Birdwatching in the ACE Basin

The SCDNR and NERR Outdoor Education Program Series took birders to Bear Island to look for neotropical migratory warblers, wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl and raptors. Coordinator Kim Counts and about 20 members of the public joined Dean Harrigal, Regional SCDNR biologist for a two-hour wagon ride around the Wildlife Management Area. Guide Pete Laurie and DNR agent Al Seegars were tasked with the burden of identifying all the avian life seen for the birdwatchers. Bear Island is 12,000 acres, with about half of that acreage in the form of wetlands. Harrigal said, "Bear Island is managed for public waterfowl hunts, but far more recreational use is available for non-hunters." Bird watching is one such recreational use, and what better place to look for birds than an area that is managed for wildlife. Lowcountryoutdoors.com did a yeamon's job of listing the birds sighted, so without further adieu: barn swallow, northern harrier, mottled duck, woodstork, red-tailed hawk, cardinal, kestrel, red-bellied woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, grey catbird, red-winged blackbird, bald eagle, mockingbird, meadowlark, carolina chickadee, yellow-rumped warbler, northern flicker, black-necked stilt, dowitcher, tri-color heron, lesser yellow-legs, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, willet, dunlin, great blue heron, snowy egret, great egret, pie-billed grebe, shoveler, coot, greater yellow-legs, crow, turkey vulture, sharp-shinned hawk, cormorants, little blue heron, towhee, kingfisher, bluejay, carolina wren, common yellowthroat and little green heron. The birders were inundated with hatching midges while touring some of Bear Island's 45 miles of dikes around impoundments like Upper and Lower Hog Island ponds.

To read about the 25th Anniversary of the ACE Basin click here.

My photos show the Bear Island sign, a wood stork fishing for a meal, birders enjoying the view from their wagon and a pond filled with dowitchers and circled by a flock of green-winged teal.