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which is just enough for a whole new set of habitats and animals to come into play the refuge straddles the georgia south carolina border with half the park being in one state and the other half being in the other we stayed in the south carolina section the entire time choosing to drive the length of the 4 mile laurel hill wildlife drive a one way gravel road which winds through portions of the park this road passes mostly through freshwater wetlands but also passes through hardwood hammocks like the one pictured above a hardwood hammock is essentially an island of trees which can persist in a marsh due to the ground being only a few inches higher than the surrounding marshland notice in the case pictured above click to enlarge the hammock consists primarily of southern live oak quercus virginiana also notice the distinctive and characteristic spanish moss tillandsia usneoides hanging from the live oaks spanish moss is a species of flowering plant that is actually an epiphyte meaning it grows harmlessly on trees and absorbs water and nutrients from the air rain and debris that collects around it as a result spanish moss only uses the tree for support instead of parasitizing it one of the main features in the freshwater marshes at savannah nwr were dikes dikes are man made levees that help control water levels and flow in marshes back in the 1700 s much of the land in the refuge was managed rice fields these altered marshes remained and natural vegetation came back now there s a whole range of birds that make this refuge home at some point of the year a few shorebirds were present when we went including this solitary sandpiper pictured above other birds present included 3 species of rails rails are a cryptic and elusive bunch with most species preferring dense marsh grasses and reeds the species ohioans are most familiar with is the american coot we saw several of the coot s cousin the common gallinule pictured above the common gallinule can be found in ohio especially along lake erie but it is definitely a more uncommon species there the common gallinule is much more common down along the southern coasts the most exciting bird of the day was a purple gallinule that i spotted along the banks of a ditch like the common gallinule the purple gallinule is also a rail but an incredibly colorful one this truly tropical looking rail can be found extensively throughout the tropics but is restricted to the southern atlantic and gulf coast here in the us in fact savannah nwr is even approaching its northern limits another species of rail we observed here was the sora sadly we only heard them instead of seeing them another strange southern specialty in the us is the anhinga although it superficially resembles cormorants the exact relationship between the darters which includes the anhinga and the cormorants is uncertain they are certainly related but how closely is still up in the air the anhinga is a freshwater loving species and prefers the marshes and swamps of the southern us they can often be seen drying their wings on the banks of waterways like the one above other interesting birds we observed at savannah nwr included cattle egrets northern harrier great horned owl peregrine falcons and various migrating warblers of course it wouldn t be a trip down to the south without one of these guys this is the american alligator alligator mississippiensis savannah nwr is known for its alligator population and we saw over 12 individuals during our time there a large crocodilian reptile that reaches lengths of 9 15 feet on average the american alligator can be found throughout freshwater marshes lakes and swamps in the southeastern us the american alligator was once very endangered but has staged an incredible comeback in the past few decades part of the class on the beach at hunting island i am the one in the green hat and shirt looking through the spotting scope photo credit michelle ward we left savannah nwr at sunset and made the hour and a half van ride back to hunting island where we camped for a final night it was an incredible trip and i added 19 bird lifers in the end i personally finished with 75 species of birds over the two days in south carolina but i know i missed a few species that others on the trip saw or heard here s my complete ebird lists for the two locations of the day for those interested 1 pinckney island nwr 2 savannah nwr i have to admit i fell in love with the southern maritime forests and the salt marshes over the course of the trip i am planning on going back to this region on a birding trip over christmas break and if that happens then i ll have many more in depth posts on this amazing region thanks for reading posted by kyle brooks at 11 42 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks birding birds marshes south carolina location south carolina usa sunday october 4 2015 south carolina pt 1 as you might know i am currently taking ornithology the study of birds at ohio university this is one of the required classes for my wildlife and conservation biology major and also one of my most anticipated classes of my college career we go on weekly field labs you can read about each one at this link but we also get to go on two big trips one of these trips is to lake erie which is coming up in november but the other trip was last week as you might guess by the title it was a trip down to south carolina the point of this trip was to expose us to birds we would normally never see in ohio and so we were doing some relatively intense birding to find all those special species if you ve ever went birding to that degree you probably know that taking photos is pretty difficult as you simply don t have the time for it so sadly i don t have a bunch of photos but i ll try to make do with the ones i did take we left athens ohio at 8 am on thursday september 24th eleven hours and a slight detour later we arrived at our destination hunting island state park hunting island state park is located in extreme southern south carolina the entire park is located on an island in the atlantic ocean this island is one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier islands located within the so named sea islands which is a chain of tidal and barrier islands ranging from mid south carolina to extreme northern florida hunting island has a subtropical climate and consists of several different ecosystems on the eastern side of the island is the atlantic ocean shown above the western side consists of extensive salt marsh habitat the island itself consists mainly of maritime forest in this part of the world maritime forests are dominated by evergreen trees with the majority of those trees being pine trees in this case loblolly pine was the dominant tree with slash pine southern live oak and other trees mixed in the iconic cabbage palm occupied the mid story which you can see in the photo above those tall pines pictured are the loblolly pine the understory was occupied primarily by saw palmetto serenoa repens an interesting and well recognized species of fern like palm saw palmetto is restricted to the southern atlantic coast and eastern gulf coast it can be found in only one county in south carolina beaufort which is where hunting island is located there are other similar looking palm species found in the understory here though as well such as needle palm we arrived near sunset ate in the city of beaufort and then