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Santee NWR, 20 January




Sharon Brown and I made a trip to Santee NWR today to re-locate all the neat
geese found on the Santee Christmas Bird Count.  While we were lucky enough
to see the blue phase Snow Geese fly in shortly after we got there, we
wanted better looks.  Sure enough, just as I had been told, all the geese -
the blue phase Snow Geese, Ross's Goose, and the Greater White-fronted Goose
- were visible from the observation deck along the nature trail in the Bluff
Unit late in the afternoon.  Our only difficulty was finding the Ross's
Goose.  While we glimpsed the bird once and knew he was present in the flock
feeding at sunset, we couldn't re-locate him.  Finally the Ross's Goose
walked his small self out from behind a gaggle of Canada Geese and just for
comparison stood next to Snow Goose.  

We also managed to find a number of duck species at Santee, including the
expected Mallards, Green-winged Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon and
Hooded Merganser.  It was nice to find enough ducks to have to sort through
them.

We were treated to the sight of three Bald Eagles all sitting within one
binocular field in a large pine tree - two fourth year birds and one third
year bird.  While watching those three, another Bald Eagle flew over and we
could hear at least two more eagles behind us, for a total of at least six
Bald Eagles at one point.

We were also treated to long looks at one of the most extensively chartruese
Blue-headed Vireos I've seen in a long while, a lovely and cooperative bird.
The last nice birds of the day were a Great Horned Owl almost-silhouette
(there was just enough light left to imagine the white "bib") and flyover
American Woodcock shortly after we heard the twitter of woodcock wings.

It was a very relaxing day afield, an impression always aided by finding the
"chased" birds.

Donna Slyce Bailey
Winnsboro, SC

e-mail: dsbailey@conterra.com

URL: http://www.conterra.com/dsbailey
     "Where are the Birds?  Migration across South Carolina"