Category: Sightings

SCDNR’s Baltimore Oriole Winter Survey set Feb. 17-20

The S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) will conduct its annual Baltimore Oriole Winter Survey Feb. 17-20 in conjunction with the Great Backyard Bird Count. The state natural resources agency is interested in the status and distribution of these colorful songbirds that are wintering in the Palmetto State.

If you currently have Baltimore orioles coming to your feeders or have had them in the past years, SCDNR encourages your participation. Survey participants count and record the largest number of Baltimore orioles they can see at one time, on one, two, three or all four days of the survey period. Even if you cannot participate during the survey period, SCDNR would still like to record your oriole numbers seen during the winter months of December through February.

Survey participants need to be able to correctly identify Baltimore orioles from other bird species. To participate, you can access the survey form and materials from the link. The survey form and materials are available through your web browser or through the Survey 123 app (free download through your device’s app store). The Survey123 form can be used to report Oriole observations either during the survey period (February 17-20) or outside of the survey period (December through February). For more information on the Great Backyard Bird Count and counting all species of birds, visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/.

This year marks the eighth annual survey, and South Carolina continues to report large numbers of wintering Baltimore Orioles. Historically, these birds have wintered in southern Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America. However, during the last several decades, they have been wintering along the East Coast in greater abundance.

South Carolina had 22 counties reporting orioles last year. The majority of them wintered along the coastal plain from Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head Island. The hot spot was the Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties area. Good numbers continued to extend inland, and the Upstate continues to report Orioles as far west as Oconee County.

Though SCDNR is not sure why these birds have begun overwintering in large numbers in the state, they are responding well to the popularity of backyard bird feeding. Orioles are best attracted to feeders where the homeowner is already feeding birds in general. Orioles are attracted to the activity of other birds at feeders. If conditions are right for them, they are likely to frequent the feeders where they can find food, water, and shelter. They will eat a variety of foods and seeds, suet products, some seed mixes, nuts and fruit mixes, but their favorite food by far is grape jelly. Since these birds have become more common at the winter feeders, you can find an assortment of feeders that cater to them and their foods, especially at bird-feeding specialty stores.

The survey will enable scientists to learn the distribution and abundance of Baltimore orioles wintering in South Carolina. Information from the survey and the Great Backyard Bird Count can provide a “big picture” about what is happening to Baltimore oriole populations and other bird species. SCDNR appreciates the public’s support and efforts in helping collect the valuable information in this survey.

We want to try a new fun “activity” for 2023. As you know, a big year is a personal challenge or an informal competition among birders who attempt to identify as many species of birds as possible by sight or sound, within a single calendar year and within a specific geographic area. Rather than have a competition among members, let’s see how many different species the group as a whole can see for the year. We already know members’ plans for the year include trips to Costa Rico, Panama, Yellowstone, Maine, Portugal and Northwest Washington. With our normal birding activities, we should have a good count for the year.

To facilitate this activity, I created a new eBird account with a user name as SIBBig. This account’s profile is set to not appear in any rare bird lists, Top 100, or other public lists. This is to avoid misrepresenting the account as a personal account.

Anytime you go birding, just enter your sightings in eBird as usual. Then when you “submit”, you have the option in eBird to Share your checklist with other members of your party. Just include SIBBig as one of those you Share with. The “share” button isn’t available if there is only one observer so you would then need to go into eBird later to share.

You can also share a previously submitted list by going in to eBird and once you view a checklist, you can share, using the button on the left side. You would use this option if you were the only observer or if you choose to share all lists periodically rather than as you enter. I plan to periodically share using this method as I’m not likely to remember as I enter the checklist.

If you don’t have or want an eBird account, you can share your sightings by sending an email to SeabrookIslandBirders@gmail.com. That email needs to give the date, start and stop time, where you did the birding, the number of birds for each species. We’ll then enter directly into SIBBig for you. We strongly encourage you to participate in citizen science yourself by submitting to eBird but we don’t want to miss great sightings.

Some rules on your reports (similar to eBird’s rules):

• Birds must be identified between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023.
• Birds recorded must be wild and unrestrained.  Oh, and alive.  No pets, no feral stuff, no road kill.  Unless you hit it.
• Location is not restricted to SC, the Lowcountry, or any other region. As an example, if you go to Costa Rico, all birds identified count. Of course those identified in your backyard also count.
• Birds must have been ethically found.  No trespassing, harassing birds, kidnapping better birders, etc.
• Birds can be identified by sight or sound.  For a bird to count, a majority of the birders who observed it must agree on its identification. 
• Score will be kept with the SIBBig eBird account.  As described above, the easiest way to add to the list will be to share an eBird checklist to that account.  If you don’t use eBird, just send a list to SeabrookIslandBirders@gmail as described above and we’ll see that it gets added.

I look forward to seeing our list grow. Remember, you can start sharing your lists at 12:01am on January 1. We’ll periodically report our status.

Submitted by: Judy Morr

What a delight it has been to see American White Pelicans here in the low country!

American White Pelicans are large, snowy white waterbirds with large, striking yellow-orange pouched bills and black-tipped feathers, visible only in flight.

