Fall 2025 AOS Meeting
Unless otherwise noted, all AOS Fall Meeting events, except field trips, take place at the Dauphin Island Community Center, 412 Lemoyne Drive. See each field trip for meeting time and place. Dress is casual for the entire meeting.
Important information about parking Parking at Dauphin Island beaches requires paying a parking fee using the ParkMobile app. At the time of the meeting the cost is $10 for one calendar day (not 24 hours across days).
Cash or credit card payments are not accepted at the beaches. Your vehicle will be booted if a check shows you have not paid. You can download the ParkMobile app from Google Play and iPhone’s App Store. Unless you are staying on the island you cannot park along the streets or at the side street parking lots west of where Bienville Boulevard reduces to two lanes.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
6:00 p.m. AOS Board meeting: via TEAMS
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10
7:00 a.m. Upper Delta Boat Trip with Ben Raines
(Fee: see Field Trips)
5:00 p.m. Registration/Social hour at Dauphin Island
Community Center
6:00 p.m. Member Social—Shrimp boil and sides.
Monetary contributions are welcome.
6:45 p.m. Announcements/Discussion of Weekend
7:00 p.m. Join Tom Stephenson, coauthor of The Warbler Guide, for a lecture and tutorial on faster ID of warblers using new details
and a short history of technology and the North American Field Guide.
Field Trips
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11
7:00 a.m. Field Trip 1: Exploring Dauphin Island
Exploring Dauphin Island with speaker
Tom Stephenson and AOS leader
Where: Green Park (next to Ship & Shore)
7:00 a.m. Field Trip 2: Dauphin Island Causeway
Shorebirds, terns and gulls with Drew
Haffenden (depends on current conditions
Where: Green Park (next to Ship & Shore)
5:15 p.m. Registration at Community Center
5:30 p.m. BANQUET AND KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Dauphin Island Community Center
Our speaker is Tom Stephenson, co-author of award-winning The Warbler Guide. Tom will be helping us with warbler ID at Friday workshop after our social hour, especially overlooked ID features such as undertail patterns, and in the field on our Saturday morning outing.
His talk Saturday night will further advance our knowledge of the usefulness of the field guide and why such guides still have an important place in identifying birds using many factors, not just general appearance or a single diagnostic point. So a lot of good useful information from one of America’s most accomplished birders.
Location is the Dauphin Island Community Center, across the road from Ship and Shore. There is free parking at the Community Center itself, also across Chaumont south of the center (entry from Cadillac), and across Lemoyne in front of Green Park.
In addition to the general meeting we will also conduct a Membership meeting to elect the new President and Vice-president and new board members. All members are urged to attend this meeting at 7:20 pm Saturday in the Dauphin Island Community Center, no registration required if only attending this meeting. If you are registered for the regular meeting then you are already registered for the Membership meeting.
5:30 p.m. Social Hour
6:30 p.m. Banquet Buffet
7:20 p.m. Membership meeting, election of officers
7:30 p.m. Announcements and Discussion
of Field Trips
7:40 p.m. Keynote Speaker: Tom Stephenson
Identifying fall warblers
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12
6:30 a.m. Field Trip: Blakeley Island Mudlakes if scouting close to the date reveals it to be worthwhile. See Field Trips for important information.
Where: Green Park (next to Ship & Shore)
Noon Compilation (Includes all bird sightings in Mobile and Baldwin Counties from Friday,
October 10 to noon, October 12, 2025)
Where: Goat Trees
Register Here!
ACCOMMODATIONS AND INFORMATION
Accommodations on Dauphin island are limited, so be sure to make reservations early for AOS Meetings.
Websites:
www.gulfinfo.com
www.townofdauphinisland.org/where-to-stay
Motels:
Gulf Breeze Motel: 251-861-7344 or 1-800-286-0296
Bed and Breakfast:
Dauphin Island Harbor House: 251-861-2119
Air BnB has lots of rentals! www.airbnb.com
Rentals:
Boardwalk Realty, Inc.: 877-861-3992
Tyson Real Estate: 800-865-8312
ACP Real Estate, Inc.: 866-861-3311
Camping:
Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board: 251-861-2742
(fully equipped for both camper and tent camping)
All participants must email Drew at andrew@natsp.com to advise of your participation and your cell phone number if you plan to attend any field trip so we know how many to expect on each trip, and so any last minute changes can be sent to you. Due to the nature of some sites, we may restrict the number of participants on a field trip. Please check the AOS website for updates.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2025
Upper Delta Boat Tour with Ben Raines
Trip Leader: Ben Raines
Meeting Time: 7 a.m.
