South Carolina 09

This is our second year of traveling down the coast to bird South Carolina in the Myrtle Beach area. We have found two spots which are productive and are purported to be the top birding spots in the state. Murrell's Inlet serves as our home base for the first several days as it is located very close to our favorite locale...Huntington Beach State Park. The causeway by which you enter the park is most productive at low tide, but you can never tell what the area might hold regardless of the water level. This year, the Wood storks adorned the trees along the causeway entrance much the same as they had last year. This season, however, the storks were joined by a compliment of Roseate spoonbills. The spoonbills were still in their deep pink plumage and stood out from the storks without the need of the bins. The causeway naturally still produced Great blue and Tri-color herons, Great and Snowy egrets, and Dunlin and Least sandpipers as well as Willets. The other two areas of the park we concentrate on are the boardwalk adjacent to the Nature Center and the Observation tower on Sandpiper Pond. The Center has several feeders, and we managed to catch several of the last Painted buntings of the year. On the boardwalk, we found "Old reliable", the Clapper rail. Every time we have visited the site, we've found the rails calling loudly and usually poking out into the open to pose for the camera. Today was no different as the above photo shows. At the tower, we found the usual assemblage of Moorhens and Pied-billed grebes joined today by a fine Sharp-shinned hawk. Other sites to explore should you ever be in this area include Myrtle Beach State Park where this Green heron was photographed and Cherry Grove Beach's Heritage Shores Refuge which is locate just north of North Myrtle Beach. Both provide great habitat for rails, sparrows, towhees, and the usual waders and should not be passed by.

A visitor from the west

Based on the reports from Rich Guthrie via the NY list-serve, Sharon and I drove north to Thruway Exit 21B (NOT Exit 21 as we quickly found out) yesterday morning in search of a new life-bird for both of us, the Swainson's hawk. Forecasts were for high winds and those forecasts were right on the money. After a 1 3/4 hour drive north, we arrived at our destination. Rich was present at the site and put us on the hawk within the first five minutes of our visit. The hawk gave little heed to the blustery conditions and gave us fine looks for well over an hour. The young bird spent most of his(her?) time flying around the trees directly opposite our vantage point and was often perched on the road signs directly across from the exit ramp. What a cooperative subject! The Swainson's hawk is common in the prairies and intermontane plains of western US. Almost all of these birds head south to Argentina in the fall, and for whatever reason, this young bird decided to go via New York. Although it is not unheard of the get these birds passing through, it is indeed a rare treat. It was indeed a great opportunity to see a great bird thanks to Mr. Guthrie!

Early fall birding

Sorry for the long delay in posting, but we've been constantly on the road this summer and early fall and time just seems to slip away. We've had nice moderately successful trips to Monhegan Island in Maine and a more successful trip to the Jersey Shore over the past several weeks. Jersey was by far the "birdier" of the two locations as the wind patterns over Monhegan were not conducive to the migrants which so often do show up there. Using some recommendations from birder friends Della and Alan Wells regarding Scarborough Marsh (also in Maine), we did spend two days there on our way to Monhegan with much better results. Many shore birds were using the marsh as well as the elusive Saltmarsh and Nelson's sparrows. Re Jersey, we spent several days working our way down the coast with stops at Barnegut Light, Brigantine, the SeaWatch at Avalon, and eventually Cape May. Our leader for the Cape May portion of the trip was Warren Cairo, and he did a great job in putting us on many of the migrants found in the area at this time of year. Images above include Monhegan Island, and a Forster's tern and Clapper rail from Brigantine. All-in-all, the month of September was busy and productive....what a great time of year to be out in the field!