2023 Botany Bay WMA - Fall Birding on Boneyard Beach

Boneyard Beach Bums on Oct. 26

The plan to visit Botany Bay WMA on October 26 began by consulting the Tide Charts a month in advance, in order to be able to access the boneyard beach in the morning during Low Tide. The fact that the air temps were still in the 80's with very little wind, made it feel extra special for late October. Master Naturalist Jill Moore brought some of her friends from the Bluffton area to experience Botany and they trusted me to guide them to the best birding spots and to the beach. 

All the regular wading birds were located and identified during the slow walk on the trail to Pockoy Island. Immature ibis fed near the trail and willet stood further away in a flooded pocket of marsh. Kingfsher and Osprey were busy flying overhead, and so too were wood storks and white pelicans. Not too many shorebirds were feeding on the beach this morning but some ruddy turnstones were resting on dead trees at the waters edge. We noticed the recent erosion of the maritime forest and the lagoon system that has formed on the northern point of Pockoy, as we strolled for two hours on the front beach.

To view 2023 Birding Trips click on Fripp Island -  Wings Over Beaufort -  Sea Island Shorebird Festival - Beidler Forest - Harbor Island- Kiawah Island -  Webb Wildlife Center - Whooping Crane Pond - Jarvis Creek Park - Caw Caw Bio Blitz - Hammock Coast Birding Festival  -  Botany Bay WMA - Pinckney Island NWR - ACE Basin NWR Combahee Uni

To view Field Trips from 2022 click on  Palmetto Buff Christmas Bird Count - Walterboro Wildlife Sanctuary - Bailey Mill Plantation - Niederhoff Seed Orchard - Hunting Island State Park - Botany Bay WMA - Nemours Wildlife Foundation - Cumberland Island - Harbor Island - Silver Bluff/Audubon - Phinizy Swamp - Oldfield Plantation - Dolphin Head Beach - Bear Island WMA - Widgeon Point Preserve - Port Royal Sound Foundation - Parris Island