The Near Georgia Report* - www.neargareport.com - by Mark McShane: 6 - Seawatching, Pelagics, Tides/Marine Forecasts

6 - Seawatching, Pelagics, Tides/Marine Forecasts

NGR Regional Seawatching Sites
(NC, SC, and FL, east coast, north to south, under construction)

Cape Hatteras NS NC
Huntington Beach SP SC
Cape Romain NWR SC
Folly Beach Pier SC
Hunting Island SP SC
Ponce de León Inlet FL
Canaveral NS FL

Georgia Easy Access Seawatching Sites

While the easternmost beach or point on any Georgia barrier island can be good for seawatching, only 4 of the islands (Tybee, Sea, St. Simons, and Jekyll) have easy access via road, however of those Sea Island is private. Cumberland Island is a National Seashore and requires a ferry ride to reach it. See Wings Over Georgia on the web, or the Falcon Guide Birding Georgia for more information!

The other Georgia barrier islands may mostly be reached as well, by boat, but may require much investigating as to how to access the island legally or properly. Attending a special event on the island, and sometimes even sponsorship, may be required for access to some of the islands. Much special planning, and usually expense, is needed for trips to most of these more remote islands. GPS locations are listed for each site and are for the actual seawatching spots, not for parking areas, etc.

Tybee Island

North Tip - N 32 01.726 W 80 51.139
North Jetty - N 32 01.417 W 80 50.539
Tybee Pier - N 31 59.491 W 80 50.680
South Tip - N 31 59.220 W 80 50.998

St. Simons Island

Gould's Inlet Park Pier - N 31 09.296 W 81 21.939
East Beach - N 31 08.717 W 81 22.068

Jekyll Island

North Seawatch - N 31 06.120 W 81 24.211
Public Beach - N 31 02.697 W 81 24.670
South Beach - N 31 00.708 W 81 25.933

Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island is a National Seashore, is open to the public, but is reached by ferry only. Little Cumberland Island, at the north end of Cumberland Island is a private island. Some of these points are very remote and require a lot of planning and effort to reach, but are located on what should be, even with shifting dunes, tides, and beaches, the most prominent features on the island shore to seawatch from.

Long Point - N 30 57.260 W 81 24.110
North - N 30 54.617 W 81 24.245
Central - N 30 49.943 W 81 25.907
South Tip/Jetty - N 30 43.110 W 81 26.893

Georgia Easy Access Seawatching Sites - Birding Information

Tybee Island (from WOG)

St. Simons Island (from WOG)

Jekyll Island (from WOG)

Cumberland Island (from WOG)

Jekyll Island Seawatching !

Jen McShane seawatching just north of Villas by the Sea! Click or tap for the WOG Jekyll Island article.

Seawatching at Tybee Island !

North Point (northernmost beach in Georgia)! Click or tap for the WOG Tybee Island article.

Pelagic Birding

Ocean Wanderers (older site, lots of good information)
Seabirding Pelagic Trips - NC
Shearwater Journeys - CA
Preparations - Patteson.com
Preparations - Paulagics.com
Pelagic Trip Preparation - SoCalBirding.com
Helpful Hints - ShearwaterJourneys.com

Georgia Seabirders

9/14/08 - Approaching Navy Tower R3. Click or tap for the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography's (SkIO) Georgia offshore map of the navy towers!

Georgia Pelagic Trip - Navy Tower R3 - 9/14/08

South Atlantic Bight - Outer Continental Shelf - 70 miles due east of the south tip of Little Saint Simons Island - Brown Boobies and Brown Noddies! Click or tap for the GA DNR CRD's Artificial Reef Guide!

Georgia Pelagic Birding

*** SOUTHEAST Pelagic Checklist Comparison ***
*** My GEORGIA Pelagic Big Year Planning Checklist ***

GOS Pelagic Trip Reports

Russ Wigh's Skidaway.Net
Skidaway.Net - Trip Planning

Reef Maps and Coordinates - by the Coastal Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources

SkIO - US Navy TACTS grid of towers built on the middle to outer Georgia continental shelf (Map)
SkIO - Navy Tower Info

HotSpots Charts - Sea Surface Temp Charts
HotSpot Charts - Georgia Blue Water Charts
HotSpots Charts - Triple Ledge and Deepwater Wreck

Georgia Pelagic Trip - On The Road Again - 9/14/08

A good sea is a calm sea! Click or tap for Georgia blue water chart information!

Georgia Pelagic Trip - Approaching Navy Tower M2R6 - 9/14/08

South Atlantic Bight - Middle Continental Shelf - 55 miles due east of Sapelo Sound - 9 days after Tropical Storm Hanna passed through! Many species of seabirds were congregated at the navy towers that day! Water depth at this tower is 115 feet (35 meters)! Click or tap for trip report!

