Santee NWR

On the way down to the Sunshine state, we’ve stopped along the way to bird one of the best reserves in South Carolina…..Santee National Wildlife Refuge. We’re greeted by a half dozen of the state bird of New York, the Eastern bluebird. In various molts, they range from washed out blue over a barely buffy chest to deep azure over a rich rusty mantle. Pine warblers flit in and out of the trees grazing on the ground for grubs and whatever insects happen to be available. Inside the VC, we talk to two of the staff members who advise us that the best birding recently has been the Wright’s Bluff Nature Trail and then over to the Cuddo unit several miles away.


Along the 1 mile loop of the nature trail, there is a lot of avian activity with the highlights being the calling of the Red-shouldered hawk which flies overhead and the three hen wood ducks which I inadvertently flush from the swampy cypress woodlands I am crossing over by boardwalk. Later, we drive around the 7 mile loop at Cuddo. It’s eerily quiet as we begin the circuit, but eventually we come upon an overlook where we have our first American coot and American widgeons of the year. A handsome male cardinal follows the path of our vehicle while a number of yellow-rumps escort us down the dirt thoroughfare. We decide to pull off at a canoe put-in site for lunch and immediately find a Brown-headed nuthatch nearby tapping resonantly on a dead cedar. Yellow-rumps are fly-catching over the shallow inlet and are soon chased off by a fine Belted kingfisher. Beyond these birds is a lone pied-billed grebe cruising back and forth on the shallow waters puntucated by stumps which look as if they were randomly scattered over the surface of the inlet.

It’s time for us to continue south, but not before a magnificient mature Bald eagle passes overhead as if to bid us a fond farewell. Next stop, Harris Neck NWR in Georgia.