Two New Statebirds and a Third One Clarified, South Carolina Coast, October 17-21, 2022

My wife had been talking about going on a family vacation to the coast of SC for some time.  Ever since I moved from New England I’ve really missed birding the coast, so I was looking forward to spending some time with those coastal birds.  After a bit of research, she settled on a trip to Kiawah Island on the mid-coast in October 2022.  When I heard Kiawah Island I quickly remembered that was the location where a Bar-tailed Godwit overwintered last winter for the first SC state record.  A nice one to look forward to, but would it return this winter?  And even if it did, the bird wasn’t found last winter until October 25, so the bird would have to arrive a bit earlier than last winter.  A long shot but certainly one to hope for.

But my research of possible new statebirds didn’t stop there.  The second key target for the area was Clay-colored Sparrow, which is routinely found in the fall at Fort Moultrie just an hour’s drive from Kiawah.  This one too I remembered from last year.  On my way to a birding trip on the GA coast in September 2021 I had initially planned a stop at Fort Moultrie for the Clay-coloreds.  But they weren’t reported the week of my trip so I passed on them last year.  Once again, I needed my target species to return this year.

My last potential target was a bit complicated.  I’ve birded the southeast Atlantic coast for many years; in fact many decades.  Much of my coastal birding time predates the split of the Sharp-tailed Sparrow into Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows.  So when the split occurred I simply had Sharp-tailed Sparrow on my statelist for each of the coastal states.  Unfortunately, back then I did not look close enough at the sparrows to note the differences, so I have no idea if I saw either one or both species.  And both are present in SC at the same time of the year, so the timing of my past trips doesn’t help me to determine which species I may have seen.  So for now, I arbitrarily put Saltmarsh on my SC state list.  And when I got back to Spartina marshes on the SC coast, if I saw a Nelson’s that one would replace Saltmarsh on my list.  And I would still have to see both species in order to have a net addition to my SC statelist.  Make sense?

As the trip neared it was time to fine-tune my research.  First the good news about the Bar-tailed Godwit – it was re-found on September 18 more than a month before it appeared last year.  Once again it was near the east end of Kiawah Island near the Ocean Course (or “OC” as the locals call it) golf course property.  This was private property, as was the entire island.  But once you’re on the island successfully you can access the golf course.  Now the bad news – it was not being seen reliably, and in fact was not reported after September 22.  But not to worry – it was spotted again on October 13 “near the spit”.  Suddenly I was quite about more optimistic.  I reached out to one of my local birding friends, Nate Watkins, who was working at the banding stations on Kiawah.  Nate agreed to go with me to try for the Godwit so I was good to go.

There was similar good news for the Clay-colored Sparrows.  Right on schedule they showed up again at Fort Moultrie starting on September 13 with regular reports of up to 3 birds continuing through October 15.  I had contacted local birder Craig Watson last fall for advice on finding the birds, and did the same again this year.  Craig offered to meet me there and look for the sparrows together.  Another helpful connection!

Then onto the Nelson’s and Saltmarsh sparrows.  Although it was still early in the year for them, several of both had recently been reported in marshes nearby.  Nate also suggested looking for them at the bridge onto Kiawah Island at high tide. 

Everything was falling into place.  With some help from my local birding friends I was hopeful that I would be able to add 3 new birds to my SC statelist.

First up was my try for the Bar-tailed Godwit.  Nate suggested the bird might be easiest to find at high tide.  There was an afternoon high tide the entire week of our trip so that worked out well.  And our schedules meshed on Tuesday the 18th so I picked up Nate at 2 and made the short drive to the OC golf course.  We walked out to the lagoon at the edge of the driving range, but found few shorebirds.  The water level in the lagoon was quite high, likely the result of Hurricane Ian’s passage a couple weeks early.  I tried to remain hopeful.

We continued to walk east toward the spit, the site of the most recent report.  Soon we could see a small mudflat up ahead with a fair number of shorebirds.  We set up our scopes, quickly picking out good numbers of Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers and Short-billed Dowitchers.  Then I spotted a sleeping bird, standing on one leg, that was much bigger.  It was so much bigger than the Plovers and Dowitchers that it had to be a Godwit.  It was facing us, mostly white below, showing faint streaking on the chest, and a bit of streaking on the flanks.  We had our target bird!  Here’s a phonescoped picture of the sleeping bird dwarfing the nearby Dowitchers.

