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good birds in Georgetown and Horry Counties, SC



Hi C-Birders,

On Saturday, 3 May 2003 Dennis Forsythe and I ran our annual spring South
Carolina Big Day. This year we went from from the mountains of Greenville
County to Huntington State Park, Georgetown County. We had a enjoyable day
and found a few good birds, but missed too much to break the record.

We ended our day in Georgetown County, looking for the Gray Kingbird on
Pawley's Island and the Fulvous Whistling-Ducks and Roseate Spoonbill at
Huntington Beach State Park. We found the kingbird and the whistling ducks
in the places from which they have been reported, but we dipped on the
spoonbill. The Fulvous Whistling-Ducks were easy to see, as they were flying
about from the salt marsh to Mullet Pond when we were looking for them at
about 7:00 PM on Saturday. We were amazed to hear a singing Swainson's
Warbler in the beach scrub near to the causeway parking lot.

Today (Sunday, 4 May) Dennis and I revisited the Georgetown County spots,
starting from the city of Georgetown. We had a nice group of migrants along
the road to the fishing pier on Winyah Bay. (This road runs behind the Days
Inn and Jameson Inn, just before you ctoss the bay on US 17, leaving
Georgetown norhtbound). We had lots of Yellow Warblers, a few Bobolinks, and
a big flock of Cedar Waxwings. This is a good spot to check during migration
if you are in the city of Georgetown.

The Gray Kingbird was still at the same spot on Pawley's Island, very near
where the South Causeway comes onto the island.

We did not see anything unusual at Huntington Beach State Park, so we drove
up to Myrtle Beach State Park. We heard (but could not see) a singing
Cerulean Warbler near the pond. Other migrants at MBSP included a Northern
Waterthrush and two or three Black-throated Blue Warblers.

At all coastal spots we had large numbers of Northern Gannets moving north,
but not much else.

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