Six days in and around Savannah, GA. Three earmarked for a work-related
conference, and three in the company of my husband, who is happy to spend
time in a swamp looking for alligators and big, glamorous birds like ibises,
but whose idea of entertainment falls far short of spending 20 minutes
peering into a single bush trying to spot definitive field marks on a small
brown bird. How many birds could I squeeze in between the two?

We spent the first day wandering around the historic district of the city
itself, with the unfortunate side effect that 3 of the first 5 bird species
spotted were house sparrow, European starling and feral pigeon. Well, at
least it got Michael Hobbs' favourites out of the way early! The other two
were Northern Mockingbird and Common Grackle.

One of the most wondrous things about Savannah is that the Northern
Mockingbird is probably the most numerous native species in the city (though
obviously it's outnumbered by the house sparrows). They're everywhere,
dancing and calling every noise imaginable and flashing their white patches
at the lawns - quite the delight. Every one of the 21 squares has its pair
(maybe more) of Brown Thrashers, too, which I didn't fully appreciate until
we'd been out of the city and on the reserves. The secretive, creeping
through the undergrowth rural thrashers make you very glad of the tame
photographable city race.

Day Two - Fort Pulaski (for my husband) and its surrounding swampland (for
me) and Tybee Island. Snowy Egrets in quantity, Laughing Gulls over the
river alongside breeding plumaged Forster's terns (who hadn't read their
Sibley's description as winter visitors as they basked in 70 plus daily) -
both seen from two feet away as they line the bridge at the fort entrance
and ignore the cars passing by at eye level. Definitely my closest looks at
the terns! Boat-Tailed Grackles chattering from every roadside bush and
pole. The trees and lawns around the fort turned up Eastern Bluebird,
Northern Cardinal, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher and Orchard Oriole. The river edges
had willet and whimbrel for some non-exotica.

The beach at Tybee Island (as described in Giff Beaton's Birding Georgia)
was heavy in human activity on a pleasant April day. Fun watching the brown
pelicans fish (even my husband likes those), but the shorebirds stayed away
apart from a single brave willet. The terns were out in force though - a big
mixed flock of Royal Terns and Black Skimmers roosting along the shore. What
a delight! The skimmers are utterly comical, dressed in their little penguin
coats, weighed down so far by their outsized orange beaks that they even
sleep face down in the sand, in a most un-birdlike manner! Dwarfed among
them was a single sandwich tern.

Day Three - Savannah NWR, a few miles over the border in South Carolina (it
extends into Georgia too, but the publicly accessible area is all in SC). A
4 mile driving loop, but unlike Ridgefield, you can jump out of the car and
walk at the sight of anything interesting, and there are 30+ miles of
hike-able dikes.

We picked up a Wood Stork just a hundred yards inside the gate, rising from
the reeds alongside, flapping away, and disappearing again as it landed.
Utterly invisible except in flight. Alligators everywhere! A couple of Least
Terns were out fishing in the lakes, so very delicate and slender. Anhinga
here and there, with wings outspread, looking gloriously dramatic by
cormorant standards. A couple of Black Vultures drifted overhead, but vastly
outnumbered by the turkey variety, plus an ever-circling osprey. One of our
dike hikes startled a Purple Gallinule, which fortunately didn't go far, and
hung around at the edges of the weeds for photos. In the trees, I found a
Tufted Titmouse feeding screaming young, and a Red-Bellied Woodpecker (and
whoever named that one, with its near-uniform rich buffy underparts in all
plumages should have been given an eye test before being allowed to name
birds).

All the trees were hooching with Yellow-Rumped Warblers ticking away, also
defying their winter visitor status, gorgeous in full breeding colour. If it
was flitting high in a treetop, it was a yellow-rump. If it was flitting low
in the brush on the edge of the reeds, it was a yellow-rump. You might think
that if you looked at enough yellow-rumps in migrant season, you'd be bound
to find one that was something else. You might also think that looking at
bright and pretty little yellow-rumps can't get dull. 100 plus birds later,
you'd be wrong on both counts - the flocks remained determinedly genetically
pure, with no outsiders. The only other warbler I saw all day was a single
yellow warbler, out on its own near the marsh edge.

But Savannah NWR is above all a place for the long-legged waders. Huge
numbers of Great and Snowy Egrets, clusters of easily visible Glossy and
White Ibises, a beautifully posed Little Blue Heron and a couple of the
ubiquitous Great Blues, as well as the Wood Stork. We dipped on the
Tricoloured Heron (and the night herons, of course, I *never* see those).
But if anyone has a yearning to photograph green herons I know where to send
them - I've never spotted so many in so short a time.

Day Four - drop the husband at the airport, and check out the Savannah
Airport ponds, as described in the Birding Georgia book. The first one was
pretty empty, but the big swamp-edge lake - oh my! So many anhinga! Perched
and posed in every tree. Far better looks at far more birds in 10 minutes
then in a whole day at the NWR. Plus nesting herons and many more egrets
too, of course, including my only view of the trip of Cattle Egrets in full
breeding plumage, looking stunning. Definitely a place to stop on any visit.

