Be Warned: Children and Granddaughters at Blue Fish....unless you are related.....

Blue Fish Beach House on Dauphin Island

Crabbing

A Tween !!

Beach Babies

Feeding the Gulls

Sea Museum on Island

Lifer Kind of a Day! 3/17/2016 St. Pat's Day White - Winged Doves

White-Winged Doves

Located at Audubon Marsh Observation Platform

Mated Pair of Mottled Ducks
Ed captured these on the Marsh today also

Bellingrath Gardens and Home

March 15, 2016

Bellingrath Gardens and Home:  located just west of Dauphin Island on the mainland and just east of  Bayou Le Batre.  Which is next to nowhere.... Seems an original Coke bottler in Mobile bought an old fish camp in the Batre and built himself one large country home and planted azaleas like they were going out of style.   The great lawn reminded us all of "The Masters" in April.

We had the delightful company of Mike and Claire Bellamy from London, Ont.  They are friends of our other friends from London, that we met last year here in Camp Dauphin.  If you are following, we know have 4 friends from London, Ont.  :)

We spent an afternoon walking the gardens.  Beautiful plantings and an exceptional Asian garden.

Enjoy some pictures of our "day trip".

Claire wants Mike to built her this bridge in her garden at home!

Azaleas  amid  Bamboo

Acres of Gardens, ponds and Lakes and don't forget Marsh!

Veggies in the Spring Garden

Azaleas:  Don't you love them!

Mike and Claire

Spring is here in the Bayou

Mr. Ed spotted a Northern Parula Warbler: of course he did......

"The Masters"  Right around the corner

What is this??????  Love the colors

Glamping Mornings

February 15, 2016

I love mornings in the Lark….especially if  we are in Alabama in February.  Winter seems to be Jan. and Feb. here.  But midway through February spring mornings begin to make their appearance.  

This morning, I awoke to the birds singing and the window open an inch, as the night temps did not fall much.  Spring air wafting across your face is a very delightful way to open your eyes.  Of course Eze was also curled up next to my head to have his nose on the open screen.  So we both enjoyed the breeze together.

I could see fog over the dock and knew the ferry was not running as the blast of the horn and turn of the big power houses had not begun.  Humid and soft air: the sun just striking a few clouds on the early morning horizon. 

Even Eze who is always more in tune with eating breakfast than enjoying the moment, sat with me purring.  Ed was in the galley preparing fresh coffee and the aroma was overtaking me.  Grabbing a  cuddly wrap and boiled wool slip ons, this was going to be a great day.

I wanted to blog and the idea of getting up in the morning “camping” vs “glamping” came to mind.  

Oh those camping mornings.  If it was a good morning, it wouldn’t have rained over night.  The tarp would have keep all the moisture from coming in even on a dry night.  Of course the tarp also covered up all the beautiful skylights and screened windows of the tent. A balmy night becomes a suffocating night.  

Sleeping 6 inches or less from the ground, getting up is a trick.  So is getting out of ones sleep clothes into the nearest appropriate  camp wear.  You always feel you have to crouch down in a tent even if the center is adult high.  And there is no place to lean, as the first  foot needs to go into your jeans.

Next delight is how to get to the bathhouse.  Do you wear something smokey from the last evening fire pit…or do you choice something fresh, but you still smell like smoke from the fire pit?  Doesn’t really matter, you begin to smell like fire pit by breakfast anyway.

Sweaters on your teeth and the thought of brushing in public….well, just not good.

So know my readers, mornings in an RV are always much better.  Fresh linens and cozy bed, a private bath and you get to choose if you want a fire in the fire pit.  Coffee and breakfast just like at home.  Same beach, same woods, same wonderful camp experience but none of the “camping” just “glamping” comforts.

March 2016 Bird List Audubon Dauphin Island

March 2016 Dauphin Island Bird List (Cont from Feb. 2016 list)

Dunlin

Solitary Sandpiper
Pied Billed Grebe
Blue Winged Teal
Red Shouldered Hawk
Black Skimmer
Downy Woodpecker
Red-cocaded Woodpecker
American Goldfinch

Red-Cocaded Woodpecker

Piping Plover
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
Song Sparrow

Green Heron
Little Blue Heron
Hermit Thrush
House Finch

White Winged Doves  LIFER

Great White Egret
Mottled Duck
White Pelican
White Winged Dove LIFER

Pouring rain all day 3/19/2016
Louisiana Waterthrush in our camp site!

 migration on!

