The Gulf Coast – known for its year-round warm climate, fantastic winter birding and… snow? Seriously? Yep, that’s right. Snow. Before departing on this adventure, as November and December began to get colder and colder back in Michigan, I kept reminding myself that I only had so much more of the cold to deal with before I would depart for the warmer states. During my fourth week of the year I would “enjoy” a reminder of the weather of home as the south was hit with a historic snowstorm the likes of which southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have not seen in at least decades, possibly ever.
Before the snow came, I kicked off week four of this journey birding around the Acadia Parish rice fields, where I started the day with a stunning flock of 742 Long-billed Dowitcher. This flock by itself well-over-doubled the total number of Long-billed Dowitchers that I have seen in my entire life, and by the time the day was over I’d seen over a thousand of them within just a few square miles! Also in the Acadia rice fields I picked up my Lifer Sprague’s Pipit (a few of them, actually), hundreds of American Pipit, a Gull-billed Tern, and boatloads of non-dowitcher shorebirds including twenty Stilt Sandpiper, over two-hundred each of Lesser Yellowlegs and Greater Yellowlegs, a few dozen Least Sandpiper, and a dozen Western Sandpiper. Once I was done in the rice fields I began to work my way towards St. Tammany Parish, where I would spend the 21st.
As dusk came on the 20th, though, the cold and snow came with it. By the time I woke up in the morning a couple of inches of snow had fallen – an amount that back in Michigan would be so trivial that schools wouldn’t even consider closing, but an amount that caused the society of the south to grind to a halt. Everything – and I mean pretty much *everything* (except Waffle House) – was closed. McDonald’s? Closed. Walmart? Closed. Gas stations? Pretty much all closed. The snow continued to fall, and my birding slowed to a crawl. I tried again for a Red-cockaded Woodpecker but didn’t have any success, and slowly began working my way towards Mississippi through the near-vacant Louisiana roads.
In Mississippi birding began much how Louisiana had ended – slowly and in the freezing cold. I started off by birding along the coast on the 22nd, picking up an assortment of shorebirds and gulls, especially at my last stop of the day Jones Park where I picked up Willet, Marbled Godwit, Black-bellied Plover, Sanderling, and Killdeer.
The next morning things picked up as I headed to the Bethel Bike Trail in search of Red-cockaded Woodpecker, this time having success and tracking down a whopping 11 individuals! After leaving Bethel I headed to the Davis Bayou area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore to make myself lunch and pick up some birds that were hanging around, and afterwards headed to Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge for the titular non-migratory Mississippi subspecies of Sandhill Crane.
The next day my Mississippi birding picked up as I met Collin Stempien, Abby Darrah, and Emile Stubbert at Greenwood Island for a Audubon Coastal Bird Survey – this site is normally inaccessible, and the ACB Surveys are the only way to get onto the property. During the survey we picked up 29 species, including highlights of American Oystercatcher, Orange-crowned Warbler, and boatloads of Cedar Waxwings. After the survey Collin, Abby and I spent some time trying to track down a wintering Franklin’s Gull, and while we failed to track that bird down we did pick up a few new birds for me for Mississippi including Lesser Scaup, Anhinga, and Black-bellied Whistling-Duck.
After parting ways with Collin I revisited several locations I had already been the previous days, picking up a few targets I had missed and at Jones Park I some Greater Scaup, a Spotted Sandpiper, some Dunlin and a Bonaparte’s Gull brought me to the 100-mark. Despite having reached my century goal, the next day I followed up on an invitation from Collin to join the Mississippi Audubon Society for their bi-annual visit to the Seaman Road Sewage Lagoons, a remarkable facility that sits atop the eBird hotspot list as the single-highest species count location in Mississippi even though it’s a private facility that is only accessible in rare situations such as this Audubon tour. Dozens of birders showed up for the trip, and eventually we split into three separate caravans of 5-8 cars each to explore the massive area of fields, ponds, mudlats, and woodline. During the five hours spent at the wastewater lagoon we tallied 58 species, including Vermilion Flycatcher, American Wigeon, Canvasback, Black-necked Stilt, Wilson’s Snipe, Northern Harrier, Merlin, and actually seen (as opposed to their typical heard-only observations) Sora and Virginia Rail.
