Wet & Windy on St George Island

I used my personal holiday today and headed to the Youth Camp at St. George Island State Park to see if the latest cold front had encouraged some migrants to drop in. I arrived on the island at 8am and grabbed a coffee from the gas station. "We had 8 inches of rain last night", declared the clerk! Blimey! He wasn't wrong. It looked like a hurricane had hit the island, minus the total devastation, rampant looting and Jim Cantore! The front was still passing over the island. 30mph winds, a light rain and temps in the 40s were very welcome as this dampened the skeeters enthusiasm for sucking blood! The youth camp was about 50% flooded, which made life interesting. It was still blowing a gale by 9am and I had only seen 2 Ospreys and a single Northern Mockingbird. I didn't get up at 515am for this! Thankfully the rain stopped and blue sky began to appear. The sun was a very welcome sight and with it came the birds, although viewing them was tricky due to the 20-30mph winds! Thankfully the birds and I figured out that the southern side of the camp provided a perfect place to get out of the wind. The only problem was my view of the sky above was severely limited, which accounts for my low numbers of hawks and hirundines. They were far more numerous than my counts suggest.  For the first hour or so I watched falcons and Northern Harriers mostly, but once the sun came out I began to hear chips, seeps and ticks in the bushes. Passerines! The variety was nice, the numbers were not at all spectacular but I had an awesome 4 hours, birding the bushes all by my lonesome. Even after 8 years it's still weird to be birding a great spot like St George Island and not be in the company of a bunch of other birders. I'm not complaining, don't move here, stay where you are! Here's the pictorial highlights.

Yellow Warbler

Prairie Warbler

American Redstart

Northern Parula

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

White-winged Dove

juvenile Peregrine Falcon

juvenile Broad-winged Hawk

Great Horned Owl

House Wren

Numbers at or over the youth camp as follows

1 Bay-breasted Warbler

3 Tennessee Warbler

4 Yellow Warbler

1 American Redstart

1 Northern Parula

4 Pine Warbler

4 Prairie Warbler

3 Palm Warbler (there will be thousands of these tomorrow behind the front)

3 Common Yellowthroat

4 House Wren

12 Gray Catbird

1 Chimney Swift

11 Barn Swallow

11 Tree Swallow

2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak

1 White-winged Dove

2 Swamp Sparrow

4 Peregrine Falcon

2 Merlin

10 American Kestrel

8 Northern Harrier

2 Cooper's Hawk

1 Broad-winged Hawk

2 Bald Eagle

4 Osprey

2 Great Horned Owl

9 Blue-winged Teal

33 Ring-necked Duck

Later in the day I swung by Bald Point but had very little. A single Cliff Swallow and a few Northern Harriers were the highlight. Tomorrow will produce more birds and visible migration will be excellent, especially for the first couple of hours. Palm Warbler will be the dominate species and I wouldn't mind betting a few Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Western Kingbirds will be passing through. Like I said, wish I had the whole damn month off!