Our Second Act-LSSI - Another World

LSSI - Little St Simons Island in Georgia. Where to begin?? I guess the best place is at the beginning… :). My brother David and I met the ferry in Brunswick, GA at 4pm on a recent Sunday in March. It is a short 15 min ride along the Hampton River to The Lodge at Little St Simons Island. It was a gorgeous day— mid-70’s and blue skies. Instantly we felt like we were a world away. Before the ferry even began its journey we were watching pelicans dive bombing into the water catching their dinner. As we traveled down the winding river we could see marsh grasses as far as we could see in the tidal marshes. We saw a Little Blue Heron fly right by us and Great Egrets flying in the distance— this was already incredible!

Some people on the ferry over with us were visiting for the first time— others had been many times before. Once we arrived at the Lodge we had our quick introduction to the Island as our bags were being carried up for us. Over the course of the next 4 nights and 3 days David and I thoroughly enjoyed the gracious and wonderful staff and all of the guests we met - especially our nightly dinner table mates!
Little St Simons Island is truly another world…

The ferry - the Lodge holds a maximum of 32 guests.

Little St Simons Island has thousands of protected acres - as the tagline of the Lodge states perfectly - where nature is the luxury. We both knew we were at a very special place and wanted to squeeze the most out of our time there and with each other. Thankfully David is a very good sport - he was up for starting our days at any time that I wanted… so you all know what that means - well before sunrise! When we there the night skies only had a sliver of a waning moon - so we knew it would be like the color of ink when we ventured out in the mornings. After studying the map of the locations of the various trails, ponds and bird blinds - we decided that Myrtle Pond would be our first outing the very next morning. For those of you who are not familiar with what a bird blind is it is a man-made structure that allows people a place to view birds in front of them- say at a marsh or a pond - while only having a narrow opening to look through so that the birds are not bothered with the presence of people looking at them. The bird blinds on LSSI were all made from wood and either had one platform for viewing or in some cases were two stories.

On the island you get around by walking or borrowing a bicycle or waiting for the terrific Naturalist-led group trips where they take you around in the back of a pick-up truck during mid-mornings and mid-afternoons. We wanted to be at the Myrtle Pond bird blind well before sunrise so we knew we would be heading out by ourselves on bikes with our headlamps on. The bikes had baskets and thankfully David was willing to have my camera backpack and tripod secured with bungie cords to one of his baskets - thank goodness. The trails are just fantastic - wide and tamped down sand. I took these quick cell phone shots much later in the morning so that you can hopefully get a sense of place and try to picture being on bikes in total darkness riding on these trails with only the light from our headlamps…

I need to point out that during our introduction at the Lodge the night before it had been made abundantly clear that there are many alligators and snakes on the island. Unfortunately, I have always had a very healthy fear of snakes. As far as alligators are concerned I am ok with them from a good distance. They also made it very clear that snakes and alligators are not looking at us as a meal and that they are thriving because they all have plenty in their natural habitat to eat. But I kept thinking to myself… we are heading out in the total darkness… I then immediately said to myself - you are here and this is absolutely amazing so just do it!

Our first morning -

David arrived at 5:45am after already getting his bike. I had all of my equipment ready so he secured everything on his bike - we put on our headlamps and away we went. It is truly something I will never forget. I asked him to be in the lead so that I would have even more light from the glow from his headlamp and mine. There was not a peep or a hoot anywhere - we pedaled and pedaled along the trail. We would stop each time we came to a little wooden sign marking the intersection of another trail and look at our map to see where we were. We both kept saying how incredible it was to be doing this in the darkness and together. Eventually we came out of the woods and continued along the trail with the marshes on either side of us. The forecast was for early morning rain and the skies were showing us that the forecast was correct. We eventually arrived at Myrtle Pond and parked our bikes and then we made our way to the blind. Stretched out in front of us was a huge expanse of land - covered in grasses and areas of shallow water throughout. In the far distance was a border of trees. As we squinted in the very difficult lighting because of the very dark clouds and because it was still well before sunrise we could not make out any birds. I kept thinking and hoping - we are going to see them fly in from wherever they have roosted (rested) for the evening. We kept scanning and scanning. And then…

And then Roseate Spoonsbills!

I had so wanted to see Roseate Spoonbills - this was more than I had hoped for! Thankfully as I was shooting David would say right, up, down or wherever to let me know more birds were coming and from what direction. Unfortunately none of these shots are as good as I was hoping for - I struggled with the lighting - but I kept at it.

All of a sudden 2 of the Roseate Spoonbills landed right in front of us! I didn’t realize until later that day that all of the Spoonbills we were seeing on this particular outing were immature ones - they are a duller pink. Kim - to answer your question from my last post - I try to study a lot about the birds that I have the possibility of seeing before an outing. It also helps me to know what types of habitat the various birds are looking for. However, I am very often doublechecking my ID’s once I download my shots since I am definitely no expert.

Right after I took the above shot it started to pour! At this point we were at another blind in this same area which had no roof. We hustled to gather my gear and waited it out under a tree. It came down in buckets! As soon as it let up we went back up. Through a small opening David spotted this amazing grouping to our left. Wood Storks, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets.

Wood Stork flying by

A White Pelican - I didn’t know they existed until this trip…

As the sun was trying to break through we decided to leave the blind and make our way back to an area that I believe is referred to as the south dike to Myrtle Pond. We both kept thinking that a lot of birds seemed to be flying over to that general area. As we got closer we parked our bikes and walked as quietly as possible along the path to try and look through the bushes to see if we had made a right calculation…. We sure had! :). Spectacular!

I could just poke my lens through the bushes to snap this of a gorgeous Tricolored heron -

We continued further so that we were now in the wide open along the trail. Just incredible -

How can you not smile seeing this Wood Stork coming in for a landing!

We had been gone for hours…..We had such an amazing time but I was exhausted! We decided to head back to get something to eat and to put our feet up. We arrived back at the Lodge at 11 am …:). We grabbed our wonderful picnic lunches and ate outside and this sweet Carolina Wren landed right next to us. What a morning!

I have much more to share with you from this incredible trip - I hope that you are enjoying…

LSSI - Another World

Feathers in the Surf