4 New Statebirds in "Upstate" South Carolina, October 2019

The South Carolina/North Carolina line is within 30 minutes of home, so SC is definitely within reach for pursuing possible new statebirds.  Or perhaps I should say western SC is within reach – the coast is still more than 3 hours away.  So during October 2019 I made 2 trips to the western, or “upstate”, portion of SC as it’s called locally.  On these trips I birded with several birders active in the Greenville County Bird Club, who are excellent birders and really friendly folks to bird with.  Great to make these excellent connections and friendships.

10/14 – Conestee Park 

My first birding trip to western SC was to Lake Conestee Nature Park near Greenville where I hoped for a number of new statebirds, including some reasonably regular migrants.  When fellow Hendersonville birder Dave Minnich and I arrived we were greeted by quite a group of birders from the Greenville County club.  During introductions I realized there were a number of passerines in the nearby trees.  One of the local birders mentioned that they just had a Black-throated Green Warbler – one of my targets.  Luckily we were able to re-find it a couple minutes later as my first SC addition.  We continued along the trail and found a few migrants along the way, including another target - Bay-breasted Warbler.  We would end up seeing at least 3 more later on our trip.  Then later Dave suggested we take a short side-trail and we came upon a nice group of migrants, including the first of 3 Chestnut-sided Warblers we had that day – my 3rd new statebird of the day. 

Although each of these species is a regular migrant throughout much of the eastern US, they often pass through during a reasonably small window of time.  So you need to be birding in appropriate habitat during that window in order to try to check them off on those statelists.  Though it’s certainly easier to find them on their breeding grounds.  And that is the case for all 3 of my new SC statebirds.  Take Chestnut-sided for example.  In my statebird map below, the dark shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species; the cross-hatched states are those where it is regular but still missing from my lists.  I’ve seen Chestnut-sided in most every state where it nests in the northern parts of the eastern US.  But I still need it in quite a number of states where it is a regular migrant.  (I’ve also seen it as a rarity in CA.)

We spent much of the day in the park exploring a number of the trails through excellent and varied habitat.  And although I didn’t add any additional statebirds that day, it was a great introduction to the park for future trips.

10/21 – Tall Pines WMA

This site was opened to the public less than a year ago, and the local Greenville County birders have done a great job exploring it in that short period of time.  Habitats are excellent, including woodlands, ponds, and fields.  We spent much of the morning walking the trails, and although birding was pretty slow, it was an excellent introduction.  Later Dave Minnich and I headed up to Ceasars Head State Park to take a look at the hawk watch site, but it was socked in with fog with negligible visibility. 

My only statebird of the trip wasn’t actually at either spot.  On our drive down to Tall Pines Dave and I spotted a pair of Common Ravens flying overhead just after we crossed into SC.  Luckily it’s a species that easy to ID while you’re driving at 60 mph.  I only need Raven in a couple more states where it is regular.  Though this expanding species can be seen virtually anywhere across the country these days.

I ended October with 244 on my SC statelist.  There are still quite a number of pretty easy birds on my target list, not to mention those rarer species.  I’m looking forward to many future trips to the Upstate, and birding with my new friends from the Greenville County Bird Club.