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. 

Yellow Rail But No Other Targets, Southwestern, LA – November 2017

As my upcoming November business trip to Houston began to take shape it was looking like I might have a free day.  So I decided to take a day of vacation and do some local birding in the area – which would be cheaper than incurring change fees to fly home a day earlier.  However, with some eBird research I wasn’t finding any possible TX statebirds nearby to chase after.  So I set my sights on southwestern LA, and found recent reports of several possible statebirds, many of which were associated with rice harvesting in the Thornwell area.  Specifically quite a number of Yellow Rails were being seen, along with a few American Bitterns (alas I still need this common bird for my LA list).  My first ever Yellow Rails were 2 I saw in AR in October 2000 when I was lucky enough to find a combine harvesting rice.  That was a tremendous day, when I spent almost the entire time walking alongside the combine, also finding 2 extremely rare Black Rails, and hundreds each of Soras and Virginias.  With those fond memories I was really looking forward to another opportunity to watch rice being harvested.

Now I had to do my detailed research.  I noticed that several of the eBird reports were from Donna Dittmann and Steve Cardiff.  In February 2017 I birded in their Baton Rouge yard to add Calliope Hummingbird and Purple Finch to my LA list.  So I reached out to them again, this time to get advice on their Rails.  Unfortunately it turns out that they had coordinated in advance with a rice farmer to be at his fields when he was harvesting, so instead I would have to drive around the fields in the area and be lucky enough to find a field that was being harvested when I was there.  That approach worked for me in AR – hopefully it would work for me in LA as well.

Rice harvesting doesn’t happen until later in the day to allow for the morning dew to evaporate, so I could make at least one other stop before heading to the Thornwell rice fields.  I decided to start at dawn at Peveto Woods - a remnant patch of woods along the coast which can be a great migrant trap.  There had been several recent reports of late fall warblers there that I still need for LA.  There were also a number of recent records of Franklin’s Gulls at various spots along the coast.  And then there was a spot not too far away in Calcasieu Parish where a pair of White-tailed Hawks had been seen for nearly a month.  So along with watching the rice harvest, that would make for a full day of birding (and driving).  My plans were set.

I arrived at Peveto Woods right at sunrise and began to bird the woodlands.  There were good numbers of birds present, but all were wintering birds.  I found several Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers, but couldn’t find any late migrants.  A quick stop at the nearby beach yielded a nice Piping Plover, and a couple Western Willets, but nothing else.  So with visions of flushing Rails dancing in my head (it wasn’t yet the season for sugarplum visions), I headed out of Peveto to make my way to Thornwell.  Along the way I stopped at each flock of Gulls and Terns I spotted roosting along the coast to look for Franklin’s, but with no luck.  Things had to pick up when I got to Thornwell, right?

As I neared Thornwell I started to see numerous rice fields, though almost all had already been harvested.  As I got closer I spotted a large flock of white Geese flushing from a field in the distance - I guessed there could be 1,500 birds in the flock, which included a number of White-fronts.  But rather than stopping to check out the Geese, I needed to focus on finding a rice field being harvested.  As I started to crisscross the back roads I began to find quite a number of fields that hadn’t yet been harvested.  But I couldn’t find any activity in any of the fields.  I spent at least an hour driving around the area, checking out fields along maybe 15 miles of roadways, but with no luck.  At 11:30 I had to stop to take a work call, so I pulled over at what seemed to be a nice location and began the call.  Just then I noticed a small Flycatcher fly from a nearby tree – it was an immature Vermillion Flycatcher.  Not a new LA statebird (it was my 3rd for LA), but a nice bird nonetheless.  I got this record phonescoped shot of the bird, which had a yellow belly rather than a more typical pink or red.

