While in Week Sixteen I began the process of birding the coastal states, it wouldn’t be until week Seventeen that I would actually reach the coast and begin the process of following migration northward – and aside from a detour inland to West Virginia for week Eighteen most on the next month and a half will be spent along the Atlantic.
First, though, I had to get there from where I spent the night in the Columbia, VA parking lot, and so the early parts of week Seventeen were spent doing just that beginning with heading southeast from Columbia to Congaree National Park, where I spent nearly five hours on Monday morning. The wooded swamp at Congaree was packed full of Great Crested Flycatcher. Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Prothonotary Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow-throated Warbler, and Northern Cardinal all in large numbers, as well as a variety of great birds including multiple Barred Owl, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a pair of Red-headed Woodpecker, an Acadian Flycatcher, my first-of-year Swainson’s Thrush, thirteen total warbler species, and both Scarlet Tanager and Summer Tanager! Before fully moving on from Congaree I went for another, shorter walk at the Cedar Creek Canoe Launch area, and then headed south.
With midday heat becoming an issue both in terms of comfort and bird activity, I made the decision to take a break for the afternoon. Before that break though, as I was driving through the town of Saint Matthews, I noticed an abundance of Martin Houses. I made a quick turn to spend some time seeing if I could track down any Purple Martins, and after soon they began to rack up as I spotted at least 37 of them! I decided to spent a short while in the town to see if I could track down any urban-type birds including Chimney Swift, European Starling, and House Sparrow – all of which I easily found, along with a fantastic bonus bird in Painted Bunting!
Once my midday break was over I began making my way to Santee National Wildlife Refuge’s Bluff Unit, though just before reaching the outpost I was distracted by a trio of birds circling over the woods along the road. After pulling over and finding them in my binoculars my first impression was confirmed – the trio circling overheard was my 500th species of the year, Mississippi Kite! After spending a couple minutes watching them and getting… identifiable photos, I made the rest of the drive to Santee and got started on birding the refuge.
My time at Santee matched the productivity that defined the rest of the day; immediately upon arriving I head singing Painted Bunting, Indigo Bunting, and an Orchard Oriole. After parking and starting to hike a loop through the refuge I spotted a Green Heron and then was startled by a Wood Duck flushing from a Wood Duck box along the trail as I walked by. Soon the trial opened up into a large, sedgy field which held several Blue Grosbeak, and then in a marsh along the Cantey Bay I heard a calling King Rail before heading back to my car as dusk set in and making my way to the nearby Cracker Barrel to spend the night.
Tuesday morning I resumed my voyage to the coast, stopping first at the Old Santee Canal Park before making my way to the Bonneau Ferry Wildlife Management Area, where I spent just shy of an hour driving around, snagging some fantastic pickups such as Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman’s Sparrow – the former of which is likely to be the last I see this year. From Bonneau I made my way into the Francis Marion National Forest, first making a brief stop at the Huger Recreation Area before continuing on to Willow Hall Road and I’on Swamp Road; all three spots which held a decent variety of singing birds but nothing especially noteworthy.
Shortly after turning off on I’on Swamp Road and onto US-17, I spotted the unmistakable profile of a Swallow-tailed Kite flying over! As soon as I was able to pulled over and tried to relocate the bird to snag some pics, but unfortunately it had continued on out of sight by then. After continuing north along US-17 a short distance I found myself at the Tibwin Plantation, where I hiked out towards the coast and racked up quite the bounty of new birds for South Carolina: Clapper Rail, Black-necked Stilt, Black-bellied Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Willet, Greater Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Anhinga, Glossy Ibis, Little Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron were amongst the most notable of the 22 new-for-South Carolina birds I picked up in the two-and-a-half hours I spent there.
I didn’t spend much time birding on Wednesday, but the limited time spent birding in the morning was still fairly productive. First, at the Murrells Inlet Boardwalk, I snagged a pair of American Oystercatcher, and then I spent a few hours at Myrtle Beach State Park, there spotting my first-of-year Least Tern as well as several other birds that were new for South Carolina. Thursday would see the wrapping up of my time in the state as following a morning visit to the Russell Burgess Coastal Preserve I continued north, crossing the state line back into North Carolina.
