Day 5 - The First Day of Birding in Earnest

It was cool and clear this morning and the dawn chorus was quite loud. After a somewhat leisurely breakfast, we were off for a walk around the park, pretty much all of it.

First bird of the day was a Northern Mockingbird, our only one, and it was right in the campground. There were many Brown Thrashers though, making quite a racket, only to be challenged by a large contingent of Blue Jays sqawking. The highlight, however, was a pair of Green Herons, with one on its nest. We saw them early in our walk and took another look on our way back to Speedy. At that point the female was off the nest, standing by, and at least one egg was visible. Another good find, but bad look, was a Marsh Wren, deep in the reeds. We heard it clearly, but could only follow it by watching the reeds move as it worked its way among them. We caught only a few glimpses, a tail here, a wing there, a bit of face.

There seemed to be lots of sound and activity in the woods, but we aren’t quite up to speed at finding small birds in lots of leaves yet. Hopefully, our eyes will improve as we wend our way down the coast.

We had a few birds out on water, a large group of terns fishing, several Osprey, and lots of Barn Swallows, particularly around the staff boat dock where there were shelters over the piers. We also found a Common Loon just off the dock.

After returning to Speedy for lunch, we had a quiet afternoon listening to the birds in the woods ajoining the campground.

Tomorrow we are off to Grand Isle, LA for the next couple of nights. It is one of Louisiana’s prime migrant traps, being at the end ofthe road, quite far out into the Gulf. There is rain expected on Saturday, with notherly winds, so we hope to see a few migrants straggling in on Sunday before we move on to Texas.