Month: April 2017

I’m sure you know people who winter south of Seabrook Island then visit here on their way north where they spend summers in cooler climate!  In my case, my parents live in Florida during the winter but still summer in Maine.  Since they retired 15 years ago, whether our home was in Massachusetts, New Jersey or now here, our home has been a stopping point “on-the-way” during their spring and fall migrations.  There are several species of birds that do the same thing!  But unlike my parents, they are harder to find and identify.

Located along the Atlantic Flyway, Seabrook Island is a perfect location for these migrants to rest and refuel before continuing their journey.  This spring we’ve talked a great deal about the Red Knot, a special shorebird which travels nearly 10,000 miles each spring from it’s winter home at the tip of South America to breed in the tundra barrens on the Arctic Circle. But did you know there are a number of other species we only see if they happen to stop on our island during their migration north or south?  Here are just a few examples you might be lucky enough to see. Most of them are long distant migrants, and like many other migrating songbirds from eastern North America, they fly across the Gulf of Mexico in a single nonstop journey.

Our first example is the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the bird that stopped at our friend’s feeder on Kiawah Island last week. Check out the eBird Occurrence Map to see its migration and learn more about where this beautiful bird winters and breeds.

The Yellow Warbler has a pretty song that sounds like “sweet-sweet-sweet, sweeter-than-sweet” . It winters in Central American and northern South America and breeds across central and northern North America.

The Magnolia Warbler winters in Mexico, Central America, and West Indies and breeds in Northeast US and Canada. Check out this cool animated map showing predicted distribution and relative abundance across all 52 weeks of the year.

The Black-throated Blue Warbler is a striking bird.  It winters in the Caribbean and migrates through Florida heading to breed in the deep forests of the northeastern US and southeastern Canada.

Our final example, the Ovenbird, is a another warbler and has a very distinguishing song that sounds like “teacher teacher teacher“.  Those breeding east of the Appalachians overwinter in Florida and the Carribbean, while those breeding further west fly to Mexico and Central America.

Watch and listen for these birds here this spring, or if you are returning to the north for part of the summer, you just might see some during your migration.

If you are interested in learning more about the study of bird migration, you may want to read The New Migration Science on The Cornell Labs All About Birds website.

Article Submitted by Nancy Brown
Photos by Ed Konrad

A friend on Kiawah Island sent us this picture and asked if we could identify this bird.  Although we’ve never seen it on Seabrook Island, it’s a common bird during summers in the northern part of the US. Do you know what bird this is?  Have you ever seen this bird on Seabrook Island? Let us know by leaving a comment, and watch for our Sunday article about birds that stop on their way to their breeding grounds in the north.

Article submitted by:  Ron Schildge
Photographs submitted by:  Ed Konrad

Who have packed their bags and are leaving for cooler summers up north?

We are all familiar with the common Northern Snowbird that arrives in early winter with their faded tans, rumpled shorts and out of state license plates. You might be interested to note that there are plenty of true winter birds that enjoy our mild winters as well and come to visit and feed in our backyards for the duration. These birds are now beginning to pack their bags and are ready to head north as spring promises them better feeding opportunities and a gentler climate.

Bufflehead – Ed Konrad

Hooded Merganser – Ed Konrad

Lesser Scaup – Ed Konrad

Living on Mallard Lake, I enjoy welcoming members of the duck families that show up in late November but they have already headed north. This year we enjoyed hosting families of Buffleheads who also reside on Palmetto Lake. The males have a mostly white underbelly with a large white crown extending from the eyes to the back of their necks. A similar bird very common to our area are the Hooded Mergansers. They are different than the Buffleheads in that the males have a crest which they can raise or lower as a display of their attractiveness to the female Hooded Mergansers, whom nature shortchanged on the attraction scale. Do you ever wonder why it’s only the human population where the female species are considerably more attractive than the male species? As a balding 70 year-old man, I would trade anything for something as grand as the white crest of a Hooded Merganser but I think that Trump beat me to it. In addition to these two common birds seen on Seabrook Island, we also have a frequent winter visitor called the Lesser Scaup. They are more often found inland but like many ducks, they are fine divers and feed on plant and animal materials which are still plentiful during the winter here. In the summer the Lesser Scaup and the Bufflehead will fly as far north as Alaska to escape the summer heat. The Hooded Merganser on the other hand chooses to stay in the Great Lakes area and southern Canada.

Least Sandpiper – Ed Konrad

Dunlin – Ed Konrad

Ring-billed Gull – Ed Konrad

Bonaparte’s Gull – Ed Konrad

In addition to the ducks that we see on our lakes and ponds, we also have many shorebirds that enjoy their winters here and then head north as far as Alaska and the Hudson Bay in Canada. The Least Sandpiper is the smallest of the North American Sandpipers and is one of the smallest waders in the world. They are about 6” long and have a white underbelly and streaked brown and grey upper-parts with a slender straight dark bill. The Dunlin is also seen frequently on the beach in the winter where they forage for insects, larvae and small crustaceans in tidal pools by the sea. The Dunlins must hate the heat of summer as they migrate almost all the way to the northern polar cap in the summer. Among the gull family that head to cooler climes in the summer are the Bonaparte’s Gull and the Ring-Billed Gull. The Ring-billed Gull is fittingly named due to its black band located just behind the tip of his bill. The Bonaparte’s Gull was named after a French zoologist who was a nephew of Napoleon and is less common than the Ring-Billed Gull. It is one of the smallest gulls found in this area.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – Ed Konrad

