you along and hope you have enjoyed the blog.

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.

High Island, TX - Part #2

Since the previous post on Wednesday, we have had several days of great birding. The small bird migration was still slow until a weather front came through on Friday and things picked up on Saturday.

Thursday morning we went to another Audubon site here at High Island called Smith Oaks. One of the big draws there is a rookery of Roseatte Spoonbills, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and Double-crested Cormorants. There are hundreds of them nesting - almost on top of each other. It's a fascinating site - just a constant beehive of activity.

Rookery

 

Roseatte Spoonbills

 

Great Egret

 

Thursday afternoon we took another ride down the coast and took a few side streets. There are ponds and marshes where there are always interesting birds. We saw lots of Gulls, Terns, Willets, Plovers, and a seldom seen Wilson's Snipe.

Wilson's Snipe

 

Female American Golden Plover

 

Laughing Gulls

 

At the "Boy Scout Woods" Audubon site in High Island there is a long boardwalk that goes out into a marsh area. In addition to birds, there's no telling what else you might run across!

I mentioned in the previous post about the bleachers at the "Boy Scout Woods" location. Late in the afternoons they are pretty filled up. We went most afternoons and sat for an hour or so.

As I mentioned above, the smaller birds started coming in a lot more on Saturday. They are very hard to photograph because they always seem to be in and among the green leaves on the trees and flit from one spot to another. About time I can get focused on one, he's jumped to another limb or flew to another tree. There's always one bird that we're sure to see -- it's a "Whoops-he-flew". Here's a couple that I did manage to get. The first one, the Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher is a rarity in these parts -- he's primarily an Arizona bird.

Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher

 

Summer Tanager

 

One of LaVerne's favorites is a campground regular -- the Inca Dove.

 

Today (Sunday) we went to the High Island First Baptist church for a very good worship service. This is a very small church and everyone is really friendly. In fact, several folks (including the pastor & his wife) remembered us from last year. After church we rode into Winnie and ate lunch at Denny's. It was rainy all day - not fit for birding.

Back at camp, we packed up everything (between showers) and got the Jeep hitched up and ready for travel early in the morning, and watched the Braves game. Like last Monday, we have a long drive across I-10 tomorrow, this time headed east - we're going back to Dauphin Island, AL for our final week on this trip before heading home.

High Island, TX

BIRDS?? Y'ALL LOOKING FOR BIRDS?? (We know someone who will appreciate this)

On Monday April 6th we made the long drive across I-10 from Dauphin Island, AL to High Island, TX - 434 miles! Most of it is OK, but there are a few ROUGH sections - especially the bridges in Baton Rouge, LaFayette, & Lake Charles, LA, and Orange, TX. Also, there is one section about 10 miles long before you get to LaFayette, LA that is extremely rough. I had to go about 35-40 mph to keep from shaking the motorhome all to pieces. It really messed up all the stuff in the cabinets and refrigerator and shook a couple of pictures off the wall.

Coming in to High Island, we spotted what we thought was two dead black bears beside the road (I guess being from the mountains had us thinking bears). Anyway, later we found out they were wild hogs - not bears. Seems like there are a lot of them around here. We're wondering how someone managed to hit two of them this close together.

Even though High Island RV Park is a commercial park, we got a nice site that is not jammed up close to any neighbor. The lady here is really nice and we've gotten to know her over the several times we've been here. She's originally from Millbrook, AL which is close to Wetumpka where Scott & Pam live.

Tuesday was our first day of 'birding. In the morning we went to one of the Audubon sites here in High Island. This site is called the "Boy Scout Woods" and they have bleachers set up where you can sit and watch an open area where they have a water drip in a wet area. They also have a kiosk run by volunteers that sell t-shirts, hats, and other souvenirs. There are also several trails around and through the woods.

Tuesday afternoon we went about 25 miles down the Bolivar Peninsula on the coast highway toward Galeveston. There is an area at the end (before the ferry crossing) where you can walk on the beach and look for shore birds. We like this place because of the sign that says "Walkers Welcome"!

We always like to explore some of the side roads and on one of them we saw a Crested Caracara, several Willets, and one of our favorites, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. You can see from the picture where he got his name!

Crested Caracara

 

Willet

 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

 

We got up early today (Wednesday) and went to Anahuac Wildlife Refuge about 25 miles away. Along the way we got a 'feel-good' picture of a cow & calf.

Anahuac (pronounced Anna-wock) Wildlife Refuge is a pretty big area with all kinds of canals and ponds for water fowl. We took the 'auto-tour' around a 2.5 mile loop (going real slow) and saw a lot of birds.

Double-crested Cormorant

 

Red-winged Blackbird

 

Black-necked Stilt

 

Fulvous Ducks

 

Great Blue Heron

 

Little Blue Heron

 

White-crowned Sparrow

 

We'll be here the rest of this week, so there'll be more later on. And by the way -- as Lewis & Clark would say, the "musketters" here are terrible!