wybranie@dtrc.dt.navy.mil (Wybraniec) (04/11/91)
My husband and I went on a short trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina March 28-30. While he golfed, I birded. I had previously contacted the Waccamaw Audubon Society and the woman was so helpful in sending me info about two of their birding areas. I went to their "premier" place - Huntington Beach State Park. It was very windy, but fortunately the severe thunderstorms and even tornados never hit. :) The park's habitats are barrier beach, sand dunes, mud flats, salt marsh, freshwater marsh, and maritime forest. I saw 50 different species of birds, including 5 I'd never seen before, and lots more that I got a much better look at than ever before. The beginning of my bird list is so exciting - at the hotel there were ring-billed gulls, starlings, grackles, and crows! There was a pair of mallards in their pond. And driving, I saw mourning doves, robins, cardinals, and mockingbirds in people's yards. I might have seen a sharp-shinned hawk being harassed by crows along the side of the Rt. 17 bypass, but I'm not real good at this "birding-while-driving." The park had it's share of noisy red-winged blackbirds and boat-tailed grackles. A catbird added his/her meowing and of course there were the Carolina wrens. The titmice weren't in a scolding mood, though, good. And the alligators were silently floating, soaking up a few rays. The ducks were few and far away. One of the locals told me that when it gets warm enough for the gators to come up from the bottom, the ducks find other places. I did see a pied-billed grebe up close and maybe a female merganser in with a flock further away from the causeway, but I can't be sure. There were plenty of common gallinules and American coots. A flock of snow geese went overhead as I was watching a sora pick along the edges. The sora didn't seem aware of this gator trying to get in closer, but it kept its distance. Also along the edges there was a willet, a lesser yellowlegs, and a green heron. The surface of the water and its insects was patroled thoroughly by tree swallows. A laughing gull went by about the same time a double crested cormorant came in for a landing on a floating log. Towards evening, the chimney swifts came out. And an osprey tried to do some fishing. The osprey was flying hard to hover, but the wind kept pushing him backwards until he went from right over my head (low) to out of sight. I tried walking along the beach, but the wind blowing up the sand made it too unpleasant. I did see a bunch of royal terns, and a pair of brown pelicans flew over. Great egrets were picking along the edges of the ponds, then I said forget it. The next day I concentrated more on the drier areas. Little groups of white-throated sparrows were all around, song sparrows, swamp sparrows, and maybe a savannah sparrow. Paired off pee wees were building nests everywhere, as well as a pair of chickadees I saw excavating. A brown thrasher ducked into the underbrush, but not before I could identify him. A ruby-throated hummingbird was working the vines. I followed another bird into some brush and saw it was a junco - this distrubed a little lizard who inflated his pink/red throat at me. Then I decided to sit for a little while on the pedestrian causeway to give myself a better chance at seeing and identifying the sparrows and warblers. A yellow-throated warbler sang right in front of me for as long as my arms could hold up the binoculars. A yellow-rumped was palling around with him. There was also a palm warbler, common yellowthroat, white-eyed vireo, blue-gray gnatcatcher, house wren, rufous-sided towhee, and a couple of cattle egrets. Then it was time to leave and pick up my husband from the golf course, and as I stood up and looked about 20 yards down the walkway a gator was crossing from one pond to another. We stared at each other and I kept saying 'he's more scared of you than you are of him.' Yeah, right! He continued on his way, and my heart (after it stopped) was still going a mile a minute when I got in the car and closed the door. Suzanne (Northern Virginia)