CHERRY GROVE, SC JULY 23-29, 2006

JULY 23-29, 2006
CHERRY GROVE, HUNTINGTON BEACH, SC
SUNSET BEACH, NC
My plane was so late on Saturday that I didn’t arrive at our apartment on the beach front until 9:30 PM and that was without my suitcase which I did not receive until 9:00 PM the next day! Sunday I borrowed a swimming suit from Ree and could only bird from the beach where there are mostly Laughing Gulls, Common Grackles, Brown Pelicans, and the occasional Royal Tern and Sanderling.
On Monday I rode my boogie board out to Cherry Grove Island (Little River Neck) as the tide was going out. The bird numbers were way down and I saw no Least Terns at all and no Painting Buntings in the trees. In fact, the only birds I saw were one Great Black-backed Gull, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Forster’s Tern, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Ring-billed Gull. After walking all the way to the private road I turned back and rode/walked back to Cherry Grove beach.
Tuesday I drove to Sunset Beach. Just over the causeway I saw White Ibises in the marsh. I toured the northern end of the beach where the marsh meets the ocean. There I saw many Wilson’s Plovers, Semi-palmated Plovers, Sanderlings, Short-billed Dowitchers, Black Skimmers, and American Oystercatchers and saw my first ever Gull-billed Tern. I checked out the marsh at the far southern end but there was only one Green Heron. About 20 Wood Storks were in a tree at North Shore Drive and one Fish Crow. I stopped at Twin Lakes and Sunset Lakes but there was only one Anhinga and some more Wood Storks.
Wednesday I tried the Cherry Grove Park and found two Painted Buntings, one Yellow Warbler, heard one Clapper Rail, and saw another Green Heron and some White Ibises.
In the afternoon while lying on the beach a raptor started hawking over the beach. It looked like a possible juvenile Bald Eagle.
Thursday I drove back down Highway 179 with Karen for Sunset Beach and we stopped at Vereen Gardens. It has boardwalks over a marsh and out to the Intracoastal Waterway. We saw Green Herons and one Yellow-crowned Night-heron plus Tufted Titmouse and one Carolina Wren. At Sunset at the north end we found one Piping Plover, two Least Terns and several Short-billed Dowitchers.
Friday it was very windy.
On the last day, Saturday, I stopped by Huntington Beach State Park on my way to the airport. I walked all the way out to the rock jetty looking for birds at the marsh at the end of the jetty but there were only a couple of Least Terns and some Semi-palmated Plovers. On the beach walking out there was a flock of Red Knots, one Ruddy Turnstone, and one Least Sandpiper.
I walked the entire Sandpiper Pond Nature Trail and saw one Brown Thrasher, a couple of Cardinals, a Blue Jay, three or four Black-necked Stilts, one Tri-colored Heron, one Common Moorhen, and heard a rail. I stopped at the education center which has been under construction for four years. They have only partially finished the boardwalk and I walked it up to the barrier where I was so lucky to see two Rails walk out into the mud flat. I got some video and waited patiently for them to come out into the open again when some rude Christians loudly walked up and scared them away. I think they were Clapper Rails as they were in the salt water marsh and one of them had a very gray face. I didn’t allot enough time for the causeway and only had time to walk it quickly but saw four Alligators, one Mule Deer, two possible White-rumped Sandpipers, another Tri-colored Heron, more Wood Storks, White Ibises, and Green Herons, and one Great Blue Heron. Then it was time to head for the airport.
63 species
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Green Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Mallard
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Clapper Rail
Common Moorhen
Black-bellied Plover
Wilson’s Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt
Willet
Whimbrel
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Forster’s Tern
Least Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Painted Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
House Finch