Bear Island WMA Birding Trip in the ACE Basin

The SCDNR's Coastal Education Series held its annual bird watching day at Bear Island Wildlife Management Area. While the WMA is open to the public, the limited space on the birding tour gets visitors a seat on a wagon that is towed across the property. It also gets you an expert birder to lead the tour in the form of Pete Laurie, and DNR biologist Al Segars. With heavy rain the day before the outing was not a certainty, but even with a few folks canceling their plans to attend, a good time was had by the remainder. Bear Island WMA has been owned by the state of S.C. since 1953 and is approximately 12,000 acres. It carries 28 impoundments with 5000 acres of managed wetlands that require 70 rice trunks, and is thus managed to provide for public duck hunting. Other months the WMA is open for bird watching, and is considered a 'refueling station' for many different types of migratory birds. If one feels strongly about Bear Island WMA, one only need purchase a hunting license to have contributed towards its welfare - whether hunting is your hobby or not. On March 12 the birding crew saw tree swallows, bluebirds, moorhens, common yellowthroats, shovelers, coots, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, mallards, wood storks, great blue herons, snipe, killdeer, bufflehead, snowy egrets, tri-color herons, great egrets, bald eagles, turkey vultures, kingfishers, meadowlarks, doves, robins, norther harriers, black-crowned night herons, glossy ibis, seagulls, anhingas, alligators, pie-billed grebes, ruddy ducks, a black-necked stilt, pintails, lesser yellowlegs, forester terns, white pelicans (5), tundra swans (100!), and one Canada goose. To my fellow birders, if an observation escaped me please feel free to add it here in the form of a comment.

To view past blog entries about bird watching at Bear Island WMA click here.

PhotosByJeffDennis: The birding crew watches in amazement as at least 100 tundra swans feed in an impoundment while making a non-stop happy and contented honking noise; Ross Catterton is the manager at Bear Island and he knows a great deal about impoundment management and migratory waterfowl; a bluebird house on Bear Island WMA next to a crossroads sign