American Robin – Ed Konrad

Savannah Sparrow – Ed Konrad

Song Sparrow – Ed Konrad

Cedar Waxwing – Ed Konrad

Finally, that leaves us with the winter visitors that we see often on our backyard feeders and are heading north for more organic delicacies available from Mother Nature. On the woodpecker spectrum is the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which has a hardly noticeable yellow belly (go figure) but both a red cap and a red throat to distinguish itself from the Downy and the Hairy Woodpeckers. Other common birds that you won’t be seeing after May 1 will likely be the American Robin, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and the Cedar Waxwing. But don’t worry, they have leases on the Island commencing around Dec. 1 so you’ll see them again!

You might have guessed, but this week our migration topic will focus on those birds who spend winters on Seabrook Island and fly north to breed in the spring! How many species can you name? Leave us the names of your favorite “snowbirds” and be sure to watch for our article on Sunday morning!

Article by: Aija Konrad
Photos by: Ed Konrad

What fun it is each season to look forward to birds that are arriving on our island! This article is on Spring/Summer arrivals and in a few weeks we will have an article on Departures. It’s like a regular revolving door with all the spring comings and goings!

Since I am at Seabrook part time, I can’t tell you at this release of this article exactly what is there, but I can share with you what has been there on previous years, per my Ebird list. For those of you not familar with Ebird, it is an app that uses citizen science, via checklists, that is shared with Cornell University for their bird studies. It is also a fabulous tool that keeps all your checklists electronically on your phone/computer, so you can look back at almost exact dates when you found a particular bird or when it arrived in previous years.

I won’t go into detailed descriptions of the birds, that could be a whole article on each one. But I will give a quick description of the arriving birds, and where you might find them so you can be looking. Use a birding guide or app if you are unfamiliar with these species. These birds should all be here within the week, if not already.

Before I left Seabrook Island two weeks ago, I found a Great-crested Flycatcher. It was within 2 days of my previous year’s sightings! A good place to see and hear them is in the back part of Palmetto Lake and also on Oystercatcher Rd, just past the POA parking lot. Listen for their drawn out “weep” call.

I have heard that Painted Buntings have been seen at Camp St. Christopher, and I suspect some of you have them at your feeders. Their favorite tree by the bike rack at the POA boardwalk, but this tree blew over in Matthew. I suspect they will still be in that area and on the top of the wax myrtle going out to the beach. Listen for their pretty, lilting song.

The Eastern Kingbird is a flycatcher that has a black head, gray body with a white belly and a distinct white edge to it’s tail. They are often found at Palmetto Lake, usually perched high in a tree or sometimes at the Equestrian Center. You might hear a sharp dzee or dzeet.

Barn Swallows have arrived at the Equestrian Center and go in and out of the stable barns. For any of you that grew up in farm country, they are easy to spot with their dark blue bodies, orange bellies and long forked tails.  You might hear their constant liquid twittering and chattering.

Northern Parula – Ed Konrad

Yellow-throated Warbler – Ed Konrad

Two warblers that spend the summers with us at Seabrook are the Northern Parula and the Yellow-throated Warbler. The Parula has a buzzy rising trill and you can hear them all over Seabrook Island Rd if you drive with your windows open. The Yellow-throated has a song that sounds like “sweet, sweet, sweeter than sweet” and is usually found high in trees. We’ve seen them in the live oaks in front of the Lake House. They often nest in clumps of Spanish moss.

Orchard Oriole male – Ed Konrad

Orchard Oriole female – Ed Konrad

The answer to Friday’s “Who am I” question is the Orchard Oriole. The male has a pretty rusty and black body, and the female is greenish-yellow. It has a pretty warbling song, it’s call is a sharp whistle and it also has a scolding chatter. It is often found near the first pond on Jenkins Point (listen for it’s chattering scold) and sometimes in the Bobcat Dune boardwalk area.

The Red-eyed Vireo is a summer resident and it can be elusive and hard to spot. You will always hear it, but it can be a real stickler to find. It’s very plain olive in color with a dark eye line, and it’s call sounds to me like it is counting cars..”forty-one, forty-two, forty-three.” Or some people say it’s saying “here I am, in the tree, look up, you can’t see me.” It sings at about 1 phrase, every 2 seconds.

The Blue Grosbeak male is dark blue with orange wing-bars and the female is a plain light brown. I have seen at both Jenkins Point and Bobcat Dune boardwalk. It also has a warbling pretty song. It’s call is a very metallic hard, “tink“. It perches and sings high in a tree top.

Use your bird guide or app to further study these birds, and look and listen carefully for our summer residents. Ed’s photographs are all from Seabrook and nearby hotspots. Good luck on your scavenger hunt! On a quick note, at the beach we will have the arrival of the Least Terns, Gull-billed Terns and Sandwich Terns. We will concentrate on those in another blog article.

Can you name the Oriole that arrives on Seabrook Island every spring and spends the summer with us until it is time to migrate again in the fall?  Here’s a hint so leave us a comment if you know the answer!

Watch for the full article about birds which migrate to Seabrook Island to live and breed here during the summer months in this Sunday’s blog.