It is interesting to observe how different their foraging habits are from the Brown Pelicans, more familiar to us here in South Carolina. Brown Pelicans plunge-dive from the sky to snatch fish from the water. Their white cousins glide along paddling bright yellow-orange feet, gracefully dipping their bills into the water to scoop up prey. We observed how they sometimes forage cooperatively as a group, corralling fish into more shallow waters.

Although this has not been their usual breeding territory, we observed at least one of the serially monogamous pelicans with the nuptial tubercles (large ridges in the beak) and ornamental feathers on the head.

While the shape of these magnificent birds resembles that of Brown Pelicans, the much larger American White Pelicans are one of the heaviest birds in North America with a wingspan reaching 9 feet.

We hope you are fortunate enough to spot a squadron of these snowy white water birds floating, scooping up fish, or tipping up like ducks in our beautiful wetlands.

Feathers and Feet (Mary Van Deusen and Patti Romano)

To learn more about American White Pelicans, visit The Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website.

SCDNR’s Baltimore Oriole Winter Survey set Feb. 18-21

The S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) will conduct its annual Baltimore Oriole Winter Survey Feb. 18-21 in conjunction with the Great Backyard Bird Count. The state natural resources agency is interested in the status and distribution of these colorful songbirds that are wintering in the Palmetto State.

If you currently have Baltimore orioles coming to your feeders or have had them in the past years, SCDNR encourages your participation. Survey participants count and record the largest number of Baltimore orioles they can see at one time, on one, two, three or all four days of the survey period. Even if you cannot participate during the survey period, SCDNR would still like to record your oriole numbers seen during the winter months of December through February.

Survey participants need to be able to correctly identify Baltimore orioles from other bird species. To participate, you can access the survey form and materials from the link. The survey form and materials are available through your web browser or through the Survey 123 app (free download through your device’s app store). Contact Lex Glover at GloverL@dnr.sc.gov if you have any questions about the oriole survey, or for more information on the Great Backyard Bird Count and counting all species of birds, visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/.

This will be the seventh annual survey, and South Carolina continues to report the largest number of wintering Baltimore orioles in the country. Usually, these birds would winter in southern Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America. However, during the last several decades, they have been wintering along the East Coast in greater abundance. Last year’s Great Backyard Bird Count results had sightings in 21 states, ranging along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Florida, across the Gulf Coast states to Texas and in California. Reports were even received from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario! The bulk of the birds reported were from the East Coast, from Virginia to Florida.

In the 2021 survey, South Carolina’s Baltimore Oriole Winter Survey data combined with the Great Backyard Bird Count data had South Carolina with the largest numbers of orioles in the country. The Palmetto State had 182 reports, the highest number of reports in the country (28 percent of the total number of reports) and 859 orioles tallied, (42 percent of the total number of orioles reported in the country). This was South Carolina’s largest count to date.

South Carolina had 16 counties reporting orioles last year. The majority of them wintered along the coastal plain from Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head Island. The hot spot was the Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties area, where 72 percent of the state’s orioles were tallied last year. Good numbers continued to extend inland, and the Upstate continues to report a few orioles. A first for the survey, since it began in 2015, was a report from Oconee County.

Though SCDNR is not sure why these birds have begun overwintering in large numbers in the state, they are responding well to the popularity of backyard bird feeding. Orioles are best attracted to feeders where the homeowner is already feeding birds in general. Orioles are attracted to the activity of other birds at feeders. If conditions are right for them, they are likely to frequent the feeders where they can find food, water, and shelter. They will eat a variety of foods and seeds, suet products, some seed mixes, nuts and fruit mixes, but their favorite food by far is grape jelly. Since these birds have become more common at the winter feeders, you can find an assortment of feeders that cater to them and their foods, especially at bird-feeding specialty stores.

The survey will enable scientists to learn the distribution and abundance of Baltimore orioles wintering in South Carolina. Information from the survey and the Great Backyard Bird Count can provide a “big picture” about what is happening to Baltimore oriole populations and other bird species. SCDNR appreciates the public’s support and efforts in helping collect the valuable information in this survey.

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Have you seen this bird on Seabrook Island this summer?

If not in person, you might have seen the photos that appeared in the July 2020 edition of The Seabrooker (page 13). This is a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck and they have been seen this summer at SeaLoft’s Lagoon and at Camp St. Christopher, and as in the photo above on the garage roof of Lynn Maney-McIntosh in the 3100 block of Seabrook Island Road in 2020.

The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck is a beautifully marked bird with longish legs and neck, chestnut back and chest, black belly and underwing, electric pink legs and red bill. When it flies you can easily see the bold white stripe on top of its wings. They can nest on the ground or in tree cavities, more recently taking to nest boxes. They are a very noisy waterfowl and do sound like they are whistling. Listen for this noise.

In recent years, their range has been expanding north. This explains why there are more sightings documented in our area in eBird.org, a system which documents bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected by millions of people across the world.

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You should be on the lookout for them perching around shallow ponds; walking in the short grass of lawns and golf courses; and especially in agricultural fields, where these large ducks eat lots of grain. They feed nocturnally, so watch around sunset for large flocks to begin flying out to fields from their roosts. Or just look up on your roof like Lynn did! (Article re-posted from 2020)