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Re: HBSP on 8-10



>It
> was high tide and the jetty pond was so flooded that in one spot only
> about 10 feet of dune seperated it from the ocean. I've never seen the
> jetty pond that full even after the passage of hurricane Floyd a few
> years ago.

As Jack mentioned above, the tides were very high the past week at
Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina (HBSP).  On both 8/7 and 8/8 the
high tides were running around the 7-8-9 o'clock hours. The New Moon caused
very high tides in the salt marsh area. The boardwalk, or pier, at the
Education Center was under water, as was the road leading to it, during the
evening of 8/7 (Wednesday).

With high tides such as those occurring, rails are sometimes forced out into
the open.  That was the case on Thursday evening.  While standing on the
causeway watching Green Herons gradually pop up out of the marsh, as the
water slowly rose, forcing them to fly off to their nightly roosts a bit
early, I noticed a fairly large bird swimming erractically back and forth,
about a hundred yards out in the flooded marsh.  It was a Clapper Rail.

The rail seemed to be unsure of where it wanted to go, swimming first this
way and then the other, sort of like a phalarope's frenetic swimming in
search for food, a very large and bulky phalarope.  The rail disappeared
into a patch of dense vegetation that was still above water.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one watching this behavior.  A Bald Eagle came
in from the west, gliding low over the water, heading straight for the spot
where the rail disappeared.  I couldn't see the rail at this point, but it
must have ducked underwater because the eagle abruptly veered off just
before reaching its apparent goal and headed off over the tree line towards
Highway #17, and presumably, Brookgreen Gardens or the Waccamaw.

I saw 2 more rails that evening, one about the same distance out in the
marsh (two rails standing together, on floating reeds at about the same
location as the first rail was last seen­I'm assuming one of the two was the
swimmer), and, at the same time, another rail much closer to the causeway,
about forty yards out, sharing the last remaining sure footing with 2
tri-colored Herons and a Great Blue Heron.  Three rails in view at the same
time.

The causeway is a good place to spend the first 3-4 hours of the morning or
the last 2-3 hours of the evening.  The light at these times is excellent.
The sun rising in the east creates excellent lighting while you stand on the
east end of the road and face west.  The same is true in the evening while
viewing from the west, facing east.  At this time of year with shorebirds
and other birds moving through the area you can see a number and variety of
species.  Southbound migrating shorebirds, terns, gulls, herons, ducks
(later in the season), and, to a lesser extent, passerines can be seen
flying down the salt marsh between the mainland and the barrier island
section of the park.

If you time it right, with the tides low and rising at these morning and
evening hours, you're likely to see shorebirds on the exposed mud flats on
the north side of the road.  Even with high tides, shorebirds are still
flying south and often can be seen or heard overhead, sometimes circling
back looking for a place to land. While there on the 7th and 8th I saw
fly-bys of several species, although I heard more than I actually saw.  Most
of what I saw and heard were Semipalmated Plovers, but I did see a few
Whimbrel fly over.

On dry land, the resident kingbirds were near the main beach parking lot
(over by Atalaya) feeding their three hungry young.  The young kingbirds
looked old enough to hunt for themselves, but as I watched, the adults
brought in a cicada, a large beetle, a dragonfly, and several smaller
unidentifiable insects for them to eat.


-----
Greg Dodge
Brownbag Productions
Hillsborough, NC
brownbagproductions.com


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