Late in January 2023 I started to notice reports of a Bahama Mockingbird in Cape Canaveral, FL. I’ve birded south FL a number of times, picking up several rarities there over the years. But there has never been a Bahama Mockingbird there during any of my trips. As a result, this species has been a key target of mine. And since this individual was relatively “close”, at only halfway down the peninsula, it was definitely one to chase after.
And of course, there was also statebird potential along my
route back home through GA and SC. My
route would take me along the coast, and with a little research, I found 7 statebird
targets in GA and 3 in SC. My two
previous blog posts summarized the FL and GA portions of my trip. This post details my searches on February 6 for
3 possible statebirds in SC:
- Black-chinned Hummingbird coming to a feeder in Mount Pleasant,
- Western Kingbirds at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, and
- Saltmarsh Sparrow most anywhere in appropriate habitat along the coast.
I first birded Fort Moultrie in October 2022 with the help
of local birder Craig Watson. Craig was
not only a great help in finding our target bird of that day, a Clay-colored
Sparrow, but he also described how the Fort was a magnet for rarities in
general. And sure enough for much of
this winter there had been a pair of Western Kingbirds reliably foraging around
the Fort property.
The feeder that the Black-chinned Hummingbird was
frequenting was only a short distance from Fort Moultrie, so it would be easy
enough to try for both birds in the same day.
I reached out to Craig to see if he knew how to get permission to look
for the Hummingbird, only to find out that the bird was actually visiting
Craig’s feeders. Although Craig was
going to be away when I was passing through, he gave me permission to view his
backyard feeding station to look for the Black-chinned.
Now for the bad news – it didn’t look like timing would be
right to try for Saltmarsh Sparrows.
They and their Nelson’s and Seaside cousins are easiest to find on high
tides. Unfortunately, I would miss the
higher tides during my rather short visit along the coast. I guess this relatively common wintering bird
would have to wait for another trip to the coast.
So with my research completed, I was ready to pursue my 2 SC
target birds.
I started the day at sunrise on the northern GA coast at
Tybee Island, adding Western Tanager and Black Scoter to that state list. I then hit the road and arrived at Craig’s
house in Mount Pleasant just after noon.
Within a couple minutes I had positioned myself in his backyard under a
beautiful spreading live oak tree, waiting for the Hummingbird to arrive. There was quite a bit of activity at the
feeders, but the hummingbird feeders were quiet. Then about 30 minutes later I heard the
Hummingbird calling behind me, likely perched in a nearby tree. Try as I might, I couldn’t track the bird
down. I know Black-chinned calls are
similar to Ruby-throated, but with no Ruby-throateds at these feeders in nearly
a month, and with the Black-chinned reported on every recent visit, a calling
bird would be much more likely to be the Black-chinned rather than a
Ruby-throated. Not definitive, but certainly
strongly circumstantial.
I waited another 30 minutes or so but with no other
observations of my target Hummingbird. Although
I was sure of the call, it would be nice to get a visual of the bird. But I didn’t want to spend too much time here
and miss out on the nearby Western Kingbirds.
So I decided to make a quick run over to Fort Moultrie, hope that the
Kingbirds would be cooperative, then come back to the feeders to spend more
time with the Hummingbird.
After a short 15-minute drive I pulled into the parking lot
of Fort Moultrie. Sightings of the
Kingbirds this winter had been all over the Fort, though the most recent
reports put them behind Battery Jasper. So
I walked right to the field behind the brick building of Battery Jasper and did
a quick binocular scan. I almost
immediately picked out a bird perched on a chain-link fence in the
distance. And a quick scope view
confirmed I had my target Western Kingbird.
Then a moment later I spotted the second Kingbird nicely perched in a
small tree in the nearby field.
My statebird map for Western Kingbird is inserted below. The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range. The four cross-hatched states are those where I’ve yet to see it where it is a regular species. And now SC is the 6th state where I’ve seen Western Kingbird as a rarity (the brown-shaded states). This species is certainly prone to vagrancy in fall and winter along the east coast.
I spent all of just 6 minutes at Fort Moultrie – can’t ask for a more efficient chase! So just 40 minutes after I left Craig’s yard I was back to the feeders in hopes of better views of the Hummingbird. After another 30-minute wait I once again heard the Hummingbird calling, this time from the live oak. I anxiously waited for it to come to the feeders, but no such luck. Then maybe 15 minutes later I heard more calls from the live oak – perhaps it never left and was perching there the entire time. But unfortunately, still no visits to the feeders. All told I ended up spending nearly 2 and a half hours at the feeders, heard the bird call multiple times on 3 different occasions, but it never came to the feeder. That was a frustrating chase – at least it wasn’t a life bird, as I’ve seen this species in many western states and now 3 in the east as a rarity.
The Hummingbird and Kingbird bring my SC total to 299. It’s too bad I couldn’t chase after the Saltmarsh Sparrow on this trip – it would have been a nice one to have as #300. Next time…
And for the entire trip I added 9 statebirds – 2 in FL
(which were also life birds), 5 in GA, and 2 in SC. Although I missed several along the way, it
was still a most successful trip.
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