Tag Archives: south carolina birding tour

Biridng Trips and Tours in SC

Anhinga fish flipping

By Sally Siko

One of the most fascinating species of birds that I enjoy photographing are Anhingas.
While on a recent birding trip at Huntington Beach State Park I was lucky enough to observe this one using its sharp bill to spear a fish, flip it into the air, and then swallow it head-first!



Anhingas are actually a species that is on the increase here in the Tarheel State. They favor habitats containing freshwater with cypress trees and are most often spotted hunting for a meal in swamps, ponds and lakes in the coastal plain and in the eastern Piedmont regions.



As you may have guessed, Anhingas eat a wide range of aquatic creatures such as fish, crayfish, small invertebrates, insects, and frogs.
Masters of underwater hunting expeditions, they are super entertaining to watch wrangling a meal.
In fact, they’ve evolved with some unique ways to hunt underwater more efficiently.

For one, they lack the water proofing oils found in duck species. Since (surprisingly) they’re not the strongest swimmers, they become waterlogged once their feathers become saturated. This added weight allows the Anhinga to dive deeper than it could if it was waterproof.

Another specialized feature of the Anhinga is that they do not have nostrils. This adaptation means they’ve got no worries about accidentally breathing in water while hunting below the surface.

As for the fish flipping technique shown here?
Well by tossing the fish into the air, the Anhinga is trying to manipulate its prey into a head-first downward position so that the fish doesn’t get caught in its throat.
Pretty cool, huh?

I think that it’s neat that a bird that looks like it belongs in the Jurassic Period would actually be the one species which is holding the latest in cutting edge freshwater hunting physiology, lol!

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the full frame beast of an SLR, the mighty @canonusa
#5Ds

Birding Trips and Birdwatching Tours in SC

Snowy Egrets at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC

By Sally Siko

Although their numbers have been in decline in recent years, Snowy Egrets are still a relatively common sight in our wetlands and marshy areas of coastal of North Carolina.
With that bright yellow eye cere, the crown-full of white plumes and a menacing stare Snowy Egrets are indeed a striking bird to photograph, especially in the slanting light of an early morning.



Don’t let their delicate appearance fool you though. These beautiful birds are expert hunters, deadly assassins to fish, crustaceans, small invertebrates and insects alike.
Wading through shallow waters, they’ll use their yellow toes to stir up the mud in order to flush out a snack buried beneath their feet.
Once the prey tries darts away they’ll strike with deadly precision often impaling their meal with its bill before swallowing it whole.



Snowy’s are a year round resident of coastal NC, however since they are a migratory species as well, your odds of seeing one are better duration the spring, and months.
They are also noted as post breeding transient visitors to the Piedmont region and western NC from late July to September in inland areas of the state.
Aren’t they lovely?

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Birding Trips and Birdwatching Tours in SC

Seaside Sparrow sighting in Murrells Inlet SC

By Sally Siko

Though they’re not the flashiest of species, I always enjoy seeing Seaside Sparrows whenever I go birding along the coast.
With those long legs, these little guys are perfectly suited for a life hunting for a meal in and along the shallow marsh waters.



In North Carolina, it is found throughout the year in our coastal/tidal marshes, though they do seem to shift their habitat, preferences in the spring and winter months.
Because salt marshes tend have shifting tidal amplitudes, Seaside Sparrows avoid nesting in such sites.
Instead they choose to breed in brackish marshes, both along the coast and at locally around the inner portions of Pamlico Sound and the tidal creeks entering into it.
From fall to spring, birds move into richer salt marshes, though they also winter in brackish marshes as well.



Photographing Seaside Sparrows is moderately difficult task as they usually stay hidden in dense marsh grass.
There it will search for spiders, seeds, marine invertebrates and insects in the dirt and mud and on nearby plants.
I got in a few lucky shots when this one popped up from the reeds to look for a meal on the mudflats.
Isn’t he sweet?

