Birmingham Audubon Society

Upcoming Educational Events

Instructor: Greg Harber

Teachers can apply for a scholarship to attend this class. Click here for more information and a scholarship application. 

Black Belt Birding Trip #2

Yesterday the Birmingham Audubon Society embarked on its second birding trip to the Black Belt region of Alabama, finding some of the birds we encountered last Saturday while adding a few new delights to make this trip equally memorable.

We began the day at the Heflin Lock Facility on the Tombigbee Waterway northeast of Gainesville. Within minutes we were hearing several Field Sparrows, their sweet "dropped ping-pong ball" notes coming from several directions. A male Orchard Oriole was particularly brilliant in the unfettered morning sunlight. Purple Martins, Barn Swallows and Rough-winged Swallows were present along the wires and around the lock itself. A couple of Mississippi Kites and Wood Storks gave us an early prelude of things to come. Perhaps the rarest sight was a tugboat actually going through the lock. Of course, the tug was not pushing a barge - that might justify the ginormous cost of the construction of the Tenn-Tom Waterway project!

The caravan then motored its way through Gainesville to CR 85 north, turning at the sign for the Heflin Dam itself. Here we had distant views of more kites and storks, plus water hyacinths along the shore and a garfish seeking refuge under the floating mass - even the fish in the water thought the day was a hot one! The stop here was brief, as we wanted to get to Tombigbee Farms further up CR 85.

The group checked the skies thoroughly at the farm but our views of the kites - all Mississippi - were distant. We could draw some consolation from the fact that there were about 10-12 kites in view. At this point Anne introduced a new birding term that I had never heard - sensuous birding. She was tired of hearing, "What are you looking at? Some speck in the distance" and wanted much more intimate views of the kites. Silly me, I thought the term "sensuous birding" referred to the woman sunbathing by the pool at the home adjacent to the field where we were standing. On two occasions directions to locating birds flying in the featureless sky began with, "If you look at the pool and go up..." It was mere coincidence that this catch phrase was uttered by men in the group, but more on this sensuous birding concept later.