Two “Grasspipers” – Third Time is the Charm, Orangeburg Sod Farm, SC, September 8, 2021

Years ago while visiting SC on a business trip, I purchased “Finding Birds in South Carolina” by Robin Carter.  One of the sites described in that 1993 book that especially caught my attention was the Orangeburg Sod Farm.  I’ve always enjoyed seeing those shorebirds that frequent sod farms – American Golden-Plover, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, and Upland Sandpiper.  I call them “grasspipers”, and the Orangeburg site sounded like a great spot for them.  Unfortunately, I never had a chance to get there during any of my SC trips over the years.

Then after moving to NC, I attended the Fall 2019 Carolina Bird Club meeting based in Charleston.  A trip to the Orangeburg Sod Farm was offered that weekend, and I not only signed up for it, but also made a stop there on my way to the meeting.  But despite those two visits, birding was slow and only yielded Least Sandpipers and Killdeer.  Though I got a good idea of how to bird the area for future trips.  Hopefully it would be cooler on those later trips - temperatures were close to 100 degrees on both visits.

Then on to September 2021 – my SC Needs Alert from 9/3 included not only a Golden-Plover, but also a Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Orangeburg.  The problem was I was out of town at the time, not getting back until the 7th.  Would they stick around long enough for me to chase them?  And then there’s the question of drive time - the sod farm is a 2 hour 45 minute drive from home, quite a bit longer than my typical 2 hour chasing limit.  But with 2 target grasspipers, it would be easy enough to justify the extra miles. 

As the days progressed the reports of both species continued, and even though the Buff-breasted wasn’t reported on each checklist, at times 2 birds were reported.  Now it was important to know which field(s) the birds were frequenting since Orangeburg is a very large sod farm.  Luckily several birders mentioned the Golden-Plover was at the first field on the right as you entered the farm from the north, with the field being labeled “SS9”.  That was all very specific.  But no locations were mentioned for the Buff-breasteds.  Maybe they were moving around, making them more difficult to locate and causing some birders to miss them.  Sounds like it might take more time to locate that species. 

We got back in town on the 7th as planned, so I was all set to give it a go on the 8th.  And one last check of my SC Needs Alert the morning of the 8th revealed that both the Plover and Buff-breasted were still around.  So I was all set.

But wait there’s more!  There were two other statebird targets reported nearby on the 7th – a Baird’s Sandpiper at Dobbins Farm in Anderson County, and an Olive-sided Flycatcher at Cottonwood Trail in Spartanburg County.  Both are excellent birding spots that I know well.  Not to be greedy, but could I try for more than just the Orangeburg birds that day?  I would be passing almost directly by Cottonwood Trail in route to/from Orangeburg so that was a definite possibility.  However, a trip to Dobbins Farm would require a major deviation in my route.  So the Baird’s would have to wait - hopefully I could try for that one on the 9th if it was still around.  I decided to go to Orangeburg first, and then swing by Cottonwood Trail on the way home.  And hopefully after 2 unsuccessful trips to the Orangeburg Sod Farm, “third time would be the charm”.

I rolled into the sod far at about 9 AM and called the number listed on the office door to get permission to enter the fields.  Just a few minutes later I was driving toward that first field on the right where the Plover was being seen.  Up ahead I could see quite a number of shorebirds walking through the dry sod field, accompanied by many Cattle Egrets and flocks of Starlings and Cowbirds.  This was getting exciting.  And just as I was getting out of the car another birder came by.  I asked what he had seen – the Golden Plover was still in the SS9 field.  And he said maybe he saw the Buff-breasteds in that same field. 

I started to scan the field with my binocs – there were indeed hundreds of shorebirds foraging in the grass – mostly Pectorals, Leasts, and Killdeer.  I was just starting to wonder how easy it might be to pick out my targets among all these birds when I spotted a Buff-breasted Sandpiper rather close to me, and then another.  And still while scanning with just my binocs I looked a bit to the south and there was the American Golden-Plover – more distant but easily recognizable.  I had both of my targets with 2 minutes of getting out of my car!  Third time was indeed the charm! 

I was able to get these phonescoped pictures of the Buff-breasteds.  In all these shots you can get a bit of a feel for how many birds were in this field.  This first picture includes Pectorals, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Killdeer.

And in these last 2 shots starlings are nearby with numerous peeps in the distance.

And while scoping across the field I had a flyover Bobolink and numerous calling Horned Larks.  Nice!

My maps for my 2 new statebirds are inserted below.  For Buff-breasted, SC was my 10th east coast state where it is a rarity (the brown-shaded states).  Interesting that I’ve only seen this species in 4 states in the central US (the blue states) where it is a regular migrant.  And I still need it in quite a number of the cross-hatched states in its regular range.

My American Golden-Plover statebird map has quite a different look.  I’ve seen this species in most of its regular range, and only one in UT where it is a rarity.

I had all my targets in just a few minutes.  Should I head out right away to try for the Olive-sided Flycatcher at Cottonwood Trail, or spend more time looking for shorebirds?  Since it was still early I decided to search other sod fields as well.  Who knows, maybe I’d find a Baird’s so I wouldn’t need to head to Dobbins Farm to try for the one there.  I spent the next hour and a half searching the other fields, adding a number of additional Leasts, 4 Short-billed Dowitchers, and of course more Killdeer, but little else. 

I returned to the SS9 field and continued to be amazed by how many birds were there.  I counted 130 Pectorals, about 50 Leasts, and 76 Cattle Egrets in that one field.  Along with wild guesses of 300 Starlings and 150 Cowbirds.  All while all the other fields had just a smattering of birds.  Wonder what attracted all these birds to that one field.  Maybe there was a big hatching of some type of insect there.  If that were the case, why weren’t those insects at the other fields too? 

And there was almost no water in any of the fields.  By comparison, most of the shorebirds at our local Hooper Lane sod farm are seen in and around puddles and flooded fields, and much less often in the dry grass.  Go figure.

Then I was off to Cottonwood Trail to try for the previous day’s Olive-sided Flycatcher.  Unfortunately, I had pretty limited time to look for it given my longer stay at the sod farm.  And despite looks at all those high dead snags that Olive-sided Flys love, I came up empty.  In hindsight, I should have cut my Orangeburg stop short to give me more time to try for the Flycatcher.  But as they say, hindsight is always 20/20. 

With the addition of Buff-breasted Sandpiper and American Golden-Plover my SC list is now 288.  And hopefully the Baird’s Sandpiper would remain at Dobbin’s Farm to give me a shot at another new state bird.