Searching for Birds among the Alligators

One of our very favorite places to bird is also home to alligators! Welcome to Harris Neck Refuge in southeast Georgia. These alligators lie motionlessly at the bottom of trees with their mouths open wide in hopes of nestlings falling out of their nests. This seems to be contradictory if you are trying to protect species but they help prevent nest predation by other wiley predators like tree climbing raccoons.

I fell in love with "birding", the act of searching for birds, on my first Atlanta Audubon field trip to the coast of Georgia years ago. These herons that were present then are still returning to these ponds today.

The first time I came to this refuge, I was totally in awe of the mixed rookery of wood storks, great egrets and snowy egrets. It is a scene out of a David Attenborough special. When I go to special places, I try to identify a couple of birds that I want to find and then, everything else is "icing on the cake or pie" depending on your country of origin. My "target birds" were the painted bunting and roseate spoonbill.

Success! A small flock of roseate spoonbills let me get a distant "dreamy or hazy" photo before flying off to the distant forest. I wish I had a better look and photo but I was thrilled to see them even though if was for a brief moment.

Luck was on my side! Look at this brilliant colorful bird! It appears that I am in the Amazon right? It is a painted bunting, Passerina ciris. Sadly, this beauty is being caught and sold illegally in Mexico and the Caribbean where it resides in the winter because of its spectacular colors. Evidently, this isn't anything new. In 1841, John James Audubon reported thousands of these birds being shipped from New Orleans to Europe. UGH!

The wood stork has a pretty ingenious way of keeping its nestlings cool...they regurgitate water over their nestlings. I learned that fun fact from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. If you haven't tapped into their expertise and knowledge, now is the time!

Any birding trip worth going on involves other parts of nature. So I must introduce you to one of my favorite critters, the green anole. They have this special talent of camouflaging themselves to their surroundings. One moment they are bright green after hanging out in the grass, the next they turn brown to match the bark of a tree.

This unlucky anole didn't miss the sharp eyes of a red-shouldered hawk! I can't believe I caught this action myself!

A trip to the southeastern coast wouldn't be complete without a trip to the beach. Laughing gulls and black skimmers were the highlights for me. Remember when you visit these special places, that we are the visitors but the wildlife that we see depend on these spots for their survival so respect their space and "tread lightly".

Click on photos to enlarge.

Photos and content by Robin Roberts.

Rare Bird Sighting

How can you add adventure, excitement and discovery to your love of hiking in the mountains, camping or backpacking while helping conservation efforts? 

Pack a pair of binoculars to your gear and go birding.

Watching birds from your own backyard is an excellent way to get started but if you want to increase the level of excitement and learn more about your feathered neighbors, you need to start "birding" which is the active pursuit of birds found outside of your small familiar patch.

This week, we dedicated two days to surveying birds along a preselected route for an ongoing research project on Black Mountain. We were able to combine hiking and camping to this pursuit.

Violet-green swallow, Tachycineta thalassina

Female Western Tanager, Piranga ludoviciana

White-headed woodpecker, Picoides albolarvatus

It isn't often that you get a clear view of birds and when you can see them, hear them, and get a photo, it is pretty fantastic.

However, when you find a rare bird, the excitement quadruples. The Hepatic Tanager, Piranga flava, is a resident as far south as South America with its northernmost range in Arizona and New Mexico. It prefers breeding in open pine or pine-oak forest at moderately high elevations. Occasionally, it ventures off into other nearby states but it is not a common event. Black Mountain fits its requirements but is there a male with this female? We didn't discover the male but perhaps, they are breeding in our mountains without our knowledge.

Thanks to Adam's sharp ears hearing only call notes, we discovered a rare sighting of this bird. This is a perfect example of studying the details. At first glance, someone may call this a female western tanager but there are subtle physical differences as well as song differences.

Moments like this are not planned and rarely duplicated so it's best to enjoy the bird as long as it lets you before it takes flight.

After the moment ends, get on eBird and report your sighting. This will help further knowledge of researchers on your sightings.

Happy birding in your patch of the world!

Click on photos to enlarge
Photos and content by Robin Roberts
Recording by Adam Roberts

Reference

Eddleman, W. R. (2002). Hepatic Tanager (Piranga flava), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.655