My time in North Carolina was kicked off by a stop at the Carl Bazemore Bird Walk, where Common Gallinule, Laughing Gull, Least Tern, Forster’s Tern, and Boat-tailed Grackle were all quickly added to my state list. From there I headed a bit inland to the Green Swamp Preserve, where I likely had my last Bachman’s Sparrow of the year as well as a first-for-the-state Swamp Sparrow. I added my last new bird for the state of the day, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, during my next stop at Lake Waccamaw State Park, then wrapped up the day with stops at Jones Lake State Park and Bladen Lakes State Forest.
My birding on Friday morning got a bit of a late start following my sleeping in a bit later, but enroute to Cliffs of the Neuse State Park I picked up a pair of great birds, an American Kestrel – once my most observed species for January, February, and March – and now on track to not even be among my fifty most-observed species for April – and a rather surprising sighting of a group of four Loggerhead Shrike. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of Shrike being seen in groups before; a pair on territory would make sense to me, but it seems too early in the year for a pair with offspring (though admittedly I know absolutely nothing about the nesting season timing of Loggerheads).
At Cliffs of the Neuse I added Acadian Flycatcher and Eastern Wood-Pewee to my North Carolina list before moving on back towards the coast, stopping along the way first briefly at the Neuseway Nature Park then for a couple hours at Goose Creek State Park, where I was shocked by the massive numbers of Laughing Gull out over the water. Finally around 5pm I arrived at Pettigrew State Park, where my first-of-year Rose-breasted Grosbeak would be the last new bird I would pick up for North Carolina, leaving the state at 130 species – nine shy of the state’s southern counterpart.
Once I wrapped up at Pettigrew I made the decision to head north towards Virginia, stopping for the night at the Cracker Barrel on the south end of Chesapeake, VA.
On Saturday morning I got started on birding The Old Dominion State with a visit to the Princess Anne Wildlife Management Area, specifically the Beasley Tract, where after a bit of time birding the perimeter as the parking lot was packed full I secured a vacant parking spot and then bumped into a couple birders who were headed out. I asked the birders if they’d had anything good, and they nonchalantly replied “Yeah, we got the Purple Gallinule right away, as well as the Common Gallinule, but couldn’t pick out the White-faced Ibis.” I had been totally unaware of the presence of these rarities; Purple Gallinule and White-faced Ibis are both exceptional birds for Virginia and Common Gallinule is nothing to scoff at either! After my brief exchange with them I headed out to dikes around the marsh, and there I bumped into another five birders who were searching for the aforementioned rarities.
I spent most of the next couple hours birding on-and-off with some of the locals who were out there, mostly a birder by the name of John Cain and a pair of ladies – chatting with them intermittently and eventually mentioning this quest of mine, after which the two ladies informed me of informed me that tomorrow there was going to be a bird walk led at the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. On that note – if the two of you are reading this, please shoot me an email ([email protected]) so I can update this to include your names! I made the mistake of never writing them down and then forgot them (doh!). I never did locate the Purple Gallinule or White-faced Ibis, but still racked up quite the bounty at the Beasley Tract including Blue-winged Teal, Gadwall, King Rail, Sora, Common Gallinule, Black-bellied Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Marsh Wren, and Swamp Sparrow.
After leaving Princess Anne WMA I headed to the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, where over the next several hours I tallied a bunch more great birds for my Virginia state list including Northern Harrier, American Kestrel, Sedge Wren, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Palm Warbler. I had planned to spend a bit more time birding on Saturday evening but called it an early day as it began to rain very erratically and intensely.
On Sunday morning I headed to the aforementioned Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge to tag along on the 7am bird walk organized and led by the Cape Henry Audubon Society and Hampton Roads Bird Club at Washington Ditch. Immediately upon arriving at Washington Ditch I heard a couple of Swainson’s Warbler and a Worm-eating Warbler singing near the start of the entrance road that led to the trailhead parking lot, both incredibly birds that were soon joined by Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and eight over varieties of warbler before I reached the parking area.
Soon enough 7:30 am rolled around and a whopping 23 birders had arrived (24 including myself) for the walk, including the two who’d I’d met Saturday morning at Princess Anne WMA. The nearly three-hour bird walk was a great, productive time, during which we got fantastic views at a Hooded Warbler and about as good of views as you can ever expect of a Swainson’s Warbler. Prothonotary Warbler were abundant throughout the walk, and we flushed a Solitary Sandpiper from the ditch that ran along the out-and-back path we were on.
