My plan for November 19th was to start the day at Dobbins Farm in Anderson County, SC in search of a recently reported flock of Snow Geese. Given that they were foraging around a small, easily visible farm pond, I expected I would very quickly either be able to check them off or know that they had moved on. Then after a brief stay at the farm I would head across the GA/SC stateline to work on my GA list a bit. At least that was the plan…
I arrived at Dobbins Farm at about 8 AM and instantly
spotted the flock of Snow Geese on the lower pond. Can’t get any easier than that. (See my previous blog post for a summary of
my recent Dobbins Farm sightings.) I birded
there another couple hours, and then headed west to cross into GA. Key targets included several waterfowl, a
number of sparrows, plus a few woodland birds like Red-breasted Nuthatch and
Creeper. In other words, I had
opportunities in many different habitats.
My first stop was at the dam at Lake Hartwell where I had good numbers
of waterfowl and gulls, but nothing out of the ordinary. And a slow walk through the pine forest near
the dam yielded a nice collection of landbirds but none of my targets.
The next stop was a short distance away at the Elrod Ferry Recreation
Area which is a wooded peninsula sticking out into Lake Hartwell. Along the way I passed some blackberry
thickets that looked good for sparrows – I decided I would double-back there
after I birded the park. The gate to the
park was closed, so I parked at the entrance in a nice stand of pines. Looked like a good spot for Nuthatches, and
sure enough I soon heard a couple White-breasteds. Then I spotted a Brown-headed. And a few seconds later another Nuthatch popped
into view – a Red-breasted. Not only a
new GA statebird, but that also gave me all 3 eastern Nuthatch species in just
a couple minutes. That was #234 for my
GA list. I just need this wide-ranging
species in 3 more states to complete my statebird map below.
But wait – the title of this post mentioned an unexpected SC rarity, not GA. I’m getting there…
I continued my walk in the park hoping to run into a
Creeper, or maybe find some additional waterfowl species. I was staring through the scope trying to
turn a Horned Grebe into something better when my phone rang – it was Michael
Robertson. Michael recounted a bird he
saw that morning while doing a regular census of an inaccessible portion of
Lake Conestee Nature Preserve in Greenville, SC. He described it as Mockingbird sized and
shaped, but without the white wing patches.
Plus the bird was streaked below.
A most unlikely Bahama Mockingbird came to mind. He said he would send me pictures to help
with the ID. While I waited for the
pictures to arrive I thought about trying to re-find the mystery Grebe, and
then continue to walk down the peninsula to hope for a Creeper. But it sounded like Michael’s bird could be a
really rare one, likely one that I’d want to chase after. Plus Lake Conestee was almost directly on my
route back home from GA. So I decided to
forgo additional GA possibilities, head back to my car, and start the drive toward
Lake Conestee just in case. As I drove out
of the park I passed by those blackberry thickets and possible sparrow habitat
– oh well, that would have to wait for a future trip.
I was well on my way toward Lake Conestee when the photos
arrived. I opened the first attachment
and instantly knew Michael had found an exceptionally rare Sage Thrasher –
likely a first for SC. I called him to
pass along the ID. I was less than 30
minutes away and asked if it would be possible for me to look for this bird
given that normally access is limited to his team when they do their regular
censuses. He said he might be able to
get me access to the site, but it would be necessary for me to team up with one
of the Conestee employees to escort me to the area where the bird was
seen. So the key hurdle was to find someone
to be my escort. I continued my drive
toward the park with fingers crossed, and was just 15 minutes away when Michael
called back reporting that one of the park naturalists would meet me and take
me to the spot. The stars were aligning!
I arrived at the park just a couple minutes before the
naturalist, and soon we were taking the short walk to the site where Michael
had the Sage Thrasher earlier. But it
was now late afternoon, several hours after he had found the bird. Would it still be around? The naturalist took us right to the spot of
the earlier sighting. We got a brief
view of a Song Sparrow, and then a larger bird popped into view – we had the
Sage Thrasher! It was most cooperative,
sitting out in the open long enough to get this phonescoped shot.
Here is the site it was frequenting – not quite like its normal sagebrush habitat out west.
SC was the second eastern state where I’ve seen Sage Thrasher as a rarity (the brown states in my statebird map below). I’ve seen it in 12 western states in its regular range (the blue states) but still need it in the 4 cross-hatched states where it is regular in at least a portion of each state.
I can’t thank Michael Robertson enough for getting me access to the site, and the park naturalist for escorting me. And although I’m very happy to have seen the bird, #281 for my SC list, I feel bad that only 1 other birder was able to see the bird later that day. Unfortunately, the bird was not re-found the next day.
Boy am I glad I cut my GA birding short and headed to Lake
Conestee right away. I may have passed
up another statebird or 2 in GA, but will gladly trade them for a first state
record in SC!
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