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10 Warbler Species?



I promised myself I'd spend just a couple of hours this morning trying to
see if I could find anything new for the ol' year list (yeah, I'm one of
those).  My birding began along Punchpole Road off of Highway 701 just south
of Conway in Horry County, SC.  I soon found most of the road to be
impassable due to high water.  Even so, that area provided good looks at
Northern Parulas, Black-and-white Warblers, Pine Warblers, Common
Yellowthroats & Yellow-throated Warblers (all singing).  From there, I
proceeded on to Port Harrelson Road.  I was hoping for my first
Swallow-tailed Kite of spring, but it wasn't to be.  I did, however, find
Yellow-rumped Warblers and a singing Ovenbird there.  A stop just beyond the
Bucksport Sod Farm yielded a beautiful Prothonotary Warbler (aren't they
all?) along the banks of the Waccamaw River.  I then stopped briefly along
New Road in Conway before heading home.

I soon realized I had eight warblers for the morning and thought ten would
be a really nice goal for the day.  Having heard and seen three Prairie
Warblers a day or two ago just south of our Myrtle Beach home, I headed back
out.  In just a minute or two, a single Prairie was heard although I could
never find this bird.  That was around 11:00 am and the count stood at nine.
I birded until almost 7:00 this evening and was unable to pick up another
warbler species (although I did finally see a Prairie at Myrtle Beach State
Park).  Even so, I was real excited to have nine warbler species for the day
instead of the gazillion Yellow-rumps that I'd grown accustomed to over the
past few months.

Other birds of interest were a single Cattle Egret hanging around the
Bucksport Sod Farm.  (I'd only seen one of these guys so far this year. and
that was in January!)  A lone Sandwich Tern was also found by the jetty pool
at Huntington Beach State Park.  I'd had three of these at Ft. Fisher last
weekend, but this was the first I'd seen in SC this year.

In all, 92 species were seen and/or heard.  The rest of the bunch is listed
below.

Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Bluebird
Bufflehead
Northern Cardinal
Carolina Chickadee
American Coot
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Crow
Fish Crow
Mourning Dove
Rock Dove
Short-billed Dowitcher
Dunlin
Cattle Egret (1)
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
House Finch
Northern Gannet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (30+)
Canada Goose
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Grackle
Horned Grebe (only 7 along the same section where 150+ were seen four days
ago)
Pied-billed Grebe
Bonaparte's Gull
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk
Great Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Blue Jay
American Kestrel
Killdeer
Common Loon (1)
Mallard
Purple Martin
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-breasted Merganser
Northern Mockingbird
Common Moorhen
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Osprey
American Oystercatcher
Brown Pelican
Black-bellied Plover
Piping Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Wilson's Plover (9)
American Robin
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Loggerhead Shrike
Chipping Sparrow
House Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
European Starling
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Mute Swan (14 total. 3 on nests)
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern (2)
Sandwich Tern (1)
Brown Thrasher
Hermit Thrush
Tufted Titmouse
Eastern Towhee
Wild Turkey (17, w/ several toms displaying at the sod farm)
Ruddy Turnstone
Blue-headed Vireo (1)
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Cedar Waxwing
Whip-poor-will (now calling from behind the house)
Willet
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Greater Yellowlegs

Good Birding!
Ritch Lilly
Myrtle Beach, SC
scbeachbums@hotmail.com