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Biridng Trips and Tours in SC

A Tricolored Heron in Murrells Inlet South Carolina

By Sally Siko

Whenever I travel to the coast to go birding, I’m always happy to catch a glimpse of a Tricolored Heron.
These guys are beautiful birds and are interesting to watch while hunting for a meal.



I found this one earlier this month while birding at Huntington Beach State Park, SC.
Head moving from side to side, he moved through the water slowly, scanning the surface like a cat stalking it’s prey. When the heron spotted a fish, he froze momentarily as he lined up his shot, then struck into the water like a dart.
I’d estimate his catch rate at about 70% which wasn’t bad considering most of the fish I’d seen were small minnows.



Though Tricolored Herons are a year round resident of North Carolina, they are technically a migratory species which tend to over winter here in lesser numbers than which are found during the summer.
They prefer to hunt and nest in salt and brackish water areas such as tidal marshes and mudflats found along our coastlines but Tricolored’s may also occasionally be spotted looking for a meal in freshwater environments (especially marshes & shallow ponds) in the inland areas of eastern part of the state.
One has even showed up earlier this month in the Raleigh area (central part of the state) which was pretty neat!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Birding Trips and Birdwatching Tours in SC, Field Notes

Wood Storks in Murrells Inlet SC

By Sally Siko

Of all the species of birds to be found at the Huntington Beach State Park in S.C., few capture the attention of visitors more than the Wood Stork.
In addition to their *ahem* unique appearance, these birds are incredibly interesting to watch hunting for a snack on the mudflats.



While observing this large flock in action, honestly it was tough to choose which bird to photograph at any given time.
With so much going on, I managed to photograph a nice series of pics of one trying to eat a Blue Crab which was pretty cool!The bird would hold the crab in its mouth and shake its head, crunching down on the crabs shell. One by one the crabs legs popped off until only the cephalothorax remained.Then the Stork swallowed the crab whole in one gulp without so much as a pinch of Old Bay seasoning or melted butter to wash it down with lol!



Wood Storks are best found in the eastern counties of the Carolinas from June through September. Our largest species of wader, they prefer to hunt for a meal in swamps, freshwater marshes and in shallow ponds.Wood Storks are very particular about the depth of water that they’ll hunt for a meal in.Preferring no more than a foot of water to rise up their legs, the flock actually waited until low tide before finally coming down from out of the trees to hunt in the rapidly draining marsh below.
Pretty neat, huh?

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Birdwatching News

The Limpkins are still hanging out in South Carolina

Happy to spot a pair of Limpkins this week in their usual spot while birding near Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet SC.
Although I only laid eyes on one of them, I could hear it’s mate calling out from the deeper woods. Freak’n awesome.
Alligator concerns aside, it was so much fun to walk through a cypress swamp to find these beautiful birds again!



Limpkins are freshwater foragers and are best found in wooded swamp areas which fits the description of this habitat perfectly.
Seeing these birds so far north was really interesting and I was able to watch the bird hunting for snails in the cypress swamp for quite a while.
They are picky eaters, choosing the perfect snails and then cracking the shells open on a rock to get at the soft meat inside.
No matter where they are found, Limpkins depend heavily on snail populations for feeding. As seen in these photos, they’ve got bills which are specialized for feeding on the snails, with a slight curve to the right near the tip to aid extracting snails from their shells, and a gap near the tip that facilitates grasping snail shells.



This Limpkin and it’s mate are pretty far away from their normal home range which typically only extends north from South America into Florida. From what I’ve heard from local reports, this pair actually nested here this past summer and successfully raised a few chicks.
In fact this isn’t the only pair who have been found in SC. In recent years other Limpkins have been sighted as far inland as the Goose Creek reservoir including a breeding pair which was the first ever nest recorded in the state.
Hopefully when I return here for my next birding tour here next month, I’ll be able to locate their nest and be able to photograph the little ones.

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Field Notes, The Adventures of your bird watching Admin

A White Ibis at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC

While birding on a recent trip to Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet SC I spotted a handsome White Ibis preening up in a tree.
It was cold and overcast outside but it was neat to be able to grab a few portraits of this beautiful white bird set against the pale grey sky.