My call ended a few minutes later, and I decided to call it quits on looking for a rice field being harvested.  Just then a large tractor appeared over a small rise in the distance.  It was apparently cutting the tall grass growing in this field.  I put my binocs on it and noticed its tires were wet.  Maybe this field would be wet enough to harbor a few Rails too.  So I trained my binocs on the tractor as it cut the field.  Soon a large flock of Cattle Egrets appeared out of nowhere to feed in the newly cut grass.  Then three Caracaras dropped in to eat.  Then I spotted a small dark Rail fly out of the grass which I think was a Sora – a quick 2-second view and the distance made for a difficult ID.  A minute later a couple more likely Soras flew out.  And just then a Rail flew out which luckily fluttered low over the grass for maybe 10 to 15 seconds.  At one point as it banked a bit I caught flashes of white wing patches – it was a Yellow Rail.  Not the best of views, but good enough to check it off.  I’m glad it wasn’t a life bird – I’ve also heard it as a nester in MN and of course saw the migrants in the rice fields in AR.

The tractor disappeared over the small ridge and headed to the north.  I tried to re-find it but could never get close enough to it to watch for more Rails.  The consolation was while looking for the tractor I found another large flock of Geese and a flock of dark Ibis that included both Glossy and White-faced.  I decided to call it quits, with a nice list of 45 species for the area, including a wild guess of 3,000 Snow Geese, along with at least 5 Ross’ and 500 White-fronts, and an estimated 300 dark Ibis.

Next I was off to try for the White-tailed Hawks.  Recent sightings had mentioned both an adult and an immature, and eBird reports seemed to suggest they were pretty regular in the area.  So I was optimistic.  When I arrived I quickly found a pair of large raptors perched in the distance in low trees along the back side of a cattle pasture.  Very typical habitat for White-tails, and typical roosts as well.  The one bird was facing me, and with scope views I could see it was all white below.  I was about to tick it off as a White-tailed, but decided to get better views first.  A few minutes later it took off and one of the first things I spotted was white at the base of the tail – but then I saw red nearer the tip.  It was a Krider’s Red-tailed Hawk – reasonably similar to an adult White-tailed, but no cigar.  Later the other perched raptor flew from its perch and it too was a Red-tailed.  I then went to another part of the prairie and spotted an all dark Buteo with its back to me.  I instantly thought it was the immature White-tailed, but with a scope view I saw white feathering on the shoulders.  Soon it turned a bit and I could see it was a rare Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk.  I spent at least another hour in the area, spotting other Red-tails, several Harriers and Turkey Vultures, but no White-tailed Hawks.  Although I wouldn’t question anyone’s IDs, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few birders spotted the Krider’s thinking it was the adult White-tail, and the Harlan’s might be the immature White-tail, especially if they were distant.

It was a long day which yielded just one new LA statebird, giving me 276 for my state list.  And although I hoped for more, I ended up with a nice tally of 90 species for the day.  Plus finding the Vermillion Flycatcher and the Harlan’s and Krider’s Red-tails was fun.  If only I had found a rice field being harvested…

Four Statebirds in Louisiana, Reportable Plus 15, September, 2014

The old ABA state reporting thresholds were calculated as half the total number of species ever recorded in that state.  Those thresholds would slowly inch up over time as new birds were added to statelists.  At least the thresholds used to increase, since the ABA no longer publishes these thresholds.  As a result, to stay comfortably over what would be newly calculated thresholds, I’ve revised my statelisting goals to be at least 15 over the old thresholds.  In other words, as long as less than 30 new birds are added to a given state’s list, my “Reportable Plus 15” goal would keep me above newly calculated thresholds. 

My LA statelist has been over the old ABA reporting threshold for some time, but was only 11 birds over the old threshold.  That meant I needed 4 more to reach my Reportable Plus 15 goal.  My biggest opportunities for new statebirds in LA are migrant passerines and freshwater shorebirds, so a short trip in spring or fall migration could be pretty fruitful.  I had been thinking about a migrant trip in LA for some time, but had never gotten around to it.  Then with a business trip to Houston coming up in September, I decided to add a vacation day and do some birding in southwestern LA, one of my favorite birding areas, in hopes of finally getting some nice migrants.  I contacted my LA birding friend Marty Guidry who knows that part of the state like the back of his hand, and he came up with an itinerary to hit a number of passerine and shorebird hotspots.  Better than that, Marty was available to join me and show me around.