When we made it back to the parking lot I made the decision to race over to the nearby Jericho Ditch to tag along on the 10:30 walk there, led by the same birder who’d led the 7:30 walk. There were 25 birders along on the Jericho walk, 16 of whom hadn’t been at Washington Ditch for the 7:30 walk, making the 27th surpass January 16th as my day this year in which I birded with the largest number of birders. The Jericho Ditch walk was mostly the same birds as the Washington Ditch walk, except Prairie Warbler was definitely the predominant species here and there were two Swainson’s Warblers instead of one!
Both groups of birders on the walks at Dismal Swamp were fantastic, and I am so incredibly glad I happened to choose Princess Anne WMA to start my day on Saturday, as if I hadn’t bumped into the two birders there who told me about the walks at Dismal Swamp I would have missed out on one of my favorite mornings of social birding so far this year. While the morning had been fantastic the day was far from over, though, and following the conclusion of the three-hour-long 10:30 walk I headed northeast towards Fort Monroe, where I spent a few hours seawatching. Fort Monroe is an effectively productive spot due to its proximity to Rip Raps Island, which hosts a large and varied colony of various seabirds. I picked up a bunch of these birds during my time at Fort Monroe, including American Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Black Skimmer, Gull-billed Tern, Forster’s Tern, Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern, and my first-of-year Common Tern. Eventually I made the decision to move on and headed back inland to the Zuni Pines Barrens Preserve, where the evening encountered a… self-inflicted complication.
At first my time at Zuni Pines was fantastic; quickly after my arrival I heard calling Brown-headed Nuthatch, Eastern Towhee, and American Goldfinch, and after a bit of time walking I picked up Summer Tanager, Eastern Wood-Pewee, and Northern Bobwhite – all great birds! As it got close to dusk I headed back to my car and drove a short distance to the southern edge of the preserve, where soon I heard four different singing Chuck-will’s-widow! With Chucks being clearly present in abundance I decided to bird the road back north and see how many I could pick up, soon picking up two more and then being surprised by the distinctive “peent” of an American Woodcock! With woodcock being a bird that was totally not on my radar I excitedly pulled over to the side of the road to get a recording of the bird, and… BANG! In the darkness the side of the road had appeared to just be a simple shallow, barely-angled ditch which I could easily just pull of into – and for the most part it would have been, if not for the narrow foot-deep divot right in the center of the ditch that my driver’s side tires dropped in to, leaving me totally without traction, completely stuck, and with the driver’s side doors being unopenable due to the ground being right on the other side thanks to the angle my car was now at. Crap.
After rolling down my window and crawling out of my car, I frustratedly inspected the situation. The good news? There was no obvious damage to my car. The bad news? There was no way I was getting out without a tow. The worse news? After calling for a tow truck and initially being quoted $280 (which already felt kind of high), I sent over some photos and the quoted price was raised by another few hundred dollars. When I hesitated to agree to what I felt was a rather outrageous price considering I didn’t think getting my car out from this situation would be very complicated at all I was put on hold for nearly a half-hour before being told the price was nonnegotiable. I decided to hang up and see if I could find another, cheaper price – and just after hanging up a pick-up pulled up beside me and asked if I needed help. A few minutes later, thanks to the help of Wayne, Girlie, and the tow strap I picked up to keep in my car thanks to the suggestion of one of my former coworkers (I think Earlene, though it might have been Sarah or Andrea – whoever it was, thank you!), my car was back on the road. Aside from a bunch of mud in the wheel well and on lower half of the driver’s side (all of which was easily washed off the next morning) the car was no worse for wear, and I was back on the road and heading to Cracker Barrel at which I would spend the night. Wayne and Girlie – if you end up happening across this post, once again thank you so, so much. The silver lining to the whole fiasco is that, while on hold with the tow company, I heard an Eastern Whip-poor-will join in with the Chuck-will’s-widows and Woodcocks calling in night.
That concluded Week Seventeen – a bit more of an eventful conclusion than I would have liked but all’s well that ends well and at the very least I have learned my lesson when it comes to pulling off to the side of the road in the dark. I will spend most of next week continuing my Virginia birding before heading to West Virginia, after which I will head back towards the coast and spend through early-June working my way up the Atlantic!
Happy Birding!
eBird Trip Summary:
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Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
