Dauphin Island Birdlife

Darlene and I rode down to Dauphin Island today...gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky...but, a bit windy and cool. We went down to the west end, but the park was closed because there was construction of sand berms and they were trying to fill in the Katrina Cut (waste of taxpayers money)

We drove down to the island's "airport"... lots of marsh land around, beauty in it's own right.

Then we rode back to the public pier where Sand Island has collided with Dauphin Island.
We spotted this Great Blue Heron sanding in the dunes area.

The shore birds were amassed on a little slip of beach - gulls, coots and hundreds of tiny birds were feasting on something out there.

There was some kind of sand removal going on...we wondered if this was where they were getting the sand for the west end berms. They were taking it from the gulf side of Sand Island. People were allowed to walk on the island side with their dogs...followed by cruising pelicans.

Love this one of the two pelicans, a gull and Sand Island lighthouse in the distance.

And this one showing the pelican's "arms" in relief...


Then we decided to go to the east end by Fort Gaines. As we were driving through a more residential area, we saw what we first thought was a metal silhouette of a heron - but it was real. Just standing still as a statue by a ditch....even when we stopped to snap a photo.

At the Ft Gaines end, I climbed down the rocks and sat on a stone to see if I could get some shots of all the shells that had washed up, when along comes this fellow.

By the inlet there were loads of gulls and pelicans hanging out..

....and these cute brown ducks.

We stopped briefly at the Indian Shell Mounds, a Mississippian culture dating back to 1100-1550) on the island. There are huge vines hanging from giant oaks back in there...tried to get Darlene to swing on one.... Nope, so I settled for this. LOL!