The day was forecasted to be hot and humid, so I was mentally prepared for the 75 degree dewpoint when I stepped out of my hotel room pre-dawn that morning.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the horde of biting insects at our first stop at Sabine NWR.  Although the DEET kept the mosquitoes from biting it had no effect on the deer flies.  We had hoped for Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at this dawn stop, but after just a few minutes we decided to head to our next spot and hopefully less bugs. 

Next we headed to the coast to check out a recent report of two of my targets, Barn Owl and Chuck-will’s-widow, in a patch of woods.  But the directions were not very specific, so we checked out a couple spots before stopping at a homestead surrounded by live oaks.  As we pulled up we flushed a large owl, which got us excited initially, but just turned out to be a Great Horned.  A few seconds later I noticed some movement in the trees and found a female Wilson’s Warbler – statebird #1.  Our first migrant passerine was a new statebird.  If only it continued to be that easy the rest of the day.

In my statebird map for Wilson’s Warbler I’ve seen it throughout the west, but in far fewer states in the east and especially in the southeast where it is less common.

Next stop was Peveto Woods which is well known as a migrant hotspot.  As we got out of the car we were instantly attacked by a swarm of deer flies.  Then the mosquitoes found us.  We could have probably coped with all the biting flies if we were seeing a good number of birds, but instead the woods were dead.  We had exactly 2 migrants – a Redstart and a Magnolia Warbler.  Although we might have found something else if we decided to stay longer, once again the flies caused us to retreat to the car after a short stop.

Our next several stops were along the coast at the southwest corner of the state to try for migrant shorebirds and maybe some passerines.  However, we were not successful on either accord.  The highlight though was an aerial display of a Caracara and Peregrine Falcon chasing each other low over the trees. 

It was almost lunch time and my new statebird total was stuck at a disappointing 1.  After a quick burger, we headed to East Jetty Beach in Cameron to try for Snowy Plover.  There were quite a number of shorebirds, terns, gulls and pelicans on the beach to scan through.  Eventually I found 1 very distant very pale plover that Marty and I both felt was a Snowy.  Statebird #2.  I’ve now seen Snowy Plover in most of its regular coastal states (just missing it in MS), and also in 6 states where it is an inland nester.

 

Marty then took me to several more islands of woods where he’s had good number of passerine migrants in the past.  But we kept striking out on the migrants.  At least the flies weren’t a problem anymore.  At one spot we were walking through the woods a short distance apart and I heard an odd sound of something flying overhead towards where Marty was.  I didn’t see it through the tree canopy, but it sort of sounded like muffled bird’s wings.  A few seconds later Marty yelled over that he just had a Barn Owl fly in, and then fly back my way.  Again I didn’t see the bird – ugh – missed it a second time.  But soon we heard several Blue Jays calling loudly nearby.  Thinking that maybe they were attacking the owl, we tracked down the Jays and sure enough there was the Barn Owl.  Statebird #3.  My statebird map for Barn Owl is really spotty – I’ve mostly only found this species when a local birder knows of a stakeout location.

Our last stop was back at the Wetland Walkway at Sabine NWR, where the flies had been so bad at dawn.  This time they were bearable, and we made a quick loop around the walkway.  As we neared the wooden observation platform I noticed a flycatcher fly up to the railing – a male Vermilion Flycatcher!  A very nice bird, and certainly the rarest thing we saw all day, but I didn’t need it for LA.  We scanned the open water for whistling ducks but with no success.  As we continued around the loop I tried playing some tape for Virginia Rail, another of my targets, whenever we got near patches of cattails.  Several times I got responses from King Rails giving their slow and low pitched grunt calls.  And then finally I heard two responses that were faster and higher – Virginia Rails.  Statebird #4.  I’ve had this common marsh bird in most states, but still have some gaps to fill in the eastern US.

With 4 new statebirds that gives me 251 in LA and puts me 15 over the old ABA threshold for LA – Reportable Plus 15!  LA is my 32^nd state with at least 15 over threshold, and have 13 more that are at least at the threshold though not 15 over.  With a little research I found that the LA statelist as of March 2014was 479.  That would yield a threshold of 239.5, up from 236 in the last ABA report in 2010.  That means I’m 11 ½ over what would be the present threshold.  So I’m safe until there are 23 new birds added to the LA statelist.