Five members of SIB left Seabrook Island at 6:30 am on Friday October 28th along with David Gardner, director of environmental education at Camp St. Christopher, to drive to Bear Island Wildlife Management Area about an hour south along Highway 17. Our plan was to arrive for sunrise at about 7:35am and spend a few hours birding this beautiful area. I think all the participants will agree it was well worth the 60-mile one-way trip! Part of the ACE Basin, this area is perfect habitat for birds with ponds, rivers, salt marsh, freshwater marsh, mudflats mixed pine-hardwood forest and farmland.
Bear Island closes for hunting from November 1 – February 9 each year, so this was the last chance to visit before spring. Most of the birding was done by car with stops to get out and take short walks for viewing. Some of the winter waterfowl had returned including a few Gadwalls, Blue-winged Teals, Mottled Ducks and Pied-billed Grebes, but there were no signs of the Tundra Swan yet.
Gadwall 3
Mallard 2
Mottled Duck 20
Blue-winged Teal 25
Pied-billed Grebe 45
Wood Stork 70
Double-crested Cormorant 12
Anhinga 9
American White Pelican 19
Great Blue Heron 10
Great Egret 45
Snowy Egret 80
Little Blue Heron 25
Tricolored Heron 35
Black-crowned Night-Heron 5
White Ibis 90
Glossy Ibis 5
Roseate Spoonbill 12
Black Vulture 20
Turkey Vulture 32
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 2
Cooper’s Hawk 2
Bald Eagle 5
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Common Gallinule 10
Semipalmated Plover 12
Killdeer 1
Stilt Sandpiper 4
Dunlin 6
Least Sandpiper 38
Western Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Wilson’s Snipe 1
Greater Yellowlegs 25
Lesser Yellowlegs 15
Laughing Gull 20
Gull-billed Tern 1
Caspian Tern 5
Forster’s Tern 18
Royal Tern 3
Mourning Dove 2
Belted Kingfisher 4
Red-headed Woodpecker 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 5
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 3
American Kestrel 1
Eastern Phoebe 5
Blue Jay 38
American Crow 6
Fish Crow 14
Tree Swallow 30
Tufted Titmouse 6
House Wren 1
Marsh Wren 3
Carolina Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Eastern Bluebird 10
Gray Catbird 2
Brown Thrasher 1
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 3
Common Yellowthroat 4
Palm Warbler 23
Yellow-rumped Warbler 45
Chipping Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 15
Swamp Sparrow 20
Eastern Towhee 7
Northern Cardinal 4
Painted Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 32
Eastern Meadowlark 15
Common Grackle 53
Boat-tailed Grackle 12
House Finch
SIB 
Thanks David, Nancy and flo for sharing your expertise that day. I saw so many new birds; it was exciting. I can’t wait to go back.
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