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Reddish Egrets & Marbled Godwit



Hey Carolina Birders,

While kayaking in Murrell's Inlet earlier today, I stumbled upon two, and
possibly three, Reddish Egrets.  The first was clearly a juvenile bird due
to the pale coloration.  The birds foraging antics were definitely those of
a Reddish though.  Some twenty minutes later, we came upon an adult.  The
gray body was in marked contrast to the rust colored head and neck.  This
bird also had the bi-colored bill that the first bird was lacking.  (Alright
you sticklers... the first bird DID have a bill... it just wasn't
bi-colored.)  Eventually, this second bird flew off toward the Garden City
side of the Inlet.  As we approached the public shellfish area where we had
parked prior to unloading the kayaks, we saw what I believe was a third
bird.  This too was a mature bird.  We may have simply located the second
bird again or this could have possibly been a different bird altogether.
Because of the direction the earlier bird had flown, I tend to think this
was quite possibly another bird.

I will tell you that the tide was extremely low in the Inlet.  This seems to
keeps the birds spread out over a very large area.  I wonder if there is a
possibility that one or more of these birds will gather around the jetty
pool at Huntington Beach at high tide when most of the regular foraging
locations in the Inlet are covered by the tide.  I had seen a single Reddish
there last fall on several occasions during high tide.  I didn't have a
chance to check that out today, but would be interested in knowing if that
were the case should any Carolina birders decide to venture up that way.

The only other bird that was located today that might be a bit out of the
ordinary was a single Marbled Godwit.  If you were to bring a boat into the
Inlet from the ocean, this bird was feeding along a small mudflat on the
left hand side of the first primary channel on the left.

Ritch Lilly
Myrtle Beach, SC
scbeachbums@hotmail.com