Two South Carolina State Birds During a Myrtle Beach Vacation, October 2024

Each fall we take a little family vacation to the coast, and in 2024 we decided to head to Myrtle Beach in the third week of October.  As the trip neared the first step in my birding preparations was to check my eBird Needs Alerts.  Unfortunately, there were no targets for me in SC.  But since I really miss birding the coast, at least I would have the chance to do some coastal birding even if there were no realistic state bird possibilities.

Almost as an afterthought I realized since we wouldn’t be too far from the SC/NC state line, NC targets might be possible too if they were in the southeastern corner of the state.  Luckily the first alert I checked featured three “nearby” NC state bird targets – Long-billed Curlew, Hudsonian Godwit, and Black-chinned Hummingbird.  The Curlew was reported sporadically at Shackleford Banks, an isolated island that would require a 4-hour drive and then a passenger ferry to access.  I ruled that one out because of the difficulty accessing the bird’s location.  The Godwit was being seen daily at Fort Fisher, which was “only” a 90-minute drive plus a car ferry away, so that one was feasible.  And the Hummingbird was being seen reliably in Snead’s Ferry about 90 minutes up the coast from Fort Fisher.  So that gave me 2 NC targets to try for.  As luck would have it a birding friend from home, Bill Hooker, was going to be on the coast at the same time, so we decided to meet up in Fort Fisher to look for the Godwit together.

That was the good news.  Now for the bad news:  The Godwit wasn’t seen for several days before my trip.  And although we tried to remain optimistic, Bill and I couldn’t locate the Hudsonian despite having numerous Marbled Godwits.  And when I headed to Snead’s Ferry for the Hummingbird, the first thing the homeowner said was that its visits to the feeder had become more sporadic – not a good omen,  I stayed for 2 hours and didn’t see my target, though I did have multiple visits from an adult male and a female Ruby-throat.  Alas, it was a long unhappy drive back to the Myrtle Beach hotel. 

The next morning I decided to do a seawatch from one of the fishing piers in Myrtle Beach to see what might be flying by.  I chose Springmaid Pier because it was the longest one, and just a mile from our hotel.  I arrived a few minutes before sunrise and the pier was already full of fishermen.  That initially made viewing rather difficult, but I eventually found a spot near the end that gave me good views of the ocean.  Despite multiple scans I didn’t see much flying by, with a lone Common Loon and a Black-bellied Plover being the best. 

Then on one of my scans I spotted a distant bird first flapping low over the water, then soaring just inches over the surface.  It was way too small to be a Pelican or Gannet.  I had a Shearwater!  Now I had to figure out which one.  I’m quite familiar with Shearwaters from my pelagic and whale watch trips mostly in the northeast, so I was optimistic I could ID it.  Although it was pretty far out, I had a long 30-second scope view of the bird so rather good views all things considered.  The first fieldmark I saw was that it was dark above, eliminating Cory’s.  Its wingbeats weren’t terribly rapid, eliminating Manx and Audubon’s.  And I could occasionally see that it was pale below, eliminating Sooty.  By the process of elimination, I concluded it was a Great Shearwater.  When I got back to the hotel and consulted eBird Great was by far the most likely Shearwater that time of year, though still a rarity from shore in SC.  That’s certainly not one I had expected for this trip.

My state bird map for Great Shearwater is inserted below.  The light-blue shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The cross-hatched states are those where I’ve yet to see it in its regular range.  And the dark-blue state (CT) is one where I’ve seen it as a rarity.

Two days later I did a short seawatch from our hotel balcony and twice picked out single Great Shearwaters flying by.  I ended up with 3 Greats (all flying south down the coast) in about 6 hours of seawatches over 3 days.  Maybe they’re not as rare that time of year after all.

The following morning I had planned to bird nearby Huntington Beach SP, including the mile-long walk to the north jetty.  But when I woke up early that morning it was raining and quite windy – hardly good conditions for a 2-mile round-trip walk on the beach.  The two previous days there had been a report of a Vermillion Flycatcher at Santee NWR which was 2 ½ hours inland.  Directions seemed to be confusing and I wasn’t familiar with Santee, so I didn’t consider it for a chase.  But since I now had a spare morning, I decided to give it a try.  With about 30 minutes of research, I found the location (Pine Island Unit of the refuge), downloaded a map of the trails, and had coordinates of the bird.  I just needed to figure out where to park in order to start my search for the Flycatcher.  I left the hotel at 6, way too early to send out texts asking for parking instructions.  Finally at 8 I sent out the request and got an instant answer.  Luckily I did because I was tentatively aiming for the wrong parking area.

I arrived at 8:30 and started the mile walk along trails on the Pine Island Unit.  After first skirting mature pines, the trail went through extensive wetlands that were full of Sedge Wrens.  But I didn’t have time to stop – my target was still ahead of me.  The bird was most often seen perched on a row of Tree Swallow nesting boxes located along a side trail with Lake Marion to the north and the wetlands to the south.  When I arrived the wind was blowing quite strongly off the lake and temps were in the 50s – not exactly the best conditions to find a flycatcher of any type.  I scanned the boxes but came up empty.  Then I noticed a small bird fly by and quickly got it in my binocs as it landed on one of the boxes – I had the Vermillion Flycatcher!  It was a female or immature, with a pinkish orange belly.  I got this passable phonescoped photo of the bird.

SC is my third state for Vermillion Flycatcher as a rarity.

It’s interesting that I started the trip hoping for 2 stakeout state birds in NC, but instead ended up with 2 unexpected birds in SC.  With 2 additions to my SC state list that brings my total to 306.