SOUTH CAROLINA April 9-19th
Hilton Head
I joined my girlfriend and here family for a week of sun at Hilton Head South Carolina. We left early on Friday morning and began our long drive. We drove first through New York state and then Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and ended the day in North Carolina. We had a well deserved over night stop and then headed into South Carolina the next morning. Unlike Canada spring had already sprung in South Carolina and all the trees had leaves and flowers and butterflies were out every where. Hilton Head was a fantastic place with wonderful golden beaches and aqua blue sea, palm trees and the forests were decorated with spectacular Spanish moss. Over the week I got out and did plenty of birding covering: woods, the beach, scrub land and marshes. I would like to thank my girlfriend and here family for putting up with my non stop birding. I had a great time and found plenty of birds, so much that I cant write a daily account as it would take a week to do, I also took allot of photographs and again can only show a very small selection. So below are a few different photographs and my trip list.
Me and one of the locals!!
Anhinga South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Great-Blue Heron and White Ibis April 2004 © J.Lees
Green Heron South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Brown Pelican South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Royal Tern South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Sandwich and Royal Terns and Laughing Gull South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Marbled Godwit South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Willet South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Yellow-Throated Warbler South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Prairie Warbler South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
White-Eyed Vireo South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Orchard Oriole South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Hilton Head preserve South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Yellow Rat Snake South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Willets at sun rise South Carolina April 2004 © J.Lees
Bird List
1 Pied-Billed Grebe- a few
2 Brown Pelican -very common
3 Northern Gannet-common
4 Double-Crested Cormorant- very common and thousands heading north.
5 Cattle Egret- a few
6 Great Egret- common
7 Snowy Egret- common
8 Great Blue Heron- common
9 Green Heron- seen every day in small numbers
10 Little Blue Heron- around 20.
11 Tricolored Heron- around 40.
12 Black-Crowned Night Heron- around 4
13 Yellow-Crowned Night Heron around 15.
14 White Ibis -Around 50.
15 Wood Stork- only 1.
16 Blue-Winged Teal- 3
17 Long-Tailed Duck 1.
18 Clapper Rail-1.
19 American Oystercatcher 1.
20 Semipalmated Plover- 8.
21 Killdeer- 1.
22 Black-Belied Plover- a few.
23 Marbled Godwit- 1
24 Willet- common
25 Solitary Sandpiper- a few.
26 Short-billed Dowitcher-3.
27 Ruddy Turnstone-2.
28 Red Knot -1.
29 Sanderling- common
30 Dunlin- common
31 Laughing Gull- common
32 Ring-Billed Gull- very common
33 Bonaparte's Gull- common
34 Herring Gull- common
35 Common Tern -1
36 Forster's Tern- very common
37 Least Tern-2.
38 Sandwich Tern- a few.
39 Royal Tern- common.
40 Black Skimmer- a few.
41 Turkey Vulture- common
42 Black Vulture- common
43 Swallow-Tailed Kite- 2.
44 Cooper's Hawk-2.
45 Red-Tailed Hawk- 3.
46 Osprey- very common.
47 Merlin- 1.
48 Rock Dove- common.
49 Mourning Dove- common.
50 Collared Dove- a few.
51 Great-Horned Owl- 1 Adult and 2 young.
52 Chimney Swift- a few.
53 Ruby-Throated Hummingbird- a few.
54 Belted Kingfisher- a few.
55 Red-Bellied Woodpecker- very common.
56 Northern Flicker- 2.
57 Red-Headed Woodpecker- 1.
58 Downy Woodpecker- 3.
59 Pileated Woodpecker- 1.
60 Eastern Kingbird- a few.
61 Tree Swallow- 19600 flying south!! seen on a very cold day after several weeks of heat doing a reverse migration, and it last over an hour.
62 Purple Martin- common.
63 Rough Winged Swallow- common.
64 Barn Swallow- common.
65 Blue Jay- common.
66 American Crow- common.
67 Fish Crow- common.
68 Tufted Titmouse- very common.
69 Carolina Chickadee- very common.
70 Brown-Headed Nuthatch- a few.
71 House Wren- a few.
72 Ruby-Crowned Kinglet- common
73 Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher- common
74 Eastern Bluebird- very common.
75 Hermit Thrush-1.
76 American Robin-2 !!.
77 Gray Catbird- common
78 Northern Mockingbird- very common.
79 Brown Thrasher - common.
80 Cedar Waxwing- very common.
81 Starling- very common.
82 White-Eyed Vireo- a few.
83 Blue-Headed Vireo- a few.
84 Red-Eyed Vireo-1.
85 Northern Parula- 8
86 Black and White Warbler- common.
87 Yellow-Rumped Warbler- thousands.
88 Prairie Warbler- 6.
89 Pine Warbler- common.
90 Palm Warbler- common.
91 Worm-Eating Warbler-1.
92 Northern Waterthrush-1.
93 Yellow-Throated Warbler-10.
94 Northern Cardinal- very common.
95 Eastern Towhee- common.
96 Savannah Sparrow- 1.
97 Song Sparrow- common
98 Chipping Sparrow- a few.
99 White-Throated Sparrow- common
100 Red-Winged Blackbird- a few
101 Brown-Headed Cowbird- very common.
102 Common Grackle- common.
103 Boat-Tailed Grackle- very common.
104 Orchard Oriole- 3.
105 Scarlet Tanager- 3.
106 House Sparrow- common.
107 American Goldfinch- a few.
108 Housefinch-common.
we also saw lots of Lizards and several different Snakes, and we had excellent views of Dolphins every day at close range.