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Here is an expanded bird list for the Bird Education Network Gathering. Thank you to Lydia Thompson. She says she put down all the Great Backyard Bird Count data from the last Sunday Team Birding event.
Reposted from Jacksonville.com
JEKYLL ISLAND -Darlington School senior Ian McKenzie looks at birds in the distance during the school’s birding trip to the Georgia coast.
A windy morning with temperatures in the 40s would seem a bad time to be outdoors.
But not if you’re looking for birds.
Eleven students from the Darlington School in Rome braved the elements Saturday to climb into the observation tower on the Jekyll Island causeway to spot birds in the distance and list them.
Bundled against the cold in stocking caps, fur ear flaps, heavy coats and gloves, the students peered through telescopes and binoculars. Faculty members offered some help in identifying what the students saw.
With the wind blowing his ear flaps away from his head, senior Ian McKenzie said, “I’m going inside.”
It wasn’t long before the whole bunch followed, but it had been a good morning for Owen Kinney’s environmental sciences class.
Phil Titus, chairman of the school’s science department, called it a great birding experience partly because of the sometimes punishing weather.
“The birds have to eat when it’s cold so they move quite a bit,” Titus said.
The four-day trip includes watching from several spots on Jekyll Island, Andrews Island in Brunswick, Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in McIntosh County and the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.
“It’s a great birding experience,” Titus said. “We often see 100 species in this one trip.”
If the cold makes birding good, it should remain fine in the coming days. The National Weather Service says it will be cold well into this week.
terry.dickson@jacksonville.com
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