headed toward the park in the dark it had began to rain by the time we arrived which added a whole new dimension of fun as we frantically tried setting up our tents before they got too wet inside that rain turned into a storm with incredible lightning earth shaking thunder and torrential rain it turns out that storm system also spawned an ef 2 tornado in johns island which was only a mere 35 miles away from us thankfully we just received heavy downpours a tornado might have put a slight damper on the trip to say the least when morning came the rain had stopped but the skies were still pretty overcast we ventured out to the beach to look for shorebirds and other related birds laughing gulls brown pelicans and various terns quickly greeted us a few shorebirds were out and about including a ruddy turnstone multiple willets and some peeps we couldn t identify a lagoon on the other side of the dunes held a bald eagle osprey little blue herons great egrets great blue herons and snowy egrets many warbler species flitted about the trees and brown headed nuthatches squeaked like a dog toy from the canopy after a few hours we moved to the western side of the island this side of the island has an extensive salt marsh a salt marsh is essentially the area between open salt water and dry land this area gets routinely flooded with salt water every day due to the tides which in turn creates a soggy and salty salt marsh i took this photo during low tide and you can see how the salt water is restricted to a shallow river named johnson creek once the high tide comes in the water level will rise in the case of the day this was taken it rose 7 feet and most of the smooth cordgrass spartina alterniflora that you see will be nearly covered the saltmarsh produced more herons including our first tricolored heron of the day four wood storks a federally listed endangered species flew over us drawing ooh s from the class several willets a species of sandpiper foraged along the exposed mud bank of johnson creek for several minutes a clapper rail ventured out into the open along the bank to forage next to a sleeping laughing gull to our surprise a dolphin also made an appearance due to the location i m nearly certain that it was a common bottlenose dolphin tursiops truncatus there are other species of dolphin near south carolina but most of these are more open ocean species the common bottlenose dolphin is the only species which commonly swims to the shore into lagoons and marshes and up estuaries it was amazing to see one so close we then went to paradise pier a 1 120 foot pier that juts out into fripp inlet here we had 30 brown pelicans dozens of laughing gulls 2 herring gulls another bald eagle more heron species and the birds on the sandbar in the photo above this sandbar which was just off the pier was a very productive piece of land about 20 sanderlings a species of sandpiper and 3 willets foraged by the water s edge a group of terns flew in a few minutes later there were caspian royal and sandwich terns in the group then the most exciting species of the pier flew in 3 black skimmers the black birds on the center left we also got to see two cool fish species one fisherman pulled up a large red drum sciaenops ocellatus which was probably around 2 and a half feet long another caught one of the dasyatis stingray species which was incredible to see in the wild i m not sure of the exact species but it was either the atlantic bluntnose or roughtail stingray one of the best parts of this trip was seeing so many new things that i ve wanted to see for years i haven t been near the ocean since i was 4 and so i was looking at everything around me with new eyes every other bird i looked at was essentially a lifer every plant i looked at was a species i had never seen before plants i had learned about in class like the loblolly pine finally came to life in front of my eyes i m a bird guy first and foremost so the birds were obviously the stars of the trip but this spider was definitely one of the stand out highlights this is the golden silk orbweaver more commonly known as the banana spider nephila clavipes a species of spider i have wanted to see for years and years when you re into biology you ll often find yourself doing things that the average person would not do for example i was walking to the bathrooms the first morning when i ran face first into a huge very strong orbweaver web the web was larger and stronger than any i had seen before now the average person would have freaked out and tried to get away as fast as possible the first thing that jumped to my mind though was oh my gosh can it be a banana spider i looked up to my left to see the massive palm sized spider frantically running away from me it was my lifer banana spider i was ecstatic and quickly went to get an even closer look this is an absolutely beautiful species although big and frightening looking to some these are really harmless spiders that won t do anything unless you handle them roughly fiddler crabs uca sp we ended the day a little before sundown our awesome ta brandan gray made everyone jambalaya and we had a wonderful and much needed dinner as the sun set through the pines at our campsite a little bit later the class decided to head off to the beach due to loggerhead turtles nesting on the beach lights of any sort are banned for the summer until the end of october but there was a nearly full moon out which lit up the beach it was nearing low tide so a large portion of the beach was exposed as we walked along the beach brandan yelled out dolphin and pointed to a blob swimming about 30 feet from shore we looked out and i noticed the creature had a heterocercal tail that meant one thing i yelled out that s a shark and sure enough it was it was the first time i ever saw a shark out in the wild and i was beyond ecstatic i have no idea what species it was but it was about a 5 foot long individual who was slowly swimming parallel to the shore about 30 feet out we followed it down the shore until it disappeared back into the ocean marking the end of an amazing day since it would be too long to list out all the species here you can see my bird checklists for the day at the following links 1 hunting island sp forest lagoon and beach 2 hunting island salt marsh 3 paradise pier hunting island sp i should have part 2 up by tomorrow so stay tuned part 2 can be found right here posted by kyle brooks at 1 58 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks atlantic ocean beaches birding birds marshes ornithology ornithology class reptiles south carolina location south carolina usa friday october 2 2015 ornithology lab september 30 this is the fourth installment in a series of weekly posts for my ornithology class at ohio university we go out in the field every wednesday weather permitting to do some birding and or bird banding one of our assignments is to write a blog post about each of these field trips which is what this series will be about first post september 2 second post september 9 third post september 16 fall has arrived both in date and finally weather cool temperatures in the upper 50 s met us as we traveled once again to the ridges on the outskirt of athens ohio it truly felt and looked like fall leaves were changing leaves were falling all around us it was cool with a breeze and the sky was overcast the birds were also pretty active as i ll get into in a...
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