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Hudsonian Godwits at Bear Island WMA, SC
- To: "Carolina Birds" <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: Hudsonian Godwits at Bear Island WMA, SC
- From: "Robin Carter" <rcarter@sc.rr.com>
- Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2000 21:59:43 -0400
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
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