The Lowcountry, South Carolina

A few weeks ago, I took a class trip to South Carolina. It stays in my mind fresh, as if I just returned yesterday. The one thing that has faded with time is the tenacity of the mosquitoes in the swamps and the pints of blood lost which I have since regenerated. I remember being apprehensive before we left, staying up all night organizing my camp gear and making enough hummus to feed an army of biologists. We packed in the vans before dawn and set out on what was to become quite the adventurous weekend.

I remember little from the drive down, blinking my eyes into Virginia, then again and I was in Charleston South Carolina! It felt like going back in time, autumn to summer in 600 miles. We arrived in Francis Marion National Forest at dusk, set up camp, ate a delicious meal of burritos in a cup, and vegetated by the campfire after a little night exploring looking for the elusive Eastern Screech Owl and a Barred Owl.

A side note of interest: You can camp in any National Forest for free, for as long as 3 weeks or until the rangers find you.

The next morning I learned a lesson; no one will wake you up in the field! I got a late start, stumbling out of my tent I had time to douse my head under the pump as a substitute for breakfast. Geared up, we walked around the Honey Hill campground as the sun peeked over the longleaf pine. Hairy woodpecker and downy woodpecker fluttered in the forest canopy of pine and live oak. I heard American Blue Jays in the distance and spotted a Northern Mockingbird warming in the top of a live oak. After around forty minutes, Miles pointed to the vans, and we hopped in to our next destination.

We had a mission: find the elusive Red Cockaded Woodpecker, an endangered colonial bird living in the longleaf pine forests of the American Southeast. We turned down forest rd. 211 and drove for awhile, looking for the double white lines that the Forest Service uses to mark the characteristic nests of the Red Cockaded Woodpecker. These birds will spend a few years drilling into a particular longleaf pine(they are very particular) until the hollow cavity is large enough for a nest. The family will live in this tree for the duration of their lives', producing a few nestlings each year. I have never seen Miles so excited as the moment he spotted a family of 5 red cockaded flitting through the canopy. It was beautiful to see a successful colony. We also saw two northern flicker overhead, some Golden crowned kinglets, Pine Warblers, and some Carolina Chickadee.

We went to refuel, and at the quaint little gas station and general store a Northern Mockingbird had quite the song repertoire. I caught at least five different songs. We also watched ten Turkey Vulture sunning themselves in the trees.

 Our next destination was the swamp, a lovely mosquito infested haven called the South Tibwin Wetlands Complex. This was the perfect place to bird watch having both freshwater and saltwater marshes. We saw 14 species in all, many of them birds I had never seen before. As we walked in, a juvenile Bald Eagle soared over the marsh. Some yellow throated warbler were in the phragmites grass. We continued down the path to an observation shack, which became quite crowded with the entire class inside. I sneaked out and walked down the strip into the marsh, getting great looks at three Great Egrets fishing in the shallow water. An Anhinga flew overhead and on the far side of the lake two Great Blue Herons perched in a tree warily watching us. There was so much bird action going on it was overwhelming!

Juvenile Bald Eagle

 Three Pied Billed Grebes,(which look like ducks to me) kept diving underwater. I spotted two Belted Kingfisher perched on a snag. In the skies above, we saw another Bald Eagle, Wood Storks, Turkey Vulture, Double Crested Commorants, and Brown Pelicans. Did I mention a Bobcat was patrolling the far shore? I even found a print to reassure myself! I decided a jog was necessary to keep in front of the mosquito flock and almost ran over another Great Blue Heron on the trail. I'm still not sure who was more surprised.

Canis rufus

Our next stop was the Sewee Nature Center. We missed Smoky the bear by a week. I was very sad about that. The nature center was still very cool; they had an old hot tub with an alligator and some other reptiles. We met a man who loves wolves and he showed us the extremely endangered Red Wolf, the nature center has four. We got to watch them awhile. We were just in time for wolf dinner, consisting of horse meat in a tube. I felt sad watching the wolves, so wild and caged up for an exhibit. There are only 150 Red wolves around today, all of them in breeding facilities. Their range used to extend all across Eastern North America, until white people perceived them as a threat to capitalism and the American way of life. They are slightly smaller and more shy than their cousin, the Grey Wolf.

To finish this wonderful day, we grouped up and went out to do point counts. This is where you sit in a circle and record any birds you see in a certain location over a certain time. This is the approach used by most scientists to conduct bird diversity surveys. Unfortunately, due to the time of day all we saw were two Turkey Vultures overhead. We went back to the nature center and right before our group photo, another Bald Eagle flew overhead. What an All-American day.