With just over 2,700 miles driven, 91 different bird species seen, and with 4 of them being life birds, I’d have to say it certainly was a whirl-wind vacation. And with all good things, it must come to and end and reality rears it’s ugly head in the form up going back to work and all the stress that goes along with it. However I am glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed and not eating in restaurants every night.
Like I said it was a whirl-wind vacation where we visited family, friends, and places we’ve never seen before. And being a type of vacation where we’re not in one location for more than a few days at a time, birding proved to be a challenge. Knowing ahead of time where we were staying helped with locating the best places to bird watch, so planning ahead was really important. Making phone calls and studying web sites proved to be the biggest help.
Our first day of driving was going to be the longest as we drove south to Hattiesburg Mississippi. My 95 year old aunt and uncle live there plus a couple of cousins, so even though it was an exhausting drive I picked up some quality birds.
Boat-tailed Grackles were particularly common as they scavenged the rest stops throughout the south.
Being a rarity in the north, down south the Eurasian-collared Dove was quite common, especially along the Gulf Coast.
From there it was a short drive to Destin Florida where we stayed for another couple of days. It was here I picked up 2 life birds, Snowy Plover located at Gulf Islands National Seashore,
and Common Ground Dove, which I found at the Ft. Walton land fill north of town.
The location of the Snowy Plovers was furnished to me by a contact through the local chapter of the Audubon Society. The bridge leading west out of Destin onto Okaloosa Island has a parking lot right where the bridge ends. She told me to walk the beach and keep my eyes open.
Royal Terns were a pretty common sight, as were
Sanderlings
Immature Sandwich Tern
A Willet in the surf.
Black Skimmers
As I made my way around the edge this is the scenery I was confronted with. Since the Snowy Plover breeds here, it’s off limits to all and is roped off to keep people out. Except for the waters edge, it was nothing but sand and scrubby grasses.
As I passed my way through to the ocean, I really started to pay attention to where I was walking. Except for a few people fishing back by the parking lot, I had this whole area to myself. As I moved about the beach looking for Snowies, something moved.
Notice that this particular bird is banded.
A closer looks at the bands they use.
Knowing how threatened these birds are I didn’t want to keep following them, so I took as many pictures as I could, then I left with another bird ticked off my life list.
After leaving Destin we made our way to Chipley Florida, which is 45 minutes north of Panama City. It was here Kathy’s cousin lived, and our next stop for a couple more days. So the morning of our first full day I drove the 45 minutes to St. Andrews State Park.
A view of one of the larger marshes at the park. One thing I noticed about the state parks in Florida that differ from state parks in Ohio, you have to pay to enter.
Common Gallinule
Trails through the park were well marked and maintained. Low trees and scrubs held a nice diversity of birds, particularly migrating warblers.
Snowy Egret
After our stay in Chipley was over it was onto our next stop, Hilton Head and one of my favorite places to bird, Fish Haul Creek Park. And as was the case on previous visits, as was now, the Piping Plovers were here. The pictures were terrible, so I apologize.
Piping Plover
The day was beautiful when I took these pictures, so why are they so bad? The sun was at a bad angle, and it was real windy, which made holding the camera still difficult while using the digital zoom on the camera. They are so small, and far away getting a good shot is difficult.
It was here that I got a hot tip about a good location for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers just an hour away. As much as I wanted to stay here, I wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity like this. So i packed it up and drove they hour or so to Webb Wildlife Management Area in Garnet South Carolina.
The drive as you pulled in a long, gravel road with mature stands of pines with scrubby undergrowth. Perfect Red-cockaded habitat! Plus the nesting trees had white bands around the tree so you can identify them. All you had to do is find a tree, and look for the nesting hole, which is usually covered on the outside with sap.
Red-cockaded Woodpecker nesting hole.
Unfortunately it’s not nesting time, and the couple of hours spent along the road looking for them was in vain, except for the completely by surprise Bachman’s Sparrow that came into view. About as secretive as they come, I was able to “piss” this out into the open long enough for a good ID.
Now you would think finding yet another life bird I would be satisfied. No, I wanted to see this woodpecker. So I parked the car and made my way down a sand road that criss-crosses the wildlife area.
It was along this road where I’d walk 20 yards and stop and scan. walk another 20 yards and repeat. Over and over again.
Then I spooked a woodpecker off a tree. Flying away from me with black nap and tail, and a ladder back, about the size of a Hairy Woodpecker was my Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Time for the Happy Dance! Life was good.
The drive back was euphoric as was the next day as we walked the beach while Brown Pelicans flew past,
Laughing Gulls looked for scraps to eat,
and a lone Osprey hunted overhead.
However sometimes when you least expect it a really nice bird presents itself at the most unusual of times. We were shopping and just outside the store was a Palmetto Tree, where a Brown-headed Nuthatch flew into. Having my camera at the time, which is surprise in unto itself, I snapped several pictures of this southern specialty.
Brown-headed Nuthatch
The house we were staying at had a patio, where in the morning several palm Warblers were grabbing up all the worms.
But before this trip was over we had just one more stops to make. And boy was it worth every penny and then some.
As for the birds, here’s my total trip list:
- House Sparrow
- Wild Turkey (seen through the kitchen window at Biltmore)
- Eastern Bluebird
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Northern Harrier
- American Kestrel
- Osprey
- Peregrine Falcon
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Bald Eagle
- Turkey Vulture
- Black Vulture
- Mourning Dove
- Eurasian-collared Dove
- Common Ground Dove
- Pigeon
- Northern Mockingbird
- Brown Thrasher
- Common Crow
- Fish Crow
- Blue Jay
- Carolina Chickadee
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- Boat-tailed Grackle
- Hooded Warbler
- American Redstart
- Palm Warbler
- Magnolia Warbler
- Black and White Warbler
- Yellow-throated Warbler
- Pine Warbler
- Scarlet Tanager
- Canada Goose
- Blue-winged Teal
- Carolina Wren
- House Wren
- Eastern Towhee
- White-eyed Vireo
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Red-headed Woodpecker
- Red-cockaded Woodpecker
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Brown-headed Nuthatch
- Northern cardinal
- Tufted Titmouse
- Gray Catbird
- Barn Swallow
- Killdeer
- Snowy Plover
- Piping Plover
- Black-bellied Plover
- Brown Pelican
- Ring-billed Gull
- Laughing Gull
- Sanderling
- Least Sandpiper
- Semipalmated Sandpiper
- Ruddy Turnstone
- Royal Tern
- Caspian Tern
- Sandwich Tern
- Common Tern
- Willet
- Black Skimmer
- American Oystercatcher
- Double-creasted Cormorant
- Snowy Egret
- Great Egret
- Great Blue Heron
- Tri-colored Egret
- Cattle Egret
- Little Blue Heron (white and blue phase)
- Coot
- Common Gallinule
- Pied Billed Grebe
- Ruby Throated Hummingbird
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Eastern Phoebe
- Belted Kingfisher
- White Ibis
- Clapper Rail
- Bachman’s Sparrow
- Red-winged Black Bird
- House Finch
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
A Birder's Notebook 
