On the south side adjacent to the Gulf, beach and primary dunes are backed up by a wide marsh meadow.  A view looking south across the marsh meadow is shown to the right.  North of this meadow a zone of sparsely vegetated dune merges abruptly into a band of  evergreen scrub. 

Abundant scrub plants include sand live oak (Quercus geminata), Chapman oak (Quercus chapmanii), and rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides).  The scrub is shown to the left (note the pine forest in the background). 

Along the bay side of the peninsula is the remaining habitat, a forest of slash pine (Pinus elliotii). Gallberry (Ilex glabra), saw palmetto (Serenoa repens), wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera), and fetterbush (Lyonia lucida) are all abundant in the dense understory of this forest between swampy pools.  A photo of the forest showing the understory is to the right.

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

We've been working here since 1990. During the field season, approxiamately 26 mist-nets are operated daily at the site, weather permitting.  We capture about 3,500 birds per season with an average effort of about 7600 net hours.  Over 12 seasons of operation, 132 species of birds have been captured. 

Click here for a complete table of all the birds captured at the Ft. Morgan study site over the years.

Additionally, during the 1993 and 1995-1998 field seasons, a single observer conducted counts of migrating hawks at this site.  Mean effort was 207 hours/season.  Sixteen species were recorded. We have also collected ceilometer observations, wing tracings, fecal samples, and data on vegetation, arthropod abundance, and weather during some years.

JEFF FARRINGTON

Jeff studied the habitat use of frugivorous migrants during fall migration using mist-netting data collected from 1997-2002. He compared capture rates of frugivourous birds between two habitats, pine palmetto and pine scrub-shrub. He found that the pine palmetto habitat had the highest fruit plant abundance.

Frugivores, with the exception of one species, Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), were captured more in the pine palmetto over the six year period. Abundance though is not always a good indicator of how an individual migrant uses the available habitats since a bird is, for the most part, only detected once based on counts or captures.

During 2001, Jeff radio-tracked individual Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinesis) to study how individual birds use habitats at this stopover site. Radio-tagged catbirds selectively used pine palmetto habitat and, within the pine palmetto habitat, their locations were associated with fruiting plants more than non-fruiting plants.

STEF WOLTMANN

Using radio telemetry, Stef studied the habitat use of three Sharp-shinned and three Cooper's Hawk during autumn migration on the Fort Morgan peninsula in 1997 and 1998. Hawks were captured, fitted with a very small (< 3g.) radio transmitter attached to their central tail feathers, and released. Birds were monitored continuously for as long as possible, which usually meant less than two days.

Sharp-shinned Hawks were found to use wooded areas exclusively, even though these areas comprise a fairly small proportion of the available habitat (ca. 20%). Cooper's Hawks were less dependent on forest habitat, but still used forested areas disproportionate to their availablity.