Sanctuaries near coastal S.C. prime for birders

Coastal North and South Carolina offer some of the best year-round birding in North America. We have places like Alligator National Wildlife Refuge and Cape Hatteras National Seashore. In late April, I traveled with other members of our local Audubon chapter to some other great wildlife areas -- the Audubon Center at Beidler Forest and the ACE Basin of South Carolina.

Beidler Forest is all I envision a cypress swamp should be: black water, cypress trees that are hundreds of years old, tupelo gum trees and lots of birds. Of course, it also has alligators and snakes, but miles of boardwalk trails keep them at a distance. The opportunity to explore this habitat makes it well worth the $7 fee ($6 for Audubon members). If you are headed toward Charleston, S.C., Beidler Forest is minutes off Interstate 26 near Harleyville.

Prothonotary warblers steal the show at Beidler. The male is unforgettable with its rich yellow head and breast contrasted against blue-gray wings, and the old name of golden swamp warbler seems much more apt. These striking birds flitted around and above us as we walked. Shelley Rutkin added the warbler to her birder's life list and recalls it as "an experience I'll never forget; I really felt as if I'd met the bird." As a stranger kindly motioned us to approach, Shelley also realized that "birding is about people as well as birds," and that this only adds to the fun.

Edisto-area basin's diversity

A few miles farther south, the ACE Basin is a varied marsh and forest habitat that lies between Walterboro and Edisto Beach. It takes its name from the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers that course through the area. Much of the basin was formerly cultivated in rice. Today, it is a mix of freshwater impoundments, tidal marshes and upland maritime forests rich in birds and other wildlife, thanks to the cooperation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy and others. It includes thousands of acres of private property, much of it protected through conservation easements.

We focused on three places: the Grove Plantation unit of ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, Bear Island and Donnelley Wildlife Management Area. At the refuge, Mississippi and swallow-tailed kites roam warm-weather skies as birds of prey, and live oaks are home to brightly colored yellow-throated warblers, blue grosbeaks, tanagers and orioles. As Tara O'Leary relaxed in a porch rocker at the antebellum mansion housing the refuge office, she jokingly asked the departing ranger to yell "kite" if he saw one. When the call came only seconds later, several birders sprang down the stairs just in time to see a Mississippi kite sail by. Later, a pair of graceful swallow-tailed kites joined some of their cousins above.

The marshes and impoundments at Donnelley and Bear Island have ducks in the winter and families of eagles, ospreys and herons in the summer. In spring, birders encounter a large variety of wading birds, as well as migrants from Central and South America. Least bitterns rarely show themselves among marsh reeds, but early Saturday we spied not one but four, along with black-necked stilts, tri-colored herons and a large flock of white ibises. Bobolinks fed in drier grass, as a shrike and flycatcher perched on the wires.

Marilyn Shuping thinks that the bobolinks alone were worth the trip, since she rarely sees them anymore in Forsyth County. The group also observed soaring eagles, a nesting osprey and a wood stork rookery with chicks in the nest.

Upland forests were habitat for red-headed and other woodpeckers along with more warblers. Kitty Jensen is new to birding and thought it "cool" that she found and identified a female yellow warbler. Overall, the group tallied 112 species on the three-day trip.

If you go, stay in Walterboro or historic Beaufort (pronounced "Bewfort"). Obtain maps and information from the Donnelley office of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. Concentrate your birding during cooler morning hours and bring water, sunscreen and, especially in summer, insect repellent.

■ Bird's-Eye View is joint column by Ron Morris and Phil Dickinson. Today's column was written by Dickinson. Dickinson is a legal writer. He has been an active birder for 15 years, and is currently president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County. Morris retired after 24 years as curator at the N.C. Zoo. He has studied birds on four continents, 22 countries and many islands. If you have a birding question or story idea, write to Bird's-Eye View in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101-3159, or send an e-mail to birding@wsjournal.com. Please type "birds" in the subject line.