I went to some conference thingies in the early afternoon, then bunked off
for the later part of the day and returned to the Savannah NWR to spend a
little more time seeking passerines. Not the best time of day for it, but I
added a nest-building Carolina Wren to my list. Two more red-bellied
woodpeckers justified their rating as common, but left me wondering where
the also common red-headed kind were hiding.

At around 5pm, I ran a quick recce of the Onslow Island spoil site described
in Birding Georgia (conveniently about a mile from Savannah NWR, just the
other side of the river). The hoped-for Common Ground Doves showed up, on
cue - I didn't see them on the way in, but they were picking about in the
road just inside the gate when I came back to the car. Mainly, though, the
recce confirmed it as my favoured site for early morning passerine-hunting,
as the book suggested.

Day Five - up bright and ready for sunrise at Onslow Island. Where I saw
yellow-rumped warblers, northern mockingbirds and northern cardinals, the
same old trio I was seeing everywhere. I decided to try some nice wooded
areas back on the Savannah NWR, where the trees were bizarrely no more
active than on my mid-afternoon visits. I did find a Carolina Wren singing,
to add to my nest-building variant of the day before.

Next stop, 9.15am at the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal, also a site marked in
Birding Georgia. Unfortunately, much of the site was flooded, with the paths
down to the river underwater just 100 yards from the visitor centre, thus
scuppering my idea of going to the river to look for kites as the book
suggests.

Still, it's a nice woodland patch, where you will be surprised to hear I
found yellow-rumped warblers in quantity. All the bird activity seemed to be
concentrated along one edge, where I eventually picked out ruby-crowned
kinglet and a single male black-and-white warbler among the ubiquitous
species. Two new birds for the state list. I had to bail at noon and head
over to the conference. My first day without a life bird.

Day Six - The morning was devoted to the conference, but I skipped out at
12.30. I headed back to the Savannah-Ogeechee canal, because of all the
passerine-lite sites I visited the previous morning, that one had at least
furnished two new state birds. I got there at 1.15, expecting a quiet
afternoon enjoying the sun. Within five minutes of arriving, I picked a
Red-Eyed Vireo out of a treetop. Then there was a flock of Chipping Sparrows
on the lawn outside the visitor centre. Then an Indigo Bunting in the bushes
near the visitor centre - only my second look at that species following the
stray in Walla Walla last June, and a most welcome bright blue sight he was.
Then a Carolina Chickadee, finally! I'd been starting to think they were a
myth - how had I managed to spend so much time in tree-filled parks and
wildlife reserves without finding a chickadee?

Next up was a Tufted Titmouse for the state of Georgia (my others had been
in SC), then a flock of American Goldfinch - the birds were hopping! I
finally wandered far enough from the visitor centre to check the trails
again, and what a difference a day makes! The water levels were down almost
six inches overnight. Where there had been a fairly strong torrent blocking
the path, now there was a muddy trickle.

I met the lady from the visitor centre coming back from the towpath trail in
her wellies - she said it wasn't too deep, and I'd be fine if I was willing
to roll up my jeans and paddle a bit. Was I willing to paddle in some fairly
murky-looking swamp/river/canal water for a chance at seeing kites? Of
course I was!

I took the Jenkes trail rather than the towpath trail, as recommended by the
book. That was obviously the drier option, as I never had to roll up
anything, just tiptoe through two inches at most. Half way along the trail,
a flock of 5 or 6 small birds was flitting around the trees. I got my binocs
on two of them - Northern Parula! I did pay for stopping to watch those
warblers, though - of all the swamps I'd explored that week, this one was
the most mosquito-laden.

A little further along, just before the river, I picked up another warbler,
this time a brilliant Prothonotary, with its most un-warbler-like bill.

At the river edge, mosquitoes were fewer, and I spent half an hour scanning
for kites, with no luck. (The lady at the visitor centre thought it was
still a little early for the kites, she didn't know of any sighted yet this
summer). The trip back to the car picked up another prothonotary warbler (or
maybe the same one) and a very annoyed Pileated Woodpecker screaming at me.
Or maybe it was an ivory-billed, if I squinted hard enough.. Back to the
hotel, wash the swamp from between my toes, a change of shoes, and over to
the conference to finish off.

The final morning, I couldn't resist another swing by the airport ponds
before I dropped off the hire car - nothing new this morning, just the same
crowd of delightful anhinga and long-legged waders perched in every tree. I
did find five black vultures perched along a row of telegraph poles, for a
close-up look at that species instead of a high-flying shape.

All in all, 28 life birds, plus 3 old English friends new for the US list
(common moorhen, greater black-backed gull and sandwich tern).

Some oddities - no ducks at all. Not a one. Mottled ducks would have been
lucky, since even Savannah NWR lists them uncommon. But no wood ducks. Not
even a mallard. Six days hanging around water and not a mallard in sight.
That's just freaky.

My advice to anyone birding in this part of the South-East - 1) buy a copy
of Giff Beaton's Birding Georgia, and 2) stay in bed in the mornings,
because the birds certainly seem to!

My expansive and grateful thanks to all the Tweeters who replied to my plea
for information a couple of months ago, recommending both the book and the
places to go. I certainly consider my trip a success, thanks to all of you!

Louise Rutter

Kirkland