Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, May 2. 2013

My bird list from Georgia


My list from last week's Georgia trip, as I can best recall. The experts identified quite a few more than I could and went home with longer lists.


The mix of habitats is the key. The 7 mile-long island's habitats include ocean beach and dunes, salt marsh, a 30-acre fresh water marsh impoundment, Wax Myrtle scrub, and maritime forest.


A few comments for you bird people: There is no big warbler migration down there. I don't know why. It must be fly-over country for them. Also, there are no ducks now - they headed north a couple of months ago. There are no Bob White Quail and essentially no Wild Turkey. Seems perfect for them, but they are not there. Snakes are tough on ground-nesting birds.


That's not my photo. That's a Painted Bunting, quite common down there.


Birding is, I read, the fastest-growing hobby in the US. It gets people outdoors and moving and it can be as challenging as you desire. Expertise in anything knows no limit.


My list below the fold for those interested. An asterisk means a first for me.

Pied Billed Grebe
DC Cormorant
Anhinga
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron*
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Red Tailed hawk
Merlin
Clapper Rail
King Rail
Sora Rail
Purple Gallinule
American Coot
Black Bellied Plover
Wilson's Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Oystercatcher
Black Necked Stilt
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Whimbrel
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Stilt Sandpiper*
Red Knot
Sanderling
Dunlin
Long Billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Caspian Tern*
Royal Tern
Least Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern*
GH Owl
Screech Owl
Mourning Dove
Chuck Will's Widow
Chimney Swift
RT Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Pileated Woodpecker
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Wood Pewee
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White Eyed Vireo
Red-Eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Brown Headed Nuthatch*
Marsh Wren
Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher
Eastern bluebird
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Parula Warbler
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellowthroated Warbler*
Summer Tanager*
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Savannah Sparrow
Painted Bunting
Redwing Blackbird
Boat-Tailed Grackle
Orchard Oriole

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays, Travelogues and Travel Ideas at 11:51 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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Wow. Nice list!!

What divides the expert birders from the amateur? Is it being able to parse out all those shorebirds & their various moltings? A lot of them seem indistinguishable to me unless they wave a flag, like the Oystercatcher.

"Oystercatcher" - I always thought that was a funny name. How fast you gotta be to catch an oyster?

The Bobwhite Quail population has declined throughout S.C. / Georgia / Alabama. There are a lot of theories why, ranging from disease to increased predation by Coyotes & Armadillos eating eggs.

It may also simply be that past agricultural practices tended to create a perfect environment for them; pockets of woods with fences crossing fields. Brush & juniper often grew up along the fencelines, providing cover; the birds could run along the fencelines into the fields to feed & back to the woods to roost. Less land is farmed now and what is farmed is often laid out in larger plots.
#1 T.K. Tortch on 2013-05-02 12:17 (Reply)
"Coyotes & Armadillos"

Don't forget feral cats.
#2 arcs on 2013-05-02 13:53 (Reply)
An excellent list. When I lived in Palm Valley, Florida, I bought night vision binoculars(expensive!)to see Chuck Will's Widow, owls,etc., but never spotted any. I'm amazed you have seen those.
#3 Mockingbird on 2013-05-02 21:12 (Reply)
Those were heard, not seen.
#3.1 Bird Dog on 2013-05-03 04:53 (Reply)
Great list! Quite accomplished.

I envy you your birds on the east coast. Such color! We have our share in the NW, but they seldom stay for long. Lots of oystercatchers though.
#4 Estoy Listo on 2013-05-02 22:01 (Reply)
Fireants are also a major threat to ground nesting birds.
#5 TomR,armed in Texas on 2013-05-03 13:56 (Reply)

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