| Edisto
Island As
members of the Lowcountry Master Naturalist Alumni Association, we
were invited to a field trip to Botany Bay Plantation on Edisto
Island. We decided to make an extended retreat out of the event
and reserved a condo over the Edisto Marina. Below are verbal and
visual highlights.
Wednesday:
After a late check-in, we took advantage of the beautiful view of
the marina below our rental condo before going out for a seafood
dinner. The Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Green Herons and Laughing
Gulls were flying by and hanging around the docks.
Thursday:
Today was our day to walk several blocks to the beach. One of our
first sights was a pair of Horseshoe
Crabs barely moving in the wet sand near the tide line. These
prehistoric creatures come into the shallowest waters to spawn.
Further down the beach we were fascinated by the Fiddler Crabs
coming and going from their small burrows. In another area, we
stopped to observe one set of a Ghost
Crab's legs in view, but still inside its burrow. On the walk
back, we were treated to a clear and fairly close view of a
juvenile Green Heron on a dead branch
over a lagoon. Our camera snapped dozens of images.
Friday:
After a loud popping thunderstorm during the night and resulting
flooded roads, we wondered if our Botany Bay outing would be
scrubbed. Alas, the cool lingering breeze made it as good as it
gets! At 8:00 a.m. we arrived at the South Carolina Dept. of
Natural Resources "blue house" to observe some students
from UNC Wilmington who were banding Painted
Buntings. A scant dozen of us nature lovers stood by patiently
waiting for each bird to enter the caged feeder. After allowing
the bird to feed sufficiently, a student would reach into the cage
and gently pick up the bird and bring it to the banding station.
The three students would weigh the bird, examine the plumage to
approximate its age, blow the belly feathers to determine the sex,
and measure the beak. Then they would log the data, including any
existing bands on the bird, and carefully use their specialized
tools to place the designated colored bands on both feet before
releasing the bird. One of the birds was captured twice this
morning! The well-recognized bright primary colors of the male do
not appear until the third year, making juvenile males appear like
females. We observed eight individual Painted Buntings, one at a
time, going through this process:
1-unsexed 1st year (unable to determine gender)
2-male 2nd year
3-female 2nd year with egg
4-male 2nd year
5-female adult
6-female 2nd year
7-male 3rd year--YIPPEE, finally bright colors!
8-female adult
From the banding observation, we proceeded to walk to the boneyard
beach. En route, my DNR buddy Bess said she had been told about a hummingbird
nest in a specific tree. About a dozen eyes were roaming
through all the branches of this tree and were about to give up
when suddenly I spotted a little cup made of lichens. Aha! We
continued our walk toward the beach when Bess got a call from the
DNR supervisor letting her know there were some Loggerhead Turtle hatchlings
about a mile down the beach. We took a wet path above the dunes
which led us straight to the end of the beach where shorebirds had
recently nested, and the site of this turtle nest. Although the
hatchlings were actively crawling, we were told that they appeared
not quite strong enough to survive the journey yet, so they were
placed carefully in the top of their nest. We observed much more
erosion and many more dead Live Oak trees
since our previous visit. Beautiful shells
and egg cases had been placed in obvious places for visitors to
observe, but collecting is forbidden at Botany Bay's beach. We saw
a pair of American Oystercatchers and a pair of Wilson's Plovers
within the roped-off nesting areas, in addition to five Willets
feeding along the beach. From the beach we returned to the DNR
"blue house" where Bess picked some tomatoes for our
sandwiches on the same picnic tables where we had been observing
the Painted Buntings.
After
leaving Botany Bay Plantation, we rode our bicycles all over
Edisto Island's "downtown." The bike trail took us
behind houses, one of which had a huge collection of hanging bird
houses in many interesting shapes. We ended our wonderful day
with a smoked trout dinner on the balcony.
Saturday--our last morning:
We enjoyed a breezy sunrise from the balcony with swallows and
gulls flying over, clapper rails clapping, and green herons, snowy
and great egrets walking between and on top of the boats below.
Sail masts were clanging, water was rippling, marsh grass was
swaying while we enjoyed our coffee. I couldn't help but envy the
early boaters leaving to explore the water with all its
inhabitants. At the end of the Edisto Island bridge was the "Island
Girl" bidding us farewell.
|
