As I was leaving Jekyll Island late in the afternoon the other day, I spied a brilliant flash of pink over the summer-green salt marsh near the welcome center on the island's causeway. The pink, I knew, could only be that of a certain bird: a roseate spoonbill.
I pulled over for a better look and was greeted with a breathtaking sight — a small flock of roseate spoonbills foraging in the marsh. A few minutes later, they took off, their pinkness gleaming in the afternoon sun, an awe-inspiring sight.
It was not the first time I've seen roseate spoonbills in the wild, but it was the best glimpse I've ever had of the magnificent birds, which are uncommon in Georgia — and anywhere else for that matter.
On the same day I was there, Stephanie Berens, director of the Reynolds Memorial Nature Preserve in Clayton County, also got a good look at roseate spoonbills near the same spot where I saw them. The flock she saw was much larger, more than 60 birds. "I had never seen the bird before, let alone a flock that size," she told me. "The sight caused my jaw to drop."
The Birds of North America Online describes the bird this way: "The roseate spoonbill is unmistakable and one of North America's most unusual looking wading birds. Its plumage is truly flamboyant, combining a pink body with carmine red on the wings and tail-coverts with a rich tawny, almost orange, tail. The bill is shaped like a spatula, giving this species its name."
The spoonbill's color comes mostly from its diet. It eats crustaceans that feed on algae, which gives the spoonbill's feathers their rosy pink.
The bird's striking color, in fact, almost caused its extinction in the 1800s when it was hunted for its pink feathers, which were used to make ladies' fans and other items. Development around its rookeries also caused its numbers to plummet.
This has been a good year for roseate spoonbills in Georgia, said Tim Keyes, an ornithologist with the state Department of Natural Resources. He said he has been seeing foraging flocks of well over 100 — and possibly 200 — this summer in the marshes around Brunswick.
In the sky: The South Delta Aquarid meteor shower will be visible through the night of July 31, reaching a peak of about 15 meteors per hour this weekend, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Look to the southeast from midnight until dawn.
The moon will be full Aug. 1 — the "hay moon," as rural people called the full moon after July's hay harvest. Venus and Jupiter are low in the east just before sunrise. Mars is high in the west just after dark and sets in the west before midnight. Saturn is high in the south at dark and sets in the west around midnight.
