The Place
Dauphin Island is on one of the major bird migration
routes. It is a resting spot for birds of
all kinds after (or before) they have made the difficult and dangerous flight
across the Gulf of Mexico. To give these
birds a safe place to rest on their travels, Dauphin Island provides this 164
acre sanctuary. The sanctuary is crisscrossed
with walking trails through pine forest and swamp, around a fresh water lake,
along dunes and finally to the beach. The sanctuary also has its share of permanent residents as well.
On our walk, we ran into an elderly couple who live in
Mobile and have a home on Dauphin Island.
According to them, the Mobile city government decided to develop Dauphin
Island in the 1950s. At that time, they
decided to set aside a significant amount of land that would remain natural and
that could never be developed. That is
pretty impressive fore thought for the 1950s.
They then sold the property that was to be developed and used the
revenue to build the causeway and bridge to get to the island. According
to this couple, the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board leases this bird
sanctuary to the Audubon Society for $25 a year.
The Adventure
We spent about 2.5 hours walking through the bird sanctuary
today. We aren’t really “birders” and
only know the species of birds most commonly found at home. However, we do have binoculars and a bird
book. What struck us most was how many
tiny birds there were in the sanctuary.
How could these little, bitty birds less than 5 inches long make that
long migration? But they do. The woods were alive with bird song, and the
underbrush fluttered with tiny wings moving about. 
The most exciting find was an osprey nest sitting on top of
a pole/platform out in the open that had been taken over by a Great Horned
Owl. The owl had a fluffy white
chick (on the right in the photo). They watched us while we watched
them. Amazing!
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