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HBSP, 11-19 - 11-24



Hi Carolinabirders,

I enjoyed my family's annual week-long visit to Huntington Beach State Park
over Thanksgiving. As usual, I spend most of my time hard-core birding.

Probably the highlight of the week was the all-HBSP big day I did on the
22nd. The day started well with multiple groups of waterfowl flying south
over the causeway and excellent songbird movement. I heard HUNDREDS of A.
Pipits flying over, and the woods were filled with dozens of migrating
kinglets of both species, Blue-headed Vireos, Orange-crowned Warblers, and
an unbelievable number of Hermit Thrushes. In the thickets behind the
secondary dunes were a large group of Field Sparrows and an exceptionally
late Blue Grosbeak. In the afteroon, I worked the Jetty / North Parking Lot
area. There was no notable offshore movement, but I picked up almost all of
the ocean / marsh species. I ended the day with an amazing total - 120
species! That breaks my former HBSP big day record of 102 species by a lot!

Here are the highlight birds from the whole week:

+Red-throated Loon - Good numbers.
+Horned Grebe - just a couple.
+REDDISH EGRET - adult bird seen multiple times at the jetty ponds.
+Wood Stork - high count of 21 birds on Mullet Pond!
+Black & Surf Scoters - moving offshore by the thousands on 11-23.
+Merlin - flyover at North Parking Lot.
+Peregrine Falcon - Jetty Ponds.
+King Rail - heard several times at Sandpiper Pond.
+Virginia Rail - one bird flushed from edge of Sandpiper Pond.
+Sora - Mullet Pond.
+AMERICAN AVOCET - flyover at marsh boardwalk. Group of 6 birds.
+JAEGER SP. - extremely distant view from the beach. A bird chasing a gull
caught my eye and turned out to be a jaeger. Very exciting, if distant! This
was also on 11-23, during the exceptional south-bound offshore movement.
+LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL - I found this bird on 11-19 during a driving rain
storm. It was on the Litchfield Beach, just south of park HQ. It was a full
adult bird in basic plumage.
+Sandwich Tern - dozens in jetty area.
+Brown-headed Nuthatch - old entrance road.
+Sedge Wren - birds seen in several locations: marsh near jetty, wet spot
south of North Parking Lot, and several at edge of Sandpiper Pond.
+Hermit Thrush - very high numbers; dozens if not hundreds on 11-22.
+American Robin - higher numbers than in past years.
+American Pipit - very common; hundreds of flyovers on 11-22.
+Orange-crowned Warbler - a number of birds seen in various locations around
the park.
+BLUE GROSBEAK - one bird behind the secondary dunes near the park HQ. With
a group of Field Sparrows. It looked like an adult female. This seems like
an exceptionally late record, but I don't have any South Carolina bird
resources handy. Can anyone tell me how unusual this was?
+Field Sparrow - group of ~20.
+Nelson's & Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows - good views of dozens of birds.
The two species seemed to be very similar in abundance - with perhaps a few
more Nelson's. Amazingly, I failed to find a Seaside Sparrow despite
spending literally hours birding in the salt marsh (by that I mean walking
through six inches of water in active pursuit of marsh sparrows and other
birds).
+PINE SISKIN - flyover on 11-22. Surprising considering that this year has
so far been unexceptional for winter finches.

It was a very enjoyable week, with a lot of great birds to enjoy. Huntington
Beach is quite an amazing spot!

-Ken Behrens
Grove City College
Grove City, Pennsylvania
behrenskd1@gcc.edu