The Gulf Coast

For the past 3 days, I have been biking west along the Gulf Coast with side outings for birding. I left St. Marks on Sunday April 13 and biked to Carrabelle. Yesterday, I biked to St. George Island. Today, I biked to Port St. Joe. I have now biked 667 miles on the trip, and today, facing strong headwinds, my legs finally had a tough day.

However, when I left St. Marks, my legs felt very good. Most of the morning was spent bicycling on a lovely bike path. It was wonderful to be able to ride and not think about cars. That being said, so far I have not had any bad experiences with drivers on the trip. Knock on wood…

About two thirds of the way to Carrabelle, I took a 10 mile round trip detour to spend some time birding at Bald Point State Park. Lying on the beach, I was able to get this nice photograph of a Willet.

Up above, Laughing Gulls glided in the breeze.

I hiked inland a bit to a pond. On my way, a Bald Eagle soared on by.

At the pond, I added a new species to my life list, a Gull-Billed Tern.

Since I could not check into my room until 4pm, I spent some time simply relaxing on the beach. I would have loved to have gone in for a swim, but the prospect of biking the final 15 miles in salt water soaked bicycling clothes just seemed like too much. If it had only been a couple of miles, I definitely would have gone in.

I woke up early the next morning. The nearly full moon had not yet set. I spent some time culling photos as I let the sun and the temperature rise.

At this point, I was biking on US 98 which hugs the coastline. Frequently, there is nothing but a small bit of land between the road and the water. From a riding perspective, US 98 generally has about a 3 foot shoulder and is not that busy, so it is pleasant to ride on especially with the Gulf view.

I stopped to photograph these Blue-Winged Teals in part because I liked the large sand castle someone had made.

To get to St. George Island, I had to bike across this 5 mile long bridge. I arrived at my hotel just past noon, but they let me check in early which was nice. Since the hotel was on the beach, I immediately went for a swim which was very refreshing.

After some lunch, I headed down the island to St. George State Park for some birding. The birding was rather quiet, but I did photograph this Wood Thrush which is another addition to my life list.

Eventually, I made my way back to my hotel, then drifted next door for a nice seafood dinner looking out at the Gulf.

This morning, I headed out early to do some birding before starting my ride to Port St. Joe. This is the lighthouse on St. George, about two blocks from my hotel.

The birding was again very quiet. I was only able to photograph species I have already seen such as this Brown-Headed Nuthatch. Speaking with several local birders, they said that this migration season has quite poor for birding. For the past two weeks, the winds have generally been from the south. When this happens, all of the warblers and other migrants fly right over the coast and just keep going. It is when the winds shift and come from the north during the night that all of the migrating birds land as soon as they reach the coast. When that happens, a place like Saint George Island will literally be covered with migrating birds of all types.

Today, the winds had shifted to come from the west, and they were strong. Leaving the island, the wind was coming from my left front. However, my next bridge which was also about 5 miles long was directly into the wind. Despite tucking into my aerobars, I was cycling at under 10 mph. My legs today did not feel good, so that combined with the headwinds made for a long day. Finally, with about 8 miles to go to Port St. Joe, I turned north and was only dealing with a crosswind. I stopped just after the turn to take this photo.

Tomorrow I bike just under 50 miles to Panama City Beach. Since I do not have any birding detours, I will sleep in and head out later in the morning so that I do not get to my next hotel too early. My next 3 days are really about getting to Pensacola Beach where I will be spending two nights on the barrier island. I have not identified any meaningful birding hotspots along the way, so any bird photography will be more opportunistic.