Lowcountry outdoors: 2023 Webb Wildlife Center

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Black and White Warbler on Sept. 22

After a morning walk looking for wildflowers at the Webb Wildlife Center, about half of our group of Master Naturalists from Spring Island headed for home. But those who packed a brown bag lunch were game to go birding in the Savannah River Swamp at the end of Webb Road behind Bluff Lake, an oxbow off the Savannah River. Mature cypress and tupelo make this bottomland a magnet for both wading birds and migratory warblers. Our first sighting was an egret in a pool of water standing like a statue and not visibly disturbed bu our presence, then we could make out three Ibis heading away from us looking through the swamp. The ground was stern with forest debris that signaled the Savannah River had recently been in flood stage after T.S. Idalia, but they ground was solid enough for our hikers.

S-neck Egret

At first the migrants were hidden to us, and then they started appearing by telltale sounds or by birds flitting high in the tree canopy. Just then a Black and White warbler came into to clear view for me, making an ID easy even though this is a bird that has not been viewed in the Lowcountry all summer. Most everyone got to see this bird as he caromed from tree to tree and foraged 'upside down' like a nuthatch does. A least flycatcher was spotted next, along with several woodland regulars like Carolina wine and Tufted titmouse. A Northern waterthrush was seen moving along the water's edge in a flooded bottom, with its tail-pumping action in full view to help with ID. Did you know the Northern waterthrush is a warbler?! Now you KNOW!!