Huntington Beach State Park

["Ritch Lilly" <scbeachbums@hotmail.com>]

Found some time late this evening to do a little birding at Huntington Beach
State Park.  With the cooler weather, I was hoping to find a "winter"
shorebird or two.  I really only had time to bird from the north parking
area to the jetty.  I did however, stop for just a minute to glance at
Sandpiper Pond as well as the feeders at the new Nature Center.  It appears
as though 63 species were noted in just over two hours.  I honestly believe
someone could find 100 species there before lunchtime if anyone was so
inclined.  The list is as follows:

Red-winged Blackbird
Painted Bunting (still a female or two around the feeders by the Nature
Center)
Northern Cardinal
Gray Catbird
American Coot (first I've seen on Sandpiper Pond this fall)
Double-crested Cormorant
Mourning Dove
Short-billed Dowitcher
Ring-necked Duck (first of the fall for me as well. also on Sandpiper Pond)
Dunlin (300+ at the jetty)
Bald Eagle (1 immature)
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Peregrine Falcon (1 adult)
Northern Flicker
Northern Gannet (many juveniles just offshore)
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Grackle
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Black-backed Gull (1, by the jetty)
Herring Gull
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Northern Harrier
Great Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
White Ibis
Belted Kingfisher
Red Knot (first two of the fall for me. on the edge of the surf between the
north parking area and the jetty)
Merlin (1 flyby near the jetty)
Northern Mockingbird
Common Moorhen
Black-crowned Night-Heron (many flying over the causeway with daylight
fading quickly)
Osprey
Great Horned Owl (1 calling by Nature Center well before dark)
American Oystercatcher (22 at west end of jetty)
Brown Pelican
Black-bellied Plover
Piping Plover (2 at west end of jetty)
Semipalmated Plover
Clapper Rail
Sanderling
Purple Sandpiper (first of the fall for me. on rocks by the jetty)
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper (20+ at west end of jetty)
Black Scoter (25-30 flying NORTH just off east end of jetty)
Black Skimmer (400+ at west end of jetty)
Chipping Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow (8-10 in and around the rocks between west
end of jetty and the beach)
Savannah Sparrow
Tree Swallow
Green-winged Teal (1 flyby at the jetty)
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Eastern Towhee
Ruddy Turnstone
Willet
Carolina Wren
Sedge Wren (1 foraging around in the area of the Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed
Sparrows)
Greater Yellowlegs

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