Adventures of an Aythya Americana

While many of our winter ducks begin leaving us for their northern breeding grounds, one of our native birds decides it is prime time to start attracting the ladies: the American Woodcock. These unmistakably plump birds with a long bill have an incredible breeding display in March, and the Outdoor Discovery Center in Holland is a prime location to witness this activity. These birds gather in the open pasture of the ODC near the visitor center and conduct an aerial spectacle. Patience is rewarded while watching the spectacle as you often wait a while watching the woodcock repeating a nasally "peent" call over and over. However, suddenly this plump bird acrobatically ascends a football field up into the air and makes a twittering noise while descending back down nearly to the same location it took off from. This spectacle is a delight to enjoy on a cold March night and provides a great reason to be outdoors in the early spring.  Photo taken of an American Woodcock during a Marc...

Saturday March 6 was our last day on Jekyll Island and I was still a few birds shy of 200 on my life list. For me to obtain this milestone on our trip, we decided to visit one remaining locale where it was plausible to add some additional species: the Jekyll Island causeway. This approximately six mile stretch of Georgia State Route 520 is an estuarine habitat providing mud flats for shorebirds to congregate and feed. A few shorebirds that I had not seen were the Short-Billed Dowitcher, the Western and Least Sandpipers, and the Black-Bellied and Semipalmated Plovers. Shorebirds of the Jekyll Island Causeway   The best viewpoints of the causeway are either at the visitor center for Jekyll Island (in which you can climb up an observation tower to overlook the estuary) or you have to park on the side of the causeway and view birds in mudflats from the road shoulder (see map). To best view birds at these locations, a spotting scope is a necessity. For those who are not birders, a spo...

Jekyll Island's mandate that only 35% of the island can be developed has proven to be a boon for birds on the island. Shorebirds especially have benefitted from the lack of development and are found throughout the unspoiled beaches on this island. One of the best places to go searching for shorebirds is the Jekyll Island south beach. This beach is at the southernmost point of the island and is the exact opposite of Miami's South Beach, in which there is absolutely no development on this portion of the island. Countless shore birds congregate at this point during all times of day but are especially numerous during high tide.  A Willet surrounded by Dunlin and Sanderlings during the morning of March 4 on the Jekyll Island South Beach.   Keep an eye on the photos below where I include a photo of a specific type of bird next to another species or two to help with reference. In particular, the Dunlin seemed to be the reference bird in many of these photos and a good comparison...