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Charleston CBC
- To: "Foothills Bird Club Listserv" <foothillsbirdclub@listbot.com>, "Carolinabirds" <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: Charleston CBC
- From: "J. Dwayne Martin" <dlmartin@twave.net>
- Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 20:00:03 -0400
- Reply-To: "J. Dwayne Martin" <dlmartin@twave.net>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Thanks to Van Atkins for putting together such a wonderful meeting! Even if
there hadn't been a single bird tallied for the weekend, it would have been
worth the trip just be in the company of kindred spirits----and not folks
who think you're absolutely nuts! It's really a nice treat to be around
other folks who love birds as much as us. We enjoyed meeting several new
folks whose names we see on Carolinabirds (Bob Ellis, Judy Murray, Sharon
Thunderburke, and Steve Patterson to name a few) and already feel like old
friends with some of them!
Besides all the socializing, BIRDING WAS FABULOUS! Dom and Emma D'Ostillio
accompanied us as we tallied 109 species for our field trips on Friday and
Saturday. Some of the highlights included the immature Dicksissel (a life
bird for us) at Magnolia Gardens, some rather uninhibited Soras casually
strolling about also at Magnolia Gardens (another lifer), the Bay-breasted
Warbler who had apparently gotten blown out to sea and as luck would have it
made it back to the Folly Beach pier to land on the hand of a fisherman 20
feet in front of us (I'll never forget him saying, "UM, folks I have a baby
sandpiper over here that may be injured"-----boy, did he get a lesson on
neotropical migration!), and a Loggerhead Shrike catching a huge flying
grasshopper in mid air--only to find himself being preyed upon seconds later
as a female Merlin came out of nowhere! He did a back flip and somehow,
luckily got away. He lost his hopper though.
The program by Bob and Martha Sargent on Saturday night was awesome and
filled with all sorts of things about hummers that we didn't know! (Did you
know that to really get a picture of how many hummers are in your yard,
count how many you see at one time and multiply by six!?!!) We also have
decided that we are going to have a Magnificent Hummingbird visit our feeder
this year----yeah, right! In our dreams!!!!
On the way home, we stopped by Orangeburg Sod Farms and found another
Merlin, two Kestrels, a Red-shouldered Hawk, and a Harrier who almost had a
Common Snipe for breakfast. We didn't have any other shorebirds (except
Killdeer), I guess because the fog was VERY thick and we could see only a
few feet. We also stopped by Lake Wallace in Bennettesville, SC and saw the
Western Grebe and Red-necked Phalarope (thanks to Susan Campbell for letting
everyone know!) We lucked up on the Phalarope as we saw Steven Harris and
Pete Worthington across the lake waving hysterically at us letting us know
that they were seeing it. Andrea Ceslowski was also there, so we jumped in
the car and sped around to the other side and got to see the bird. It
wasn't a GREAT look, but it was a look and was enough to give us another
lifer----bringing our total to 279 in just over two years!
Can't wait until the next CBC in Beaufort!!!!
PS: Bob Ellis, could you please e-mail us? Thanks!
*************************
Dwayne & Lori Martin
Foothills Bird Club
Claremont, NC
dlmartin@twave.net