Dauphin Island

Good News and Bad News.

The good news is the almost $7 million dollar Dauphin Island east end beach restoration project that brought in 325,000 cubic yards of sand is complete. The new beach is proving to be popular.

http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2016/03/no_alcohol_ban_for_dauphin_isl.html

The bad news is the free east end parking is limited and my favorite east end sheltered kayak launch has moved so far away from the now crowded parking area that it is not worth using anymore. Most of the formerly sandy shoreline is now a kayak un-launchable rock shoreline.

The new long rock shoreline is visible on the right. To launch at the sandy beach visible on the left side of the photo will require carrying the kayak across a painfully long stretch of new sand.

The north side of Little Dauphin Island Bay is enticing.

All the sand that was moved to Sand Island Lighthouse has been swept away.

The Mobile Bay ship channel is next to the lighthouse so you may get to some big ships up close while kayaking near the lighthouse. A porpoise or dolphin jumps out of the water while playing in the ship's bow wake.

Not much of a wake from this big ship hauling railroad cars.

The Fort Morgan ferry passes nearby as I head back across Mobile Bay on this Double Crosser kayak trip.

Pelicans flying nearby with an oil rig visible in the background.

Unique looking beach house.

Nifty looking plant sculpture.

Dauphin Island Launch Site Changes

The protective rock piles perpendicular to the shore on the East end of Dauphin Island by Fort Gaines helped calm the waters making for an easier kayak launch. This is how the area looked in the past, with about 5-6 rows of rock piles.

Work crews recently removed all those rows of rocks and moved them to a single row of rocks going to the southwest with two small gaps.

The good news is if the winds are out of the south or south east, the new rock jetties will make launching a kayak even easier. The bad news is I suspect when winds are out if the southwest launching a kayak will be more difficult.

However, there is a beach restoration planned and if they extend the sand far enough out toward the rocks, that may make launching easy regardless of wind direction.

Dauphin Island

Conditions were right yesterday for a double Mobile Bay crossing. Been two years since I kayaked Dauphin Island. What a wonderful place and the beaches were almost litter free.

Friendly Dolphins

Little Jellyfish

Clear waters along Fort Morgan

Perfect conditions for kayaking from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan and back.

The end of Sand Island

Birders Area

Stingray

The ever changing sands of Sand Island

Sand Island

Succulent wildflower growing in the sand

Beached Jellyfish

Dauphin Island condos and stranded fishing pier.

Big changes going on at the East end of Dauphin Island that may affect kayak launching.

End of Sand Island. Lighthouse and ship in the background. 

Peregrine Falcon is a bird you do not see often but you can find them on Sand Island

08/04/2012 - Dauphin Island

Trash along the shoreline was the exception on Dauphin Island, not the rule like in Mobile. This allowed me to see the scenery and wildlife and thoroughly enjoy a paddle for once. They sure do keep Dauphin Island clean. Thanks Jeff Collier - I hope they re-elect you.

Header Image - Dauphin Island provides a home and breeding ground for beaucoup birds. It is a birder's paradise and my favorite kayak destination.

Water surface north of Dauphin Island was slick so I launched at Aloe Bay Park.

Radar indicated some nearby thunderstorms and I figured they would dissipate quickly. Wrong assumption. This is not where you want to be when lightning storms grow.

Conditions deteriorated quickly and I spent about an hour waiting out a wicked lightning storm under the Bienville Road bridge just east of Orleans Drive.

When the lightning stopped I eased out into Graveline Bay and was fortunate enough to see a double rainbow and for the next hour much of the rainbow was visible. What a wonderful way to start out a paddle.

A reddish egret sticks his head up high.

A boy appears to have lost his body.

Oyster Catcher.

Black Skimmer.

Benton with the Hobie Fishing Team rode out the storm under the Dauphin Island Bridge. When you go kayaking, it is good to know where the nearest overhead shelter is because thunderstorms can pop up quickly.

A SUP (Stand Up Paddler) looks off in the distance at a couple of people parasailing. She was baiting crab traps. Did you know there are a lot of things to do at Dauphin Island?

As I paddled by this gentleman he caught a fish about 2 foot long.

Unfortunately, when many fisherman snag a line they just cut it instead of retrieving it. This Pelican has monofilament fishing line caught in its wing. Poor thing. The pelican flew off so at least the line is not crippling it. The end of the line still had a loop in it meaning the loop could get caught on something.

People fish and so do green herons and they don't need a fishing pole.

A woman jogs along Dauphin Island's beach and disturbs a flock of gulls.

Terns turned in the same direction.

Today is the first time I've seen a duck behaving like a sandpiper.

This was a colorful home. There was a little wave action today.

Near the Katrina Cut the vegetation was green and much thicker than the last time I was at this location.

Bird guano helps provide nutrients for the beach vegetation to grow in sand. Vegetation stabilizes the beach. All of nature works in harmony.

04/19/2012 - Dauphin Island

Dauphin Island is a rewarding place to paddle if you like to see a wide variety of birds and marine life. This was an enjoyable 5 hour paddle along Sand Island, over to Fort Morgan, and back to Dauphin Island. I need to get away from Mobile more often.

Header image is a photo of dolphins at play. They are great fun to watch and there were plenty of them around today.

Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) puts on summer programs for kids of all ages. These kids were on the Research Vessel Alabama Discovery with several educators. Note the dolphin near the boat.

I wonder if any of them got the photo of two dolphins almost hitting my kayak. Speaking of DISL, there is a big party being thrown at Tacky Jacks for support of DISL coming up on May 3rd. DISL has a lot of impact with school kids and is a good program to support.

A Ruddy Turnstone bird on an old stump.

These were some sandpiper type birds which I am not any good at identifying because they all look the same to me.

A Great Blue Heron.

The Red-Breasted Merganser is one of the fastest flying ducks there are. This one has a neat-o punked out hair-do.

Great Blue Herons walk around the beach like they own it.

Awkward! This Great Blue Heron kept trying to eat the bait fish locked in a plastic bag which it probably stole from someone's unattended fishing site. It kept trying to swallow the fish but the plastic was getting in the way. I intervened - chased off the heron, got the bag, opened it up, and threw the bait fish to the heron which eagerly gulped them down.

I believe this was a contract boat that transports workers that remove tar balls from the beaches. Nice job eh?

These is but one tar ball removal crew on Sand Island. Nice job eh?

I put a penny that I found next to some tar balls for size perspective. Tar balls of this size were all over the Fort Morgan beach. You're going to be paying people to clean these beaches for decades by way of higher gas prices. You don't actually think the oil cartel is going to use their profits to clean up the oil spill mess do you? One tar ball has a smiley face on it.

A lizard paid no attention to the tar balls.

One of the reasons I love to kayak around Dauphin Island and Sand Island is because of all the things you can see in the clear water.

Along side one of the Ship Channel markers was what appeared to be about a 2-foot long shark.

These pelicans were across from the Ferry ramp.

An Oyster Catcher.

Everyone is so nice at Dauphin Island - even the birds. Here is a seagull giving another seagull a back rub.

The black skimmer was saying, "I want a back rub too!" Based on the bulge in this one's abdomen, it may have had a back rub already.