AN ABUNDANCE OF BIRDS

Campers and hikers visiting the inland part of the island can have delightful bird-watching experiences throughout the entire year. There is a fairly large population of wild turkeys and dove, which also enjoy the open, grassy areas. These ground birds feed on the acorns, seeds, buds and berries found here. If you’re willing to get up before the sun, great horned owls ply the forest, and, occasionally, small screech owls can be heard.

Cumberland Island is simply a gold mine of bird life, especially during the fall and spring migrations. The fall migration began in late August with one particularly interesting early visitor, the American Redstart. Warblers love the fresh water ponds on the island and the excellent cover created by wax myrtles and other native shrubs. For those of you not familiar with this butterfly-like warbler, the redstart is a graceful, fly-catching bird that seems to love to show off its patches of orange on its wings and tail. In addition to moths, midges and other insects, it feeds on seeds and berries. These birds are fascinating to watch as they forage, because they are especially acrobatic and seem to get a big kick out of hovering in midair and making attempts to catch their prey before heading back to a branch and perching for the meal. According to Kenn Kaufman, author of Lives of North American Birds, the redstart migrates mostly at night.

During the day, pileated (crested) woodpeckers and redheaded woodpeckers are easy to spot as they swoop from tree to tree and hop along the tree trunks in search of insects. Look for oval or oblong holes in dead trees for the pileated woodpeckers’ homes. About the size of a large crow, their call is similar to a flicker’s, but loud and long—once you’ve heard it, you’ll never forget it. The redheaded woodpecker is about half the size of its crested relative and has a solid red head.

Warblers and other songbirds also enjoy Cumberland Island’s protected forests. Winter migrants come through in the fall. The tall spirals of mixed flocks of songbirds descending and ascending were quite a sight. They love the inner dunes, especially the wax myrtle bushes.  Birders should be on the lookout for parula, white-throated sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers

Peregrine and other falcons can be spotted migrating behind these flocks in late October and November. Falcons are streamlined birds of prey with long tails and pointed wings. Adult peregrines are slate-backed, with spots of brown and white underneath and distinctive black sideburns below their eyes. They are on the endangered species list.

Other birds of prey that can be seen on Cumberland are the magnificent ospreys and an occasional bald eagle. Both species have nested on the island.

In the marshes and along the creeks, snowy egrets, great egrets, great blue and little blue herons and small (and not so common) green herons can be easily watched as they feed on aquatic life.

The dramatic wood storks are also a joy to observe and seem especially content sunning on the forest’s edge at Beach Creek and Table Point. With a wingspan of approximately five and one-half feet, they seem to unfold, literally, as they take off. Wood storks have distinctive black-tipped wings and dark heads, and they trail their feet behind them during flight. Compare these soaring giants to the white pelicans that can be seen on the spoil banks (piles of dredging in which crustaceans and other food sources live) along the St. Mary’s River coming to the island. A flock of about 20 of these pelicans can be observed. The white pelicans have a wingspan of about nine feet.

Comparing the white pelican to its more common brethren, the brown pelicans, white pelicans feed by scooping fish when swimming, while the brown pelicans make dramatic plunges from the air for meals. The brown pelican’s wingspan is about six and one-half feet, and it is mostly brown and gray, with some white on its head.

Out on the beach, the bird life is very lively. Year-round residents such as the oystercatchers and ring-billed gulls share the surf with semipalmated plovers, royal terns, laughing and black-backed gulls—and lots of sandpipers. In winter, rare purple sandpipers can be seen singly or in pairs on rock habitats and around pilings. (These are the little chunky, slate-gray sandpipers.) On calm, clear days, rafts of scoters can be observed floating contentedly on the water near the shore. Scoters are small, dark-colored diving ducks that eat mollusks and crustaceans.

The Audubon Society had its annual Christmas Bird Count in December on the island. This is one of the finest amateur studies in the country, and each year it provides vital information to environmental scientists and the general public. Birders were surprised to see jaegers this year, which are birds of prey which feed on gulls.

For those of you interested in a bird study with a historical slant, please refer to Mark Catesby’s Natural History of North America (ISBN 089090817), published by Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in collaboration with Merrell Holberton Publishers, London. Catesby (1682-1749) was an amazing naturalist and artist from Britain who came to the New World on expeditions in 1712 and 1726, approximately 100 years before John James Audubon. His original book was called The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, and it was published from 1731 to 1747. (General James Edward Oglethorpe made his effort to establish the colony of Georgia in the 1730s.)

Catesby’s watercolors include birds, fish, plants, frogs, turtles, and insects of the area, and it is Cumberland’s privilege to still be home to so many of these plants and animals that flourished in the early 18th century. The redstart, painted bunting, indigo bunting, herons, and wood ducks are among his collection of watercolors, which is housed in Windsor Castle.

See also the new edition of John Abbot’s Birds of Georgia (ISBN 0883220407) which was published by Beehive Press in Savannah in 1997. Abbot came to Georgia from England in 1776 and stayed until his death in 1840. His wonderful watercolors also include portraits of birds we still see today on Cumberland: yellow-crowned night herons, great egrets, ibis, little blue herons, oyster catchers, skimmers, and many more.