Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 20

 Monday, March 2

First white-eyed vireo of spring!  But of course, I am in Florida. He might have spent the winter here. 

We saw the usual lone Pied-billed Grebe out in the river. The water was still in the morning, but a little ripple disturbed its sheen. The rooster was crowing and Limpkins were calling out across the water. Those were certainly some new sounds  for me in the morning.

It was clearly still winter there--only a few trees were blooming; most were bare. It would have been easy to see birds but there just weren’t a lot back yet.

While we were sitting out on the fishing pier trying to get some warmth from the early sun, a Limpkin came nosing up along the shore right beside us. Molly saw it--good dog! It called/crowed? For a random few seconds. Weirdest bird sound ever.

Travel day. We went west to Meaher State Park just over the Alabama state line. It was kind of a MEH state park--very open and developed; tons of fancy-ass big honking RVs, all lined up in rows like an RV park. There were big pine trees in the middle—that was pleasant. But there was constant traffic noise from I-10 all day and night.  You could see all the traffic in the distance across the bay.

 Our RV from the boardwalk 

 

But… there were also tons of birds in the huge Mobile Bay. And an alligator. There was a long fishing pier stretching far out into the water.

I didn't find the bird-watching boardwalk at first so Molly and I went strolling around and found a little road called “Canecutters road” with some bee hives, out in the middle of nowhere. With warning signs. 

 The bee hives

 

We saw a Boat-tailed Grackle or twenty, but I’d seen them before down at the Texas coast. We also saw some kind of cool raptor as he deserted the trail in front of us. It was either a Cooper’s Hawk or a Red-Shouldered Hawk, from the size.

Traffic on Interstate 10 across the bay.

In the back of the campground there was a row of little cabins, and next to them a nesting stand with an Osprey nest right there!  The cabins weren’t occupied, but the nest surely was!  I can’t believe the birds tolerated all those humans so near by.

The alligator, but you can't see him. 

And the birding boardwalk!  It goes right out through the swamp and makes a little circle. I was sure I heard some sort of marsh-dwelling sparrow out there, but I never got a look at it. Merlin said it was a Swamp Sparrow. But I can’t count it just on Merlin’s say-so.

Best I could do was one small alligator and a whole lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers.

I found a tick on my ankle at bedtime. Attached.