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Patriot's Point, et al 10-04-03



hi y'all,

i hitched a ride with Ritch Lilly today and went to Mt. Pleasant, SC (always
lovely this time of the year) to wander about Patriot's Point and a cpl
other spots to look for....uhhhh...oh yeah, birds and stuff. i'm happy to
report we saw some of each. 'best bird' (actually, i thought they were all
pretty sporty) was CLAY-COLORED SPARROW (that's the first time i've ever
capitalized all the letters in a bird's name, and i have no idea why i just
did it. oh my, guess it's too late now.) Ritch got on the first one as it
perched serenely in a Salix nigra (Black Willow) alongside whunadoze new
roadways. We found the second (and maybe a third) near some
condominium-looking place that David Chamberlain (did i mention we met up
with David and some friends? well, we did) abandoned us at, sorta. anyways,
they took us there and then shortly afterwards disappeared; maybe they were
abducted by aliens...maybe we were abducted by aliens...maybe we slipped
thru a fracture in the time-space continuum, i dunno. Ritch and i also did
the Pitt St. bridge and Garris Landing at Cape Romain, 74 spp. overall.
Highlights:

Patriot's Point:
Ruby-throated hummers - a bunch nectaring on the most Red Morning Glory
(Ipomea coccinea) blooms this side of all them south Louisiana hummingbird
gardens. i went ahead and got me some seed, y'all.
Painted Bunting - several, including 2 most beautimous ad. males
Indigo
Blue Grosbeak
Empidonax sp. - yep, no question about it.  ;-)
Gray Catbird - daunting numbers, kinda scary...but we moved slowly and no
one got hurt.
Parula - a few
Yellow
Palm - several
Black-and-white
Redstart - several
Common Yellowthroat - numerous
Harrier
Cooper's
Sharpie
Broad-winged
Red-shouldered
Red-tailed - 1 in a parking lot, 1 by a roadside that went a-huntin' whilst
we watched, 1 in a cool group with all of the above raptors.

at Pitt St.
Marbled Godwit - 8 (too easy, y'all. they were just standing there.)
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Brown Pelican
Rock Pigeon
peeps (hmmm...i lower-cased this one...sub-consciously trying to be
ecumenical, maybe? i dunno.)

at Garris Landing (was Moore's Landing):
Whimbrel - 9 (cool)
Am. Oystercatcher - 300+ (way cool)
Forster's Tern - 3 (pretty cool)

above Hwy 17 north of Tibwin:
Bald Eagle - adult (what can you say? if you're not impressed by the sight
of this magnificent creature soaring effortlessly overhead, somebody may
need to call an undertaker; you might be dead.)

while standing in Ritch's driveway just before sunset:
Wood Duck - 10 steering a course for their evening's roost against the
backdrop of an orange and purple sky. beautiful.

lotsa Hackberry Emperor butterflies at Patriot's Point. no surprise, since
there's more hackberry there than in all of Horry and Georgetown counties
combined. also Whirlabout, Long-tailed Skipper (beaucoup,) Sliver-spotted,
Clouded, Cloudless Sulphur, Sleepy Orange, Orange Sulphur, Little Yellow,
Palamedes, Giant Swallowtail (cool,) Red-spotted Purple, and one Monarch.

Odes: Green Darner, Blue Dasher (multitudinous,) Carolina and Black
Saddlebags, probably a bunch of others.

BTW, i'm just having fun, y'all. ain't it good to be alive?

cheers,
gary

p.s. - i warned you, Ritch.  ;-)

gary phillips
conway, sc
sunset zone 31

"...where is the person, I ask, who, on observing this glittering fragment
of the rainbow, would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with
reverence..." (J.J. Audubon)