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Hudsonian Godwits at Bear Island WMA, SC



Hi C-birders,

Today, encouraged by Steve Compton's report, Caroline Eastman and I spend a
few hours birding Bear Island WMA and nearby Donnelley WMA in southern
Colleton County, SC.  We meet Bob and Barbara Maxwll there, just in time to
be shown a flock of seven Hudsonian Godwits.  We studied the godwits for
more than an hour, at distances of from 100 meters to 250 meters, in
exellent light.  We got good looks, both sitting and in flight, and saw the
underwing surfaces.  We carefully eliminated Bar-tailed and Black-tailed
Godwit (too bad), and well as Marbled Godwit (which is the only species at
all common in South Carolina).

The godwits were in Marys House Pond, which is the big pond on the south
side of Johnnie Hiers Road (a.k.a. Titi Road), the main gravel road into the
eastern part of the WMA, just past the residential area.  As Steve Compton
reported this pond has been drawn down, and there were at least 3000
shorebirds there today, as well as hundreds of egrets.  We also had a nice
count of terns.  We checked out lots of Black Terns, but could not make any
of them into White-winged Terns.

NOTE: Both Bear Island and Donnelley are CLOSED ON SUNDAY.

Here is our day list (Bear Island and Donnelley, combined):

Pied-billed Grebe                      10
Double-crested Cormorant          1
Anhinga                                   35
Great Blue Heron                      13
Great Egret                            310
Snowy Egret                          154
Tricolored Heron                       43
Green Heron                              3
Glossy Ibis                                4
Wood Stork                              37
Black Vulture                             5
Turkey Vulture                          20
Wood Duck                               6
Mottled Duck                            4
Osprey                                     1
Bald Eagle                                1
Red-shouldered Hawk                2
Red-tailed Hawk                        1
American Kestrel                       1
Common Moorhen                    45
Black-bellied Plover                  10
Wilson's Plover                          1
Semipalmated Plover                20
Killdeer                                     6
Greater Yellowlegs                  200
Lesser Yellowlegs                   300
Solitary Sandpiper                      1
Hudsonian Godwit                      7
Semipalmated Sandpiper      2500
Western Sandpiper                   4
Least Sandpiper                      10
Pectoral Sandpiper                   6
Stilt Sandpiper                         1
Short-billed Dowitcher              10
Laughing Gull                          30
Gull-billed Tern                          1
Caspian Tern                            4
Royal Tern                              31
Sandwich Tern                          5
Forster's Tern                          15
Least Tern                              50
Black Tern                            120
Black Skimmer                         1
Eurasian Collared-Dove             3
Mourning Dove                        35
Belted Kingfisher                      8
Red-headed Woodpecker          3
Red-bellied Woodpecker           2
Downy Woodpecker                 2
Northern Flicker                       1
Pileated Woodpecker               2
Eastern Wood-Pewee              4
Great Crested Flycatcher         1
Eastern Kingbird                     2
Loggerhead Shrike                  1
White-eyed Vireo                   12
Yellow-throated Vireo               2
Blue Jay                                20
American Crow                      12
Fish Crow                              20
Tree Swallow                        250
Barn Swallow                           2
Carolina Chickadee                  3
Tufted Titmouse                       3
White-breasted Nuthatch          4
Brown-headed Nuthatch           2
Carolina Wren                         8
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher             3
Eastern Bluebird                    18
Northern Mockingbird               5
Brown Thrasher                       1
Northern Parula                       3
Pine Warbler                         10
Common Yellowthroat             1
Eastern Towhee                      3
Chipping Sparrow                    5
Northern Cardinal                   15
Blue Grosbeak                        2
Indigo Bunting                         4
Bobolink                                50
Red-winged Blackbird          1300
Boat-tailed Grackle               150
Brown-headed Cowbird           40

We spent most of our time studying the shorebirds in Marys House Pond.
There were surely several other species present at Bear Island and
Donnelley, but we did not try to run up a big list.

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