Recent Georgia Pelagic Trips

8/13/11

2/13/11
5/30/10
5/28/10
1/15/10
6/14/09
5/30/09 - Map/photo follow-up
5/30/09
1/19/09
1/17/09
9/14/08
6/18/08
12/9/07
8/26/07
6/23/07 - Carter's follow-up
6/23/07 - Carter's Lake (pelagic species inland)
2/11/07 - Photo follow-up
2/11/07 - Follow-up
2/11/07
1/14/07

Recent Georgia Inland Pelagic Strays (Storm Birds)

*** Under Construction ***

South Polar Skua - Carters Lake, GA - 6/12-24/07

The world's most southerly bird! 6/23/07, photo by Dan Vickers. Click or tap for larger size image.

6/23/07, great shots showing the lack of heavy streaking or pale spots on the back, coverts, and scapulars that a Great Skua would have. Photo by Dan Vickers, click or tap for larger size image.

South Polar Skua - Reports

Joshua Spence's 1st Report
Joshua Spence's 2nd Report
My 6/18/07 report, finally figured out that I should be chasing rare birds, this was the first bird I ever chased!

Carter's Lake is located on the border of the Ridge-Valley and Mountain regions in northwest Georgia and is a minimum of 280 miles from the Atlantic coast, and 310 miles from the closest point on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico! The surface of the reservoir lies at an elevation of about 1100 feet above sea level! The only major storm of the period just before the skua was sighted was Tropical Storm Barry which passed along the Georgia coast coming up from the Tampa, Florida area. This skua is the only one which has been seen inland in Georgia. In 1998 a South Polar Skua was found at Jekyll Island South Beach and was observed in both October and November. The other 3 sightings were all far offshore and prior to 1998! Quite a find for inland Georgia!

South Polar Skua, Carter's Lake, 6/12/07. Photo by Bob Zaremba. Click or tap image for Bob's great Georgia Skua ID page on Georgia Birds, and where a lot more great photos of the skua can be viewed!

National Hurricane Center

Archive of Hurricane Seasons - Storm Tracks and Reports

Atlantic Hurricane Seasons since 1995

NHC Archive of Hurricane Seasons

Tides

Pro TIDES
www.saltwatertides.com
NOAA Tides and Currents

NOAA Tide Predictions - GA

NOAA's NWS Marine Forecasts

Marine Forecasts - US

MS/AL/FL (panhandle west)

NOAA Nautical Chart On-Line Viewer - Atlantic
Cape Hatteras to Straits of Florida

Zoomable Nautical Chart showing the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone

Map, with GPS Points, of Georgia's Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary,
the WW and DW deeper water artifical reefs,
and the 8 US Navy TACTS Towers

Click or tap image for larger size.

The NGR - A U.S. Regional RBA, A Place and Gateway for Georgia Birding Information and Resources !!!

* The Near Georgia Report (NGR) serves to strive to provide as comprehensive, complete, and as timely as possible regional Rare Bird Alert (RBA) coverage of the publicly reported rare, casual (occasional), or accidental birds (and sometimes from a Georgia birder's perspective) which are being reported currently in southeastern states which are near Georgia (GA), usually Florida (FL), Alabama (AL), Mississippi (MS), Tennessee (TN), North Carolina (NC), and South Carolina (SC), and exceptionally, from regional locations further afield. Ultra-rarities for Georgia are posted, and other Georgia sightings may be posted at times as well.

Bird sighting reports from at least 12 birding enthusiast internet listservs, groups, rare bird alerts, and birdmail sites in the 7 most southeastern states are sourced and linked to from The NGR, and on as daily a basis as is possible.

The NGR does not attest to the validity or accuracy of all reports, or directions, etc., contained or referenced herein.

The NGR also works to provide a place for, and a gateway to, as much great Georgia Birding Information and Resources as possible.

The NGR - Main Features

Rare Bird Alert (RBA) Posts
Weekly Summary Posts
Monthly Summary Post to Georgia Birders Online (GABO-L)
The NGR Ticker
Current Year News and Updates
Current Year Possible or Probable Birds
Current Georgia Birds and Current Year Georgia Alert
Current Year (and Archived) NGR Running Chronological Lists
Ross's Gull - U.S. Lower 48 Watch
Georgia Ruff Watch
Georgia Swallow-tailed Kite Watch
The McShane Angled-Eyepiece Birding Scope Cable-Tie Sight Guide
Georgia and Regional Birding Information Gateway
Resources
Species Highlights
Location Specifics
Pelagic Related

Modus Operandi

A BIG THANK YOU to EVERYONE in the NGR region who works to ensure that their sightings are reported and made public on the region's birding listservs and group sites so that anyone can enjoy and greatly benefit from them! Sometimes reports are relayed through even several folks in order to get them public quickly, and so it can be quite a team effort as well! Thanks to All!