Meeting Place: Green Park (next to Ship & Shore)
Mound Island and the Giant Cypress. These are the trips where we hike in through the swamp to the 700-year-old giant cypress and visit the Indian mounds on Mound Island. We cover about 40 miles by boat on these trips and spend about half the trip off the boat in the woods. In October, two orchids are blooming, Bartram’s tree orchid, a tiny tree dwelling species, and the lady’s tress, a spiraling swamp orchid with a delicious aroma. Oyster mushrooms and honey mushrooms are plentiful on the walks, along with a lot of flowers. The flowers are particularly beautiful around then: ironweed, opposite leaf daisies, a lot of stuff. We will hike through meadows of flowers on the way to the tree. There are lots of birds, both resident and migrants. October and November are typically the driest months in the swamp, so best time to be walking around without getting your feet wet. Please note the round-trip distance to the Giant Cypress is two miles and to the Indian Mounds one mile, both flat and easy walking.
Bring a lunch and drinks. Cost is $160 per person; max capacity is six persons, first come. Register with Drew at: andrew@natsp.com.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2025
Exploring Dauphin Island
Trip Leader: Tom Stephenson and AOS leader
Meeting Time: 7 a.m.
Meeting Place: Green Park (next to Ship & Shore)
We’ll bird the varied habitats of Dauphin Island with our Keynote Speaker, starting at the airport for rails and sparrows, then to the Shell Mounds for warblers, vireos, tanagers and any other Neotropical migrants we can find. In addition to the Shell Mounds, we’ll check out the Audubon Sanctuary and other island hotspots, aided by the cellphone network of sightings by other birders on the island. Other than Audubon Sanctuary, which is a circuit of one mile, there is not a lot of distance walked on this outing, though almost all of our time is spent on foot.
Note: It is important for all participants to meet at Green Park, and not arrive at the airport independently. Early airport arrivers can cause rails and sparrows to retreat into the marsh before the rest of the group arrives.
Birds of Dauphin Island Causeway
(Depending upon conditions; check with Drew on Friday.)
Trip Leader: Drew Haffenden
Meeting Time: 7 a.m.
Meeting Place: Green Park (next to Ship & Shore)
The recently created shallow flats along the Dauphin Island Causeway have resulted in prime shorebird feeding and tern roosting areas. As this is a new site we do not know how it will be in mid-October but we should still be seeing shorebirds migrating through and residents using it. As there is limited (technically no) parking, carpooling is highly recommended.
As it’s only five minutes from Green Park, car poolers can easily be run back and the driver return.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2025
Field Trip to Blakeley Island Mudlakes
Trip Leader: Larry Gardella
Meeting Time: 6:30 a.m. for a departure at 6.45 a.m. sharp.
Meeting Place: Green Park (next to Ship & Shore).
Parking is very limited at the Mudlakes, so some carpooling is necessary. Participants staying overnight off the island can meet at the Mudlakes. Please advise when signing up, and you will receive directions and start time.
The Blakeley Island Mud Lakes are a complex of disposal ponds that attract large numbers of shorebirds and waterfowl. We’ll carpool to the site and walk the dirt road up and along the dikes to view rows of ponds of varying depths. Expected birds are American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt, Stilt Sandpiper, and a variety of other shorebirds, as well as Gull-billed Tern, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, and raptors, often including Peregrine Falcon, Merlin, Mississippi Kite, and Northern Harrier. We’ll return to Dauphin Island in time for compilation at noon. Walking distance is about two miles in the open with no shade. Terrain is good, level dirt road. Mosquitoes and biting flies may be present. If there has been recent rain, places may be muddy. Once in the site participants must stay on the roads, not even going into the immediate vegetated verges. AOS and individuals could lose the hard-won permission to bird here if this occurs.
NOTE: A permit form must be lodged with the State Docks Authority prior to your arrival and the permit displayed inside the windscreen. Go to http://www.aosbirds.org/alabama-birding/blakeley-island/ to register in advance. Registration is valid for the rest of the calendar year.
IMPORTANT: This trip is planned, but for the last couple of Octobers bird activity has been very quiet at this usually very productive site. The site will be visited just a little before the trip, and if similarly quiet a different outing may replace this one.