When they’re not spotted in the trees along the waters edge, Ibis’s are most often seen wading in shallow water sweeping their head form side-to-side in search of food. Using their long, curved bills to probe into the mud, they are on a constant hunt for crabs, crayfish and other small crustaceans. Once a meal is caught, they’ll swallow their prey whole which is rather impressive given that much of their prey has a hard shell or pincers.



Ibis’s are a year round resident of the Carolinas and are a relatively common sight feeding along the shorelines of our coastal marshes and estuaries.
You can also spot Ibises foraging for food on suburban lawns and mudflats hunting for insects, frogs, snails, marine worms, snakes, and even small fish swimming in shallow water ponds or creeks.

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved beast, the mighty mirrorless @canonusa #r5

Field Notes

Horned Grebes at Huntington Beach State Park

Photographing birds on the ocean is a fun but challenging pursuit. Especially on days with rough seas when the birds riding on the water at a distance are obscured by rolling waves.
That’s why I was thrilled to finally capture a good photo or two of this pair of Horned Grebes at a close range from my vantage point of shooting on the rock jetty at Huntington Beach State Park.
With those piercing red eyes and that lovely black and white plumage, Horned Grebes are truly striking looking birds when your lucky enough to catch a good look at one floating on the Atlantic.

These handsome birds are a relatively common sight swimming in the ocean just offshore of the Carolinas during the wintertime months.
That being said, they are also occasionally found a little further inland on bays and estuaries, as well as on our coastal fresh water lakes and brackish impoundments.

During the winter, their diet mostly consists of fish as well as crustaceans, mollusks and insects.
But, did you know that Horned Grebe’s regularly eats some of its own feathers?
So much so that its stomach usually contains a matted plug of them. Like the strainer covering the hole in your kitchen sink, this plug may function as a filter screen or may hold fish bones in the stomach a little longer until they can be digested. The parents even feed feathers to their chicks to get the plug started early.
Crazy huh?

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved beast, the mighty mirrorless @canonusa#R5

Field Notes, The Adventures of your bird watching Admin

A Ruddy Turnstone encounter at Huntington Beach State Park

Here’s a little bird that never fails to capture my attention when visiting the beach, the Ruddy Turnstone.


I spotted this one while on to Huntington Beach State Park in SC.
Normally they scoot away once I start heading in their direction but this one was quite friendly and even approached me as I walked along the jetty.
It was neat to take advantage of the amicable nature of this curious little Turnstone and be able to catch a couple portraits at a close range.



Ruddy Turnstones are mainly wintertime residents of the Carolina’s and are usually found searching for meal along the shorelines of brackish and saltwater marshes, ponds, oyster bed inlets and beaches.
Aptly named for their habit of flipping over stones, shells, and seaweed to find prey, their diet is made up of mostly insects, though some have been observed eating plant materials, bird eggs, and even carrion.
During migration and winter, their diet shifts to mainly marine invertebrates, such as small crustaceans and mollusks.
Aren’t they beautiful?

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved beast, the mighty mirrorless @canonusa #R5

Field Notes

Black Swans in South Carolina

I finally experienced my first Black Swan event…


Nope, I wasn’t filled with a sense of uneasiness or foreboding normally associated with the term, rather I was elated to finally have an opportunity to photograph these lovely birds for the first time.
As was the case with the Mute Swans I posted late last year, I spotted this pair of Black Swans near a roadside pond along Rt.17 near Murrells Inlet SC.

Black Swans are not native to the Carolina’s. They are found in southern regions of Australia and have also been introduced into England and Japan. Most of the ones spotted here in the United States are either captive farm birds or escapees who have found a home in the wild.
With those intense orange eyes, onyx plumage, a wingspan reaching 6.6ft and a weight of nearly 20lbs, these beauties are impressive birds to catch a good look at.


Although I’ve seen Black Swans in the past, I’d never had a camera in hand during the encounter so it was really cool to be able to photograph this intense looking species up close.

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved beast, the mighty mirrorless @canonusa#R5