NGR RBA MODES (The current mode is always displayed above The NGR Ticker):

REGULAR MODE - Exhaustive, every post from the source internet listservs, groups, rare bird alerts, and birdmail sites is examined and all rare, casual, and accidental birds for the region are posted to The NGR as possible.

CASUAL MODE - All posts from the source internet listservs, groups, rare bird alerts, and birdmail sites are not always examined, and usually only American Birding Association (ABA) rarity Code 3 (rare), 4 (casual), and 5 (accidental) birds in the region are posted to The NGR. As many ABA rarity Code 1 and 2 birds which are casual or accidental to the NGR region are also posted as possible.

RETIRED MODE - The NGR RBA has been retired and is not operational.

ABA Checklist Codes:
http://www.aba.org/checklist/codes.html

ABA Checklist with Codes:
http://www.aba.org/checklist

The NGR Ticker provides some highlights from the last week or so, by post date and state.

UPDATES and comments may be added to posts!

Inappropriate comments or topics should not be posted. Examples of such include: topics or comments not related to birding, political discussion; general conservation issues; and commercial messages in which the poster has an interest; virus alerts; etc. Contact the blog owner prior to posting your comment if in doubt about its appropriateness.

Many original sighting reporters often post their sightings later than the actual day and/or hour of the sighting. Also, it's not always possible to post all sightings to The NGR on the day that they are originally posted online. NGR posts often report sightings made on previous days, linking to sighting reports originally made on dates prior to the date of the NGR post.

The NGR always strives for as timely as reporting as is possible, with ABA Checklist Code 3, 4, and 5 birds always the priority. Currently only bird names for these birds are capitalized in NGR posts.

Bird reports are never posted twice, unless made in subsequent years. For example, if a species is NGR reported 5 times in a given week, or even twice in one day, it means that the species was NGR reported for 5 different locations that week, and NGR reported for 2 different locations on that day.

Some particularly noteworthy birds may be listed for the duration of the current year, by NGR post date and state, in the News and Updates section above The Sidebar.

RELOCATIONS of some great birds are posted as UPDATES and listed in the News and Updates section. Updated posts are marked with a U at the end of the post name in the list. Not all relocations are listed or constantly maintained.

If you need more information concerning a posted bird than is provided on The NGR, read the original NGR post to find out and note which regional site it was sourced from. Then, check the Regional Birding Listservs, Groups, and Rare Bird Alerts (RBAs), and BirdMail section, below on the sidebar, for the link to the original site, once there you can search for all of the news of the bird. You can also email me and I will try to find out what the latest information on the bird is for you as well at: marksmcshane@gmail.com

All Pelagic species are usually reported when found inland, onshore, or close inshore, when the RBA is in Casual Mode fewer of these may be reported.

Florida American Flamingos and Smooth-billed Anis may be reported. Other Florida and south Florida specialties are usually not reported unless well north of their usual range, and/or very near Georgia.

Retractions of sightings by the original observer(s), as well as Rescindings of sightings by consensus or authority, are recognized. If a sighting is retracted or rescinded the original post is deleted from The NGR, and all entries regarding the retracted or rescinded sighting are removed from all sections and components of The NGR. Notice of the removal may be listed in The NGR Ticker temporarily.

On Fridays there will be a Weekly Summary post. NGR weeks always start on Saturdays! :^)

At the end of each month a Monthly Summary post will be made to Georgia Birders Online (GABO-L).

Browsing the NGR Running Chronological List, on NGR Page 1 (see above), is a quick way to see the list of birds reported for the current year, by post date and state.

Click or tap on most images for more information!

Photos used only by permission.

Date format is month, day, year, or mm/dd/yy, and mm/dd.

To ensure that you are always viewing the latest pages while visiting The NGR, or any website, you may be able to set your web browser so that it checks for newer versions of stored pages every time you visit a webpage!

The NGR is often under construction. If anything looks permanently amiss please feel free to report it, as well as any broken links to: marksmcshane@gmail.com

MissBird and CarolinaBirds

MissBird (The birding listserv for Mississippi) does not have an easily accessible permanent archive that can be accessed with a web browser. There is a way to download permanent post archives from MissBird but you cannot view them until after you download them. The Mississippi Ornithological Society has information on their website (see the link on The Sidebar) on how to join MissBird. You can email the administrator of MissBird to find out how to download the MissBird post archives.

The American Birding Association's (ABA) Birding News (BN) posts the MissBird posts, and The NGR references ABA BN for MissBird posts. However, the MissBird posts on ABA BN roll off of ABA BN after 30 days and cannot be retrieved or referenced further.

