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lots of purple sandpipers, little river inlet jetty, SC



On Fri., May 18, my friend Cathy Packer and I walked down to Bird Island
from the public parking area at Sunset Beach. This was our first time there
-- the rest of you probably know that Bird Island is an island no longer,
the inlet having filled in with sand. The birds were kind of dull except for
a pair of Least Terns on the beach, one feeding the other little fish. We
thought the rarest bird we'd see was one Nude Sunbather (a Homo Sapiens in
willful molt). But we finally got to the jetties at Little River Inlet, S.C.
and saw a group of 5 Ruddy Turnstones and at least 9 Purple Sandpipers
relaxing on the rocks quite close to us. The sandpipers were bathing and
loafing. It took me a while to figure out what they were because I've never
seen them in breeding plumage before! They were incredibly relaxed despite
our nearness to them. Farther on down the jetty there was another cluster of
turnstones, but I couldn't tell if there were sandpipers with them. And I
didn't take the time to find out because water suddenly trickled, then
spurted, under the rocks and I realized the tide was coming in! I had to
climb over the rocks to get back to higher sand. Cathy, a lot quicker on the
draw than I am, had hopped back up the beach to avoid being cut off by
rising water. 
By the way, on Sat. we found our way to Twin Lakes where the Wood Storks are
seen in late summer. No storks, but one little 4-foot alligator was floating
on a small pond adjacent to the "lake" that is surrounded by the golf
course. (The other lake had some immature Forster's Terns fishing in it.) 
Ginger