Sunny, 75 degrees, light breeze
We’re in Charleston, South Carolina for about 4 days with our college buds from 43 years ago. There are four couples who have been getting together in various locations across the US and other countries ever since we graduated, and the destination this year is beautiful historic Charleston.
We’ll be visiting mansions, plantations, museums and other historic and natural areas during this week. Today, the weather is perfect for taking a boat ride out to the Fort Sumter National Monument. The first shot of the Civil War was fired here in 1861. My main interest is of course in the history of the fort, and we have two wonderful lectures at the fort explaining the chain of events that led up to the start of the war and Fort Sumters significance following that first shot.
The Fort is located on an island at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. The edges of the island provide great habitat for shorebirds, so I take a walk around the grounds of the fort following the historical presentations. Much of the area is pretty quiet. I do find a grassy spot where there are several Savannah sparrows moving between the water’s edge and the walls of the fort.
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| Savannah sparrow |
A bit further around the island, however, I find a gravel beach where there are many many shorebirds. Semi-palmated plovers, dunlin, Black-bellied plovers, semi-palmated sandpipers and Western sandpipers dot the shoreline in close proximity to one another.
Laughing and Ring-billed gulls, Forster’s terns and Brown pelicans also are prevalent. A pod of Bottlenose dolphins are also seen working the shallow waters in close to the beach areas. I really had not expected such a great diverse population of shorebirds and was thrilled to have captured some decent shots with my little SONY point and shoot. Great start to a nice week ahead.
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| Western sandpiper |
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