Unless you subscribe to MissBird and keep the emails, or keep the ABA BN posts somehow, any information from the ABA BN MissBird posts needed for contacting or emailing MissBird posters concerning their sightings, etc., should be collected quickly or else it will be lost as soon as the ABA BN MissBird posts roll off of ABA BN. ABA BN holds the last 30 days of MissBird posts.

CarolinaBirds (The birding listserv for both North Carolina and South Carolina) uses an Archive Access Checkpoint to access their post archives. When clicking or tapping on a link to CarolinaBirds from an NGR post, the first time in a session, you will hit the Archive Access Checkpoint instead of the desired post. Click or tap on the "Let me in to the archives" button. You will then be entered into the archives. You can search for the post from there or you can go back and click or tap the post link in the NGR post again and the related post should open from CarolinaBirds. This is a security feature of CarolinaBirds.

Georgia's first, and arguably the rarest bird to be seen in Georgia in the 21st century, also the most southeastern record for North America! Photo 2/2/08, only the 3rd U.S. record ever outside of south Texas! This immature bird showed up the week of 10/21/07 at the home of Marshall and Laurie Jackson in Dublin, GA, and was banded on the 29th. The hummer was last reported from the site on 4/4/08! The young male acquired much of his adult body plumage before departing! More, and even later, photos can be seen in the Favorite Georgia Birding Photos GREM sections! Photos by Rachel Cass. Click or tap on photo for last report.

NGR Bird Abundance Status Codes and Range Types

Rare - Usually regularly occurring within normal range. May be seen annually, usually during a season, in very small numbers, and usually only a few times each year!

Casual, or Occasional - Often or usually out of normal range when found. Found irregularly or infrequently, less to much less than annually, and should never be expected. A good example might be every 2-4 years or 3-6 times in a decade!!

Accidental - Usually severely out of normal range when found. Very sporadic, with potentially very long periods between sightings. An example might be 10 sightings in 50 years, or maybe less than 5 total sighting records ever. Not even always seen every decade!!!

Species Distribution Range Types:

Year-Round/Permanent Resident Range
Winter Range
Spring-Summer/Breeding Range
Spring and Fall Migration Ranges

WHOOPING CRANES IN THE SOUTHEAST

Many folks know that the only naturally occurring population of the endangered Whooping Crane (the tallest bird in North America) is the small flock which migrates south in the fall from Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park to its wintering grounds at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, and that in spring migrates back to the site in Canada to nest and breed. The total number of wild birds fluctuates and is probably still less than 400 right now.

Reintroduction efforts in the eastern United States have resulted in very small migratory and non-migratory populations of the cranes in the east. Tremendous efforts have been sustained by many organizations such as the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team, the International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration, and the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, as well as by many government agencies, and by others, to work for the reintroduction and protection of the species. Single cranes or very small groups are seen annually in parts of the eastern United States due to these efforts and the birds are often in the company of Sandhill Cranes.

In order for Whooping Cranes to make a successful comeback from being endangered it is vitally important for them that everyone understand and respect their fragile status and comply with some observing guidelines when the birds are found during migration or in their non-migratory territories. Guidelines say that if a Whooping Crane is found it's best to quietly observe from a distance, and some even recommend to keep 600 feet or more away from the birds, not disturbing, or pressuring them in any way. Trying to remain as concealed as possible while observing them is a good idea, but concealment shouldn't be used to approach them.

Reporting their location and leg band information, to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to local department of natural resources wildlife officials is requested. Also, reporting Whooping Crane sightings to various Whooping Crane related organizations via the reporting links on their websites is very important to all of the folks who conduct sustaining efforts to support the potential comeback and recovery of the crane in the wild. More Whooping Cranes may eventually be seen in the Southeast if we all work to recognize and respect their current delicate status and to promote their welfare.

Captain Brooks Good and... Me !

8/7/10, Here is Captain Brooks Good still giddy with excitement after I had just passed on to him the grand sum of all of my seafaring and birding wisdom and knowledge! I thought this might take a while on the way up the Intracoastal Waterway to the Altamaha Sound but it looks like we only made it about 3 feet from the dock before it was all over?! What a fantastic trip and Captain, the thought of mutiny never occurred to any of us, and 4 of our target Long-billed Curlews were found! Click or tap on the photo for Brooks' Coastal Outdoor Adventures & Coastal Cuisine website, highly recommended. Photo by James Fleullan.

Wandering Albatross (WAAL)

Snowy, Tristan, New Zealand, Gibson's, and Amsterdam subspecies
Can wander 500+ miles a day, almost as far as a Georgia birder can!
Up to a 12-foot wingspan
Largest extant bird wingspan
May be almost 4 1/2 feet in length
May live 60 or more years
Eggs hatch after 2 1/2 months
Half of all albatross species nest in New Zealand
All of the great albatross species and subspecies are listed as Threatened by the IUCN, the decline of the great albatrosses is thought to mainly be due to the impact that longline fishing is having on the birds.