Then it briefly woke up showing its long, slightly upturned, two-toned bill.

SC is now the 4th state where I’ve seen this species.  As shown in my statebird map below, I’ve also seen it in WA and MA as a rarity (the brown-shaded states), as well as AK in its regular breeding range (a blue-shaded state).

Before we left we spotted this Whimbrel at the edge of the flock – a nice addition to the day list.

Later we did some landbirding nearby and picked up a number of migrant passerines in some nice habitat.  An excellent ending to the day.

My next statebird search was for the Clay-colored Sparrows at Fort Moultrie on October 20.  During my hour drive to the site I recounted notes from the recent reports that they were often seen perched in their “favorite tree” near the row of cannons, and along the fencing near the SPAWAR building.  But they were also reported in various other places in the grasses and fields at the fort.  So it almost sounded like they were foraging throughout the entire site.  I arrived at 7:45, quickly met up with Craig, and we started our walk towards that favorite tree.  It turned out to be a small tree partially broken down by the recent hurricane.  And there were a couple birds perched in it – but just Savannah Sparrows and a Palm Warbler.  We would have 20 or more Savannahs in the general area, but we couldn’t turn any of them into our target.  We continued our walk around that park of the park, adding Song and Field Sparrows, but no Clay-colored.

Next we turned our attention to the SPAWAR building – that’s the one up on the hill with all the antennas in this picture.  The Battery Jasper is straight ahead.  Sure is lots of great sparrow habitat to search!

We flushed a few Savannah and Song sparrows here and there, but still no target.  As we started to walk clockwise around the fence surrounding the SPAWAR building Craig pointed out a tree on the hill near the building known locally as the “giving” tree since many rarities have been found perched there.  Just a couple minutes later we noticed some birds perched near the top.  Three were Bluebirds but the fourth was much smaller.  The bird was a bit distant but we could tell it was a sparrow – and it had no streaking below.  We eventually got a quick but good look at the head and it had the characteristic supercilium and moustache streak of the Clay-colored Sparrow.  Success!

In my statebird map below I’ve seen this species in most of its regular range in the central portion of the US (the blue-shaded states), but still need it in several other states where it’s regular (the cross-hatched states).  And SC is my 11th state seeing Clay-colored as a rarity (the brown-shaded states).  The bird is certainly prone to vagrancy on both coasts.

As we headed back to the cars we flushed another small Spizella sparrow – but this one was just a Chipping, though it provided a nice comparison to the Clay-colored. 

My search for the marsh sparrows came later on the 20th.  The local high tide was just after 5 o’clock, which made it ideal to coordinate a trek through the marshes with a drive to a restaurant for dinner take-out.  Per Nate’s suggestion I headed to the Spartina marshes near the bridge onto the island arriving right at high tide – it looked ideal for all the marsh sparrows.

With my “wellies” on I started walking through the vegetation at the edge of water.  Just a minute in I flushed a dark brown sparrow that flew out farther into the marsh – likely a Seaside Sparrow.  Soon thereafter I flushed a smaller and lighter brown sparrow that flew a short distance then perched nicely in view.  I could see indistinct, blurry striping on the flanks and chest, with buffy color on the chest.  I had a Nelson’s of the Atlantic race.  Now I needed to find a Saltmarsh to be able to add a statebird.  I continued to walk slowly through the marsh and flushed another Seaside that perched nearby most cooperatively.  If only I could get a Saltmarsh to do the same.  Over the next 30 minutes I flushed no less than 5 other smaller, lighter colored sparrows, but all flew deep into the marsh and dropped in without perching.  Undoubtedly all were Saltmarsh or Nelson’s, but none cooperated enough for a definitive ID.  Although I couldn’t add a statebird, at least that clarifies the marsh sparrows for me in SC – I added Nelson’s and took off Saltmarsh.

My Nelson’s Sparrow statebird map is inserted below.  All my sightings have been in coastal states and in WV and VT as a rarity.  I still need this species throughout its breeding and migration range in the central part of the country.  And I still need to clarify this species on the GA coast as well.

With 2 new statebirds that brings my SC state list to 294.  I ended up with 104 species for the 5-day trip.  All in all, a most pleasant trip giving me my coastal birding “fix”, at least for now.