Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Summer School: Ornithology



While on vacation,
we saw a painted bunting for the first time at Skidaway Island,
near Savannah, Georgia.
This is where we camped for the first two days of our vacation.
We heard more birds than we saw.
In fact, we woke up to a chorus each morning
and had difficulty identifying the birds we heard
because there were so many
and because we are not familiar with coastal birds.


This is the 1st time I have ever photographed a hummingbird.
It was taken near our campground at Skidaway Island.


This is a lake at Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge, near Savannah, Georgia.
We saw little blue herons, common moorhens, black-crowned night herons,
wood ducks, cattle egret, northern bobwhite and white ibis here.
We also heard many types of warblers, buntings, and other song birds.



The white birds in the trees closest to the foreground are
great and snowy egrets.
There were also many anhingas mixed in with the egrets.
On the trees in the background were wood storks.


We spent three days in Charleston, South Carolina.
Here are the boys bird watching on The Battery in historic downtown.
They spotted royal tern, brown pelican, laughing gull, and boat-tailed grackle.
You can also see Fort Sumter behind them in the distance.
We (Wilbur was 1st to see it and gets major kudos for this spot) 
also spotted ospreys nesting in trees along the highway
to the beach we visited each evening.
We were unable to get a picture because of the location
along the very busy road.



We ended the birding portion of our vacation at Francis Biedler Forest,
about one hour north of Charleston.
We saw many prothonotary warblers and heard a variety of other birds.
We heard almost every species of woodpecker specific to the swamp.
We followed a boardwalk through the swamp
which made the walk easy and pleasant.
Just before leaving, we saw this barred owl perched 
about ten feet from the boardwalk.

4 comments:

Celee said...

Wow! I'm impressed with all the birds you saw and even more impressed that you can name them! You must have had a book along with you! My mom is really into birds and each time she sees a new one at the ranch she rushes home to look it up in her books. Looks like fun was had by all!

Kellie said...

That must have been so exciting to see and hear new birds. I love the painted bunting! Do you keep a book listing all the birds you've seen? Barb at the OHC suggested we start one, so I was curious what you guys do.

homeschooldawn said...

Thanks, y'all.

It was tons of fun, and yes, we keep field guides all over the place so we are always prepared to id a bird!

Kellie, you have inspired a Birding 101 post. I would normally answer directly, but think info on keeping a life list is a good topic for the series. I'll have that post up soon. :)

Heather said...

I have always wanted to see a painted bunting-what a great pic!