Western End of Dauphin Island... Blue Fish Beach House on Mississippi Sound.


 Ruby Throated Hummer in Mobile...3/21/2016


Lark Sparrow LIFER. Off deck Blue Dolphin Beach House. 3/22/201

Tri-Colored Heron
Barn Swallow
Ruddy Duck

Clapper Rail  -  heard in the marsh but not seen!  LIFER  Jason finds Clapper from top deck of beach  house with scope.  He is king Birder for the day!






Hooded Warbler... migration is starting...how exciting.





#99  Hooded Warbler

Common Loon

Scissor-Tailed Kite

Many Faces of the Green Heron

February 2016 Audubon Bird List Dauphin Island

February 2016 Dauphin Island Bird List

Common Loon

Horned Grebe

Northern Gannet

Brown Pelican

Double Crest   Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Pine Warbler

Snowy Egret

Reddish Egret

Mallard Duck

Red Headed Duck

Pine Warbler

Bufflehead

Greater Scaup

Red-Breasted

 Merganser

Osprey

Swallow- Tailed Kite

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Black Bellied Plover

Snowy Plover

Semipalmated Plover

American Oystercatcher

Willet

Whimbrel

Osprey

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Short  Billed Dowitcher

Laughing Gull

Boneparte’s Gull

Ring Billed Gull

Herring Gull

Caspian Tern

Royal Tern

Foresters Tern

Morning Dove

Eurasian Collared Dove

Great Horned Owl

Snowy Plover

Belted Kingfisher

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Red Cockaded Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

American Kestrel

Peregrine Falcon

Eastern Phoebe

Blue Jay

American crow

Fish Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Brown Headed Nuthatch

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Blue-grey gnatcatcher

American Robin

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Blue Bird

Grey Catbird

Northern Mockingbird

Brown Thrasher

European Starling

Blue-headed Vireo

Yellow-Dumped Warbler

Pine Warbler

Northern Cardinal

House Sparrow

American Goldfinch

Eastern Towhee

American Tree Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-headed cowbird

Black Skimmer

73

The mundane.....

March 3, 2016

March 8, 2016

I have always described our travels in the Lark, as adventures.  And they have surely been that!

Last year and up until this trip we have never stayed at one spot more than 30 days.  This year we signed up for 60 days on Dauphin Island.  We left earlier than last year and will return later.  We have had a few weeks of “mundane”  “glamping”.  Not so adventurous.

In a camp for 60 days, laundry needs done, beds need changed, fridge needs a good clean out and windows need washed.  Not the fun stuff.  The days of pre-spring are sometimes windy and cool and makes beach hiking and biking less fun.  We have not turned the clock “spring forward” yet, and the evenings get dark quickly.  Lots of reading and working on our photos.  We brought the large monitor Mac with us this year

 I did a presentation at a camp art show and was well received.  Ed is leading a birding group into the Audubon tomorrow AM.  We are looking around for things to do.  Wednesday evening will be a catfish fry at the local Methodist Church. Baked my first Red Fish last evening from the local vender.  Lots of wild shrimp being eaten also. 

Jason, Michaela and Savana and Rylan are coming out from Davis Ca. on the 19th.  We are getting excited counting the days.  I think that has saved us from packing up and moving on. We have wheels and we like to hit the road.  Thirty days seems like our limit for one spot. Not that we haven’t enjoyed Dauphin Island, but next year: Texas.  We need more birds on the list. 

But, before Texas, we are planning the trip back up north to Cleveland.  We are going to do the Natches Trace.  444 miles of parkway, no stop signs, 50 MPH.  Starts in Natches, Miss. and ends just south of Nashville Tenn.  Very historical and beautiful countryside. Think it will be like the Blue Ridge Pkwy in Va.  Many of our road warrior neighbors have done this route home and highly recommend it.  There are mile markers with three campsites right on the parkway. Boondocking only, but other private parks to chose from. Ah, back to adventures.  We will then come into our hometown by way of Indiana.  No mountains on this route, but we should have at least two springs as we travel north. The weather will get warmer as we move north, until just south of Cleveland……we can enjoy another spring in May! That’s the plan.

Birding has been OK….our holdout here at Dauphin is for the Spring bird migration to start.  Soon…..we hope.  Azaleas will be in full bloom in 10 days and I can’t wait to show Ed how beautiful the south is in Springtime.  Ed has never been down here to see it.  Maybe a quick trip over to New Orleans, still in the undecided category.