I've had a head cold the past few days, and I felt too bad to go to the coast on Saturday, but on Sunday I thought a head full of ragweed pollen might be just the thing to make me forget about my cold. Luckily, it wasn't that bad. The Giant Ragweed flowers are ready to pop open any day now, though, throwing their bitter yellow pollen into the wind.
The action along the coast was typical of what it's been for the past week or two. Lots of gnatcatchers, flycatchers, and Yellow Warblers, such as the one below. 
And some more cool dragonflies:
Swallows have been barreling through in big numbers for a couple of weeks now, led in numbers by Barns, but with a good showing of Bank and Cliff Swallows. Every time I looked up today there were swallows heading west along the coast. As the day got late, they began to line up on wires.
Here's a shot of Cliff Swallow, Barn Swallow, and Bank Swallow, the three big migrants today. 
With miles of wire, you wouldn't think turf wars would be a problem, but swallows seem to like to fight.
Labor Day weekend is a big deal on Holly Beach, and the crowds were out. Surprisingly, a few flocks of gulls were hanging out between the communities of tents and campers up and down the beach. I wasn't planning to stop to scope the birds out because of all of the human activity, but as I passed I noticed that one of the brown juvenile Laughing Gulls seemed to be a little different brown from the others.
One U-turn later, I was surprised to see there was actually a Parasitic Jaeger hanging out. I thought I'd have to get out in Dave Patton's Jaeger-chasing boat to see one in Cameron Parish, but it was pretty nice to see one from the steadiness of dry land.
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