UPDATE: The West End of Dauphin Island has been
significantly change by Hurricane Katrina. You can no longer walk as
far past the end of road, because of a large cut through the island.
The birding is still fantastic, however, much of the former west end (which
is now a series of islands being referred to by some as the Dauphin Keys) is
only accessible by boat.
For the best look at island areas that are essentially
untouched by human hands, you can bird the west end of the island. However,
this
does pose some issues. Mainly, the west end is private property and if you
do not obey the rules, you will be trespassing. To access the west end, DO NOT
walk through anyone's yard. Access can be gained by walking the public areas
around the drainage areas to the beach. Look for drainage pipes along the edge
of the road and walk perpendicular to the road, straight towards the water.
Once
you have reached the water, you are on publicly accessible grounds. The area
from the water to the mean high tide line on the beach is public. Basically, if
your on wet sand you are fine. Also, be prepared for a long walk. This part of
island is about 7 miles long, so if you are wanting to walk the whole thing, put
on your best shoes.
My disclaimer: In no way should a birder ever break laws or interfere with
private areas to get that elusive bird. I have found that most anywhere is
very cooperative to birding, as long as you obey their rules. In birding the
west end, a few that break these rules can ruin it for all of the rest of us.
Please take care to play well with others and good birding will continue
forever.
Directions:
The west end is obviously west of the 3 way stop after
crossing the bridge onto the island. Just travel west on Bienville until you
reach the fence. Parking here is becoming an issue as this is now marked as a
no parking area. At this point, I can offer no advice until the next time I
go and see how the area is laid out.
West End birding:
The birding here is fantastic due to the number of tidal
pools that pepper the landscape.
Birds that can be seen here include:
Plovers (black bellied, piping, semipalmated, etc), terns (sandwich, royal,
caspian,
least), herons (great blue, little blue, tricolored), egrets (reddish, great,
snowy), sandpipers (you name it), gulls (many kinds).
Pictures:
Birds:
Dunlins in the surf
Ring billed gull
Black skimmers setting on the beach
One skimmer skimming
Above photos by Mark Gregory
This great blue heron was walking near the
last houses on the west end
Black bellied plover (Video capture)
Closer look at black bellied plover (Video capture)
Picture showing a large number of birds (Video capture)
Another picture of the multitude of birds (Video capture)
Reddish egret (Video capture)
Another shot of a reddish egret (Video capture)
Landscape:
West end tidal pools (Video capture)
West end landscape (Video capture)
Click here to return to the main page.
Click here to return to Dauphin Island Birding.
If you have more information, a comment, correction, or a picture
that you would like me to post just
email me
.
I'll give credit to the photographer if I post your picture.