Near the end of the tour, two members of the group I tagged along with came up to me with an incredibly hospitable offer. The two birders, Sandy Miller and Rich Colberg, had a house on Dauphin Island in which they were generously offering to host me for the next couple nights as I birded southern Alabama. I took them up on this remarkable offer and after finishing up at the facility I started birding my way there.
En route to Dauphin Island I stopped at Grand Bay Savannah, picking up an assortment of birds such as Brown-headed Nuthatch and Pine Warbler as I made my way to the boardwalk, where I picked up a fly-by flock of Lesser Yellowlegs as well as a Virginia Rail and a whopping nine Clapper Rail. Ecstatic with my success there I made my way onto the island, stopping at the Pelican Bay to see if I could pick up any shorebirds before meeting up with Sandy. While the only shorebird I managed was Sanderling, I did make an exciting discovery: a group of Northern Gannet feeding a ways off the south coast of the island! At first I spotted three of the birds, but as I watched them I realized more and more Gannet were diving along the horizon, and by the time I left I had counted at least 36 Northern Gannet.
The next morning I met up with Andrew Haffenden, a shorebird biologist on Dauphin Island, for a full day of exploration of the island. We had an incredible day, picking up several Snowy Plover and a Piping Plover to start the morning. As the day progressed we headed to the house of Cynthia Freeman, from which we scoped Pelican Peninsula and Tern Island, picking up Caspian Tern, Peregrine Falcon, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, and Black Scoter from her balcony and American Bittern, American Coot, and Redhead as we walked her boardwalk to the beach.
Eventually we moved on to Shell Mound Park where we met up with Michele Steber in search of a few birds she had found while walking the park. We spent some time walking around at the park as well as a few other nearby spots, picking up Mottled Duck, Mallard, Blue-headed Vireo, and Golden-crowned Kinglet.
Before parting ways with Andrew the two of us headed to the East End Boat Ramp and picked up American Oystercatcher and the Pier in unsuccessful search of Short-billed Dowitcher. From there I said goodbye to Andrew and met back up with Cynthia and Michele to head to the mainland] to head to a field that had been hosting a variety of rarities including Short-eared Owl, Western Meadowlark, Lark Sparrow, and Brewer’s Blackbird. The blackbird flock were the only target we managed to pick up, however we also got great looks at Northern Harrier and had a large flock of very vocal Eastern Meadowlarks. On the drive back to the island, Michele asked me “So, you’re from Michigan; are you familiar with Seven Ponds Nature Center?” When I responded, in a somewhat surprised fashion, that not only was I very familiar with SPNC but had actually lived there for the past six years, we amused at how truly small the world is as it turns out Michele had previously joined my dad on one of the birding field tours he led through the nature center!
Looking back, Week Four wasn’t an especially crazy week in terms of birding, but it was an especially notable week in terms of the “People” element of this trip. Had I not reached out to Collin through social media, and from him been put in contact with the Mississippi Audubon tour, and through them met Sandy and Rich, who’s hospitality cemented my plan to meet up with Andrew (who Collin also messaged to arrange me birding with) on Dauphin Island, where I would meet Michele and Cynthia, who knows how my time in Mississippi and Alabama would have progressed. These kind of experiences are exactly the reason why I wanted to embark on this year’s journey and get to know members of the birding community all over the country.
Andrew also put me in contact with a couple at whose feeders I would rocket Week Five to an exciting start as I wrapped up my time in Alabama before heading to Florida, a state with such incredible birding that it will absolutely prove that it belongs in the category I have presumptively been placing it in as “one of the four best states for birding in the US” – but that’s a story for next week! In the meantime, Happy Birding!
eBird Trip Summary:
First and foremost - thank you to anyone who chooses to support me in this insane adventure of mine. When I initially had this idea and began planning I didn't even consider the possibility that others would want to support me, but I am extremely grateful to those who have reached out to do so. For those who are interested in supporting me, I have set up a Patreon, which can be accessed by clicking the logo to the left (or you can send me a message via the contact page). Again, thank you for your incredibly generous support!
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Thank you again to those of you who have supported me so far, it's tremendously generous and greatly appreciated.
Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
