From Fiddler Crabs to Folly Beach

   The weather app on my IPhone showed rain and thunderstorms. There was only very dense fog, and it was as thick as pea soup. We found a cute little artesan bakery where they made gooey pastries. Robert had an omelette and hot tea. I had the French toast and coffee. After breakfast, we drove about twenty miles south of Beaufort to the beautiful Hunting Island State Park. We stayed all morning there by the ocean. The park has salt marshes and Palmetto Palm trees and more than four miles of beach and a large lagoon. The State Park also has a tall lighthouse, which we elected not to climb. The fog lifted by mid-morning and the sun came out. The weather was perfect to bird.

   Immediately upon arrival we went to the white sand beach and were treated to a flock of Ring Billed Gulls (Larus Delawarensis) resting on the shore. Targeting fish in the water, Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus Occidentalis) dove head first into the surf. We saw some American White Pelicans (Pelecanus Erythrorhynchos) flying over the water. The Double Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax Auritus) were drying their wings by balancing on the buoys in the sun.

   There was a wooden boardwalk through a stand of Palmetto palms and the pine trees. We noticed tiny birds flitting high in the tops of the trees. Robert pointed out a Brown Headed Nuthatch (Sitta Pusilla) on the bottom side of a limb in the upper branches of a tall pine tree. We had never seen this bird before. It lives here in South Carolina. So this was our first life bird of this birding trip. Robert was on the phone when he saw it. We have seen other nuthatches. Scientists discovered that nuthatches have used a small chip of bark as a tool to dig for insects. Smart birds.

   Other animals that we saw at the Park were lots of irritating gnats, small brown squirrels, a small green spider inside a web, and tiny Fiddler crabs sidling to and fro on the mud of the salt marsh. Fiddler crabs are found along sea beaches and brackish inter-tidal mud flats, lagoons and swamps. Fiddler crabs are most well known for their having only one large claw; the males’ left claw is much larger than the minor claw while the females’ claws are both the same size. If a male loses his large claw on the left, he will grow another one on the opposite side. We were charmed by the fiddler crabs running around into and out of their holes in the mud and seeming to fight each other with the large claw.

   While driving to look for a place to eat lunch, we saw a Forester’s Tern (Sterna Forsteri) sitting on a bridge. There was a fishing boat in the water. The fisherpeople had stopped to untangle a net from its motor propeller. As he was getting the fish out of the net and tossing them in the water, he attracted a flock of pelicans. We also saw two Osprey (Pandion Haliaetus) joining in the action.

   We ate lunch at a good restaurant named The Steamer. Robert ate blackened scallops and Berry had a crab cake. We shared the squid. Then Berry drove carefully the one and a half hours to Folly Beach while Robert slept in the passenger’s seat. We are a team.

   When we arrived at the ocean, we again encountered the very dense fog. After the long drive and nap, we wanted to stretch our legs by walking on the beach. Everyone brought their dogs. Kids and dogs everywhere. Dancing and racing in the tidal pools, we saw the Sanderling (Calidris Alba)). This bird runs faster than any other peep, pecking at the sand in the tidal pools.

We caught dinner in the Blu Restaurant in our hotel. Robert had a Roasted Beet Salad and the Red Snapper on a bed of forro, which is a grain like barley. Berry got the scallops and Swiss chard. As we are publishing this, we are watching an old episode of the “Walking Dead” on the tube.

Berry and Robert

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia