We had 20 observers who came out to count in Aiken County on May 8th which resulted in a very good count of 122 species. In all we counted 4,111 different birds.
Some of the more unusual waders were seen in Crackerneck WMA including Yellow-crowned Night Heron and White Ibis. Blue-winged Teal were found at Horse Creek Water Treatment area and N. Augusta Brick Ponds. Our best raptor was the Swallow-tailed Kites seen at Crackerneck and Silver Bluff Sanctuary. Lee Dane added a King Rail from her property. 7 species of shorebirds were found including a Pectoral Sandpiper from Horse Creek.
6 people spent 9 hours looking for nocturnal species and were rewarded by finding 3 species of owl and both the Chuck-wills Widow and Whip-poor Will. Bobwhite, hard to find lately, were found near Jackson. Fortunately Lee Dan found Hairy Woodpecker on her land because they weren't found elsewhere.
Cliff Swallows were found nesting under the Palmetto Parkway and Tree Swallows were at Horse Creek Swamp. An unusual find was made at Christine Huzella's property when a Brown Creeper was seen creeping up a tree. Another lingering winter bird was the Blue-headed Vireo found in SRS. The only Shrikes were found by the Brenneman's.
Migrant warblers included a Yellow Warbler and Blackpolls at Horse Creek Swamp, a Blue-winged Warbler at Lee Dane's, a Black-throated Blue Warbler & Ovenbird at Crackerneck WMA, and Redstarts in several places. All of the local nesting warblers were found including Swainson's Warbler at Lee Dane's. Bobolinks were also here in a field. So we had an excellent day of counting.
Thanks to everyone who came out to help.
Anne Waters
We had an excellent field trip on May 15th. 7 people attended. We started at 8am on the boardwalk and Mary spotted 2 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks sitting up in a cypress. While trying to put the scope on them, they flew across the swamp in front of us clearly showing the white on the wings. They landed in a large dead cypress by the bridge over the swamp and as we watched them, first l then the other went into a cavity in the tree. We didn't see them come back out and walked on around and came back across the bridge and saw no activity in the tree but did see a feather in the entrance.
The Black-bellied Whistling Duck was first seen in Phinizy in June 2007. They have been seen off and on in the swamp since then with as many as 13 being seen in June 2009. The internet reports that pairs stay together for many years and the parents share incubation, and rearing of the young. They prefer to nest in hollow trees. Ducklings leap from the nest cavity within 2 days of hatching and can feed themselves but stay with parents for up to 8 weeks. So everyone coming to the swamp needs to watch for them. It would be nice if we could confirm nesting.
The only migrant we had on the field trip were 2 Redstarts which we heard up in the thick leaves. Nesting warblers included N. Parula, Prothonotary, and Yellow-throated Warblers.
There was a very large Cottonmouth Moccasin lying on a log in the swamp. A Yellowlegs was on the side of the Mayor's Fishing Pond and as the morning grew warmer, Mississippi Kites began to soar especially over the river and airport.
Anne Waters
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks (Gene Howard)
Six people came out in the summer heat to look for nesting birds at Phinizy Swamp. We were able to find 38 species, including the White-breasted Nuthatch who is not on the park list yet. Now it is! The best birds were the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks again. We had 2 different pairs in the cypress trees of Butler Creek.
Looking for breeders, we saw a Mockingbird nest with 3 babies, and also saw a Barn Swallow nest and Eastern Phoebe nest. On the boardwalk we saw a Great-crested Flycatcher go into a nest hole in a cypress with food in his mouth. There were 2 singing painted Buntings and 1 singing Indigo Bunting. In the sparrow field we heard a Yellow-breasted Chat. We also had singing Parula and Prothonotary Warblers who were seen. Their nests are hard to find.
We also looked at dragonflies and saw the Widow Skimmer, 4-spot Pennant, Cyrano Darner, and a new dragonfly for the park, the Dragonhunter which is a very large clubtail dragonfly.
We saw a few animals as well including an alligator, 3 deer, a rabbit and a raccoon who was sleeping on a limb in a Cypress Tree with his limbs hanging down. He looked for all the world like he had a bad night!