05/08/2011 - Dauphin Island Sunrise Paddle

Header Image

1) Sunrise on the tip of Sand Island peninsula. 

2) I did the crossing over to the tip of Sand Island in the dark and waves were big enough to warrant wearing a spray skirt.

3) Sunrise with a few clouds. Dauphin Island can be seen in the background. 

4) Despite the fact that the Alabama coast is being advertised as being back in business for tourism on the squeaky clean beaches, there are still dozens of workers contracted out from BP who roam the beaches to scoop up beached tar balls and clean up oil masses. These crews carry their own porta-potty. They will be doing this for many more years which explains why gas prices are higher. You don't think BP and the oil companies are going to pay for the clean up, do you? The consumer is paying for the oil spill cleanup while the oil companies keep racking up record profits.

5) Cool looking shore birds like these black skimmers are still abundant along the beaches.

6) Ebullient children can sometimes torment the shore birds.

7) A black skimmer flying overhead.

8) They call them black skimmers because the bird lowers its razor sharp lower jaw into the water and flies (skims) along the water scooping up fish.

9) The hair-do on this great blue heron made it look like had a bit of the devil in it this morning.

10) I've missed kayaking around Sand Island. Sometimes you can get lucky and see unique migratory birds like these beautiful American Avocets. I need to kayak around Dauphin Island more often.