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Savannah NWR on 4 Nov 2000



Caroline Eastman and I spent this afternoon (4 Nov 2000) at Savannah NWR, SC
and GA. We arrived at about 1:00 PM and quickly made our way around to about
mile 1.5 of the Auto Tour Route, looking for the White-faced Ibis. There are
a large number of herons and ibis in the marsh, including perhaps as many as
100 dark ibis, many of which were very hard to see out in the marsh. We set
up our scopes near mile 1.5 and began checking out every dark ibis we could
see. This went on for about a half hour, and every dark ibis was a Glossy
Ibis. Then a Northern Harrier buzzed the area and all of the ibis took
flight. When they settled down again, in a couple of minutes, it was as if
the deck had been reshuffled. There were still about 30 dark ibis within
easy scope distance, but they were not necessarily the same birds we had
been checking out earlier.  After about 10 minutes Caroline said, "I've got
it", and sure enough the White-faced Ibis was quite easily seen through our
big Kowa. I took a turn for about 15 seconds, and noted the obvious red iris
and even some red facial skin. I backed away from the scope to let Caroline
have another view, and picked out the bird through binoculars, about 60
meters away in a group of feeding Glossy and White Ibis. But, after less
than a minute the White-faced Ibis flew off into the marsh and we could not
relocate it.  Bottom line -- we got lucky.

We later continued around the Auto Tour Road, and then crossed the state
line into the Georgia part of the refuge to hike around Onslow Island for a
couple of hours. The spoil areas there were dry as a bone, but we did find a
couple of House Finches (new for the refuge?), and a large number of House
Wrens. We ended our visit by going around the tour road once again quickly,
and by visiting very briefly the Kingfisher Pond area of the refuge.

Here is our day list (Savannah NWR only, SC only unless noted):

Pied-billed Grebe -- 8
Double-crested Cormorant -- 15 (SC and GA)
Anhinga -- 30
Great Egret -- 120 (SC and GA)
Snowy Egret -- 50 (SC and GA)
Little Blue Heron -- 6
Tricolored Heron -- 2
Cattle Egret -- 5
White Ibis -- 250
Glossy Ibis -- 100
White-faced Ibis -- 1
Wood Stork -- 1
Black Vulture -- 4 (Georgia only)
Turkey Vulture -- 100 (SC and GA)
Wood Duck -- 30
Northern Shoveler -- 1
Green-winged Teal -- 40
Osprey -- 1 (Georgia only)
Northern Harrier -- 3 (SC and GA)
Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 2 (GA only)
Red-tailed Hawk -- 4 (SC and GA)
American Kestrel -- 3 (SC and GA)
Clapper Rail -- 5 (SC and GA)
Sora -- 6
Common Moorhen -- 12
American Coot -- 10
Killdeer -- 25 (SC and GA)
Laughing Gull -- 100 (SC and GA)
Mourning Dove -- 30 (SC and GA)
Belted Kingfisher -- 3 (SC and GA)
Red-bellied Woodpecker -- 4
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker -- 1
Eastern Phoebe -- 12 (SC and GA)
Loggerhead Shrike -- 1 (GA only)
Blue Jay -- 10
Tree Swallow -- 500 (SC and GA)
Tufted Titmouse -- 2
Carolina Wren -- 5 (SC and GA)
House Wren -- 15 (SC and GA)
Marsh Wren -- 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher -- 1
Hermit Thrush -- 1
American Robin -- 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler -- 75 (SC and GA)
Palm Warbler -- 2
Common Yellowthroat -- 5
Savannah Sparrow -- 25 (SC and GA)
Song Sparrow -- 12 (SC and GA)
Northern Cardinal -- 20 (SC and GA)
Red-winged Blackbird -- 2000 (SC and GA)
Boat-tailed Grackle -- 25 (SC and GA)
Brown-headed Cowbird -- 350
House Finch -- 2 (GA only)

Good luck with the White-faced Ibis. Just because you don't find it does not
necessarily mean that it is no longer around.

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