Birding in the rain: CBA field trip Saturday, August 28

Saturday morning looked more like a field trip rain-out than a good day for birding. If I had had my druthers I would have stayed home in bed but having the title of CBA Field Trip Coordinator comes with a few responsibilities and showing up to field trips is one of them. As I drove to the meeting spot I thought I would probably just be turning around since, "no one else would be crazy enough to go birding in this weather," but instead I was surprised by 13 enthusiastic birders. It's a good thing they seemed to know more than I did about the birding conditions as we had a good day of birding on a "not hot" morning and got wet more from perspiration than rain. Here is the, probably incomplete, list of birds seen:

Blakeley Island parking area A:

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Common Moorhen
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
Spotted Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Empidonax sp.
Great Crested Flycatcher
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Yellow Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Lark Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird
Orchard Oriole

Blakeley Island parking area B:

Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Moorhen
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Spotted Sandpiper
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Forster's Tern
Mourning Dove
Empidonax sp.
Yellow Warbler
Northern Waterthrush
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird

Battleship Park:

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Clapper Rail
Killdeer

CBA Field Trip to Dauphin Island 8-14-10

Overcast skies with intermittent rain and a fairly early start, kept things from getting too hot for nine birders on the Coastal Birding Association's first "fall" field trip. Not long after reaching the end of the, used to be pier now elevated walkway, the arguably, best bird of the day, MARBLED GODWIT, was spotted. Other birds of note included GRAY KINGBIRD (seen at the adjacent condominiums), a WHITE- MORPH REDDISH EGRET, several PIPING PLOVERS (including one banded individual), SNOWY PLOVERS, seven species of terns and two juvenile NORTHERN GANNETS. As the first of several rainstorms threatened, participants decided it was time to try our luck at the Shell Mounds. All in all the Shell Mounds were pretty slow as might be expected this early in migration. The hoped-for Cerulean Warbler, did NOT make an appearance but warblers that did included: YELLOW, BLACK-AND-WHITE and KENTUCKY other neotropical migrants included RED-EYED VIREOS, BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS and a SUMMER TANAGER.

Dauphin Island Public Beach:

Northern Gannet
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Reddish Egret
Osprey
Black-bellied Plover
Snowy Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Marbled Godwit
Sanderling
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Least Tern
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Black Skimmer
Mourning Dove
Gray Kingbird
House Finch

Shell Mounds:
Broad Winged Hawk
Chimney Swift
Yellow Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
SummerTanager
Native birds

Other:
Magnificent Frigatebird