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SC Sandhills on 16 June 2002



Hi C-Birders,

Today I got out before dawn to check out a couple of excellent birding
locations near the Fall Line northeast of Columbia -- 40 Acre Rock Heritage
Preserve in Lancaster County, SC and Carolina Sandhills NWR in Chesterfield
County, SC. Along the way I birded the Porter Road area of Kershaw County
between Camden, SC and the Flat Creek / 40 Acres Rock area.

Porter Road has changed since my last visit. Much of the floodplain forest
along Little Lynches River has been logged recently, and suburban sprawl is
reaching farther and farther out from Camden. Nevertheless there are still
excellent pastures and hayfields near the chicken farms at the northern end
of this road. Here I found several singing Grasshopper Sparrows. In fact I
checked out a lot of pastures, hayfields and other open areas, looking for
South Carolina buddies of the Monroe, NC Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, which
are just a few miles over the border, but I found only Eastern Kingbirds.

At 40 Acre Rock Heritage Preserve I hiked around the big beaver pond, which
is easy to do these days, thanks to an excellent boardwalk over the beaver
dam area, built by the Friends of 40 Acre Rock. Thanks, guys. This walk is
one of the best spots along the Fall Line in SC for breeding passerines, and
I found plenty of them. I was especially amused by hearing (and even seeing
a few) calling Louisiana Waterthrushes and Kentucky Warblers. Bird song is
way down, compared to a couple of weeks ago, but parents were busy with
newly fledged young and made a lot of fuss. I also heard a Scarlet Tanager
singing. This spot is just about as far down the hill that Scarlet Tanagers
regularly breed in South Carolina.

I finished my day with a few hours of birding at the Carolina Sandhills NWR.
This is a great birding spot, and well worth a visit at any season. I found
most of the expected piney woods birds, including several Bachman's Sparrows
and a family group of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. My most unusual birds of the
day were Blue-headed Vireos. I found two singing males and a non-singing
bird (female?) in two different places on the refuge. There was a single
male at the Lake Bee Picnic Ground, and the pair was along refuge road R.T.
1, north of Impoundment "L" in the northern part of the refuge. These birds
are probably breeding. The SC Breeding Bird Atlas project did not find
breeding Blue-headed Vireos in Chesterfield County, but this species is a
rare but regular breeder in the North Carolina Sandhills, so it is to be
expected in similar habitat south of the border. The birds were in mature
long-leaf pines. A nice find, especially since I was able to listen to two
of my favorite singers (Blue-headed Vireo and Bachman's Sparrow) at the same
time -- not easily done.

Here is my day list (Kershaw, Lancaster, and Chesterfield Counties, SC):

Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Barred Owl
Chuck-will's-widow
Whip-poor-will
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Northern Parula
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Swainson's Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Kentucky Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Bachman's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC
rcarter@sc.rr.com