Bon Secour NWR

Dune Succession

The Bon Secour NWR manages five different properties in the Gulf area around Mobile Bay. They have several listings on the Alabama Birding Trail, so we thought we should spend some time here. I think we may be 2-3 weeks early for good migration birding. This area should a real hot spot for migrants, but we seem to be finding the resident birds more than anything.

Today we heard the resident woodpeckers, etc, but didn't see them, so Dick and I started talking about dune succession along the coast as we walked the trails. (Do we know how to have fun or what!) It's amazing how the habitat changes in such a short distance from the ocean. We walked along the first dunes right by the beach, hoping for a Snowy Plover or Least Tern, but again, we are just too early. As the wind blows onshore, it blows the sand until hardy grasses catch it.

After an area of grasses, the small shrubs and hardy trees take over. I don't know the names of everything we saw, although most of them looked familiar. We have been to some many beaches, parks, refuges and beach towns in the last ten years that we can't keep straight what we have seen where or when. I'll tell you though, hiking through loose sand takes a lot more energy than walking on the treadmill at the YMCA. Talk about cardio training!

 We noticed an area with a few widely separated tall pine trees, while the younger trees below them were at the same height for the most part. We speculated that the tall trees had survived Hurricane Ivan, while the smaller ones all started growing 15 years ago after the storm cleared out most of the competition.

Scoliid Wasp

 Delicate blossoms attracted big bumble bees and this Scollid wasp with shiny blue wings.

Wood Duck

Much of the water is brackish, but occasionally a fresh water lake or pond attracts these Wood Ducks, while frogs call along the edges.

Green Anole

A little green anole flashed his red throat at us while sunning on a rail.

 A 12-14 inch snake rested on the trail in front of us. I took photos from a distance using the camera lens to get closer. Another time on another trail, we got down on the path for good photos of what turned out to be a cottonmouth, but we didn't realize it until I went through the photos more closely that evening. I tried to look this one up, thinking it might be a Copperhead, but the photos online don't have the same patterns as this one. I'm going to show it to a naturalist we will see at the state park tomorrow to see if she knows. It does seem to have the triangular head that I always thought meant it was venomous.

Eastern Towhee

The Eastern Towhee finally came out to pose for a bit, but the Black-and-White Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo and Blue-headed Vireo with his white spectacles, stayed safely in the brush. It would help a lot if I knew the winter ranges of more birds. The field guide always seems to stop at Texas.

Red-breasted Mergansers

 

Down at the lagoon, we found a group of about 40 Red-breasted Mergansers, actively swimming back and forth, while diving down for fish. A few gulls followed along, hoping to steal a fish whenever they could. One of them may have been a juvenile Bonaparte's Gull with a black rim on his tail.

Look through the trees! Could that possibly be a Great Horned Owl? Why is it out at mid-day?

You guessed it - a closer look revealed this to be just Spanish Moss growing on a snag. Sigh. Oh well, time to go back. My feet hurt like crazy after all the walking we have done this week.