For the 8th anniversary of my 45th birthday, my wife suggested we go on a nature excursion. I chose to visit Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge and Spring Island, an upscale development. Pinckney Island was a worthwhile destination. The trail on this island is wide and surfaced with hard-packed gravel. I was able to push my wife’s wheelchair on the trail, so I didn’t have to leave her behind in the car. The trail goes through maritime forest and salt marsh. The maritime forest here consists of live oak, Carolina palmetto, and loblolly pine with an undergrowth of saw palmetto. Quacks sell an extract made from saw palmetto berries that is supposed to reduce the size of enlarged prostate glands, but 2 large trial studies found no evidence it works beyond a placebo effect. However, the berries are good food for wildlife, and the Indians ate them too. Cordgrass dominates the salt marsh. I saw fiddler crabs (Uca sp.) crawling around the mud flats during low tide.
Maritime forest of live oak, Carolina palmetto, and loblolly pine.
Saw palmetto. Quacks use an extract from the berries to treat enlarged prostates.
Young Carolina or Sable palmetto.
Salt marsh with a maritime forest hammock in the distance.
Fiddler crabs. Click on the photo to enlarge.
We went to the Ibis Pond about 1 mile from the parking lot. It’s a freshwater pond covered with green algae, fertilized by abundant bird guano. Egrets and herons nest in the willow trees growing in the pond. I saw great egrets, snowy egrets, cattle egrets, yellow-crowned night herons, black crowned night herons, and little blue herons. Some had fledgling young in the nests. I also saw an unusually large boat-tailed grackle, and there were coots swimming in the water. One bird stymied my attempts at identification, and I saw this bird on the following day at the Savanna River NWR. It had brownish-orange wings and a striped belly. The closest match in my bird guide was a Louisiana water thrush, but I’m not sure what it was. We were about to go back to the car, and I remarked that we hadn’t seen any ibis at the Ibis Pond. As soon as I said this, a flock of about 15-20 white ibis flew overhead and landed in the trees, but they were too far away to photograph. A person could spend a whole day on trails here, but the evening winds were too chilly for my wife, and it was past suppertime. We went back to the car. I was impressed anyway.
White ibis pond. I saw 3 species of egrets, 3 species of herons, and white ibis here. It’s an impressive rookery and worth a visit.
Yellow crowned night heron and nest. Click on the photo to enlarge.
The boat-tailed grackle in the middle of the photo was bigger than a large crow. I didn’t know they got this big.
View of the waterway that separates Pinckney Island from the mainland.
Spring Island Fox Squirrels
Reportedly, Spring Island, South Carolina has the densest fox squirrel population in the southeast. The paper referenced below estimates a population of 187 fox squirrels per square mile on Spring Island compared to 98 fox squirrels per square mile in areas of the coastal plain where they still exist. (I converted the figures from the square kilometers given in the paper.) Fox squirrels are nearly absent from the piedmont and mountain regions. This species prefers mature open woodlands with widely spaced trees and grassy understories, while gray squirrels prefer young dense forests with woody understories. Fox squirrels were formerly more common in the south because Indians set fire to the woods every few years, creating their favored habitat. However, researchers discovered that conditions on Spring Island favor gray squirrels, yet fox squirrels are common here. They believe frequently mowed golf courses, and a field planted in wheat on the island have helped maintain this large population of fox squirrels. I wanted to see this population because I hypothesize fox squirrels were also common during the Pleistocene when their habitat was shaped by foraging activities of now extinct megafauna. (See: https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/colorful-fox-squirrels-were-they-the-more-common-squirrel-in-the-southeast-during-the-Pleistocene/)
I suspected Spring Island might be a gated community, and my suspicions proved to be accurate. I thought I’d con my way on the island. I told the security guard I was interested in purchasing a property on the island, hoping they would just let me drive on the island. She referred me to a real estate agent in an office located next to the gate. The agent was willing to show me the island in his car, but I didn’t want to get stuck with a boring salesman, so I declined the opportunity. There are lots available on the island for as little as $10,000, but to become a Spring Island property owner requires an initiation fee of $15,000, plus annual dues for country club crap. I’m a working class dude, not a country club kind of guy.
A black fox squirrel on Callasawatchie Drive about 100 yards before the entrance to Spring Island. Spring Island is a gated community. I couldn’t con my way inside without being accompanied by a boring real estate agent, so I couldn’t investigate the densest population of this species in the south. Click on the photo to enlarge.
Black vultures on Chechessee Road, near Spring Island. I saw more black vultures on this trip than any other species of bird.
I did see a beautiful black fox squirrel on Callasawatchie Drive about 100 yards from the security gate. It wasn’t a completely wasted trip, but we had an hour before lunch. I decided to revisit the
Savannah River NWR.
This refuge consists of abandoned rice fields left fallow since the end of the Civil War. I’ve been here before, and some day I’m going to visit during winter when migrant ducks flock here. On this visit I walked on an old dike and immediately saw a marsh hawk hovering low over the ground looking and listening for rodents. Red-winged blackbirds and boat-tailed grackles nest in the high grass. These are the birds that migrate in huge flocks during early winter. FYI, the rice dikes are pock-marked with fire ant mounds, and I stumbled over several while looking in the air for birds. In addition to the 3 birds species already mentioned, I saw red-shouldered hawk, osprey, black vulture, great blue heron, smaller unidentified herons, great egret, cattle egret, anhinga, cormorant, wood stork, coot, a cardinal, and maybe a Louisiana water thrush. Near the Savannah River that I think is part of this refuge, I saw several terns. Reptiles seen included several alligators and young soft-shelled turtles.
Muddy alligator sunning itself at the Savannah River NWR.
I saw a greater variety of birds at the Savannah River NWR than anywhere else on this trip. Various species of blackbirds nest in these grassy wet prairies.
Eats
Monday evening we ate supper at Captain Woody’s in Blufton, South Carolina. They offer signature fish sandwiches on their menu–$13.99 for grouper, $11.99 for triggerfish, and $9.99 for fish of the day. Their fish of the day was tilapia, a fish I can get anytime. I picked the triggerfish because I’ve never even seen it on a menu before. It was delicious, like the best filet of sole.
Captain Woody’s in Blufton, South Carolina.
I ate a giant triggerfish sandwich. It was delicious.
Anita had a shrimpburger. Even though it had bell pepper in it, she didn’t get sick.
On the way home Tuesday, we stopped by the Schnitzel Shack in Rincon, Georgia. They offer a menu that is half Thai and half German. It’s a bit overpriced…I payed $13.95 for what basically were a couple of big fat hotdogs. The décor consists of mostly Marilyn Monroe memorabilia. The waitress looked like Marilyn Monroe but without the blonde hair and with piercings and tattoos. All the best looking young ladies I saw on this trip had tattoos. If I was a young man, I’d have to reconsider my rule against dating women with tattoos. I think tattoos are stupid but could learn to overlook them on a woman with a buxom build.
The Schnitzel Shack in Rincon, Georgia.
The menu is half Thai, half German. It’s a bit overpriced.
I ate knockwurst, red cabbage, and German potato salad. Too bad I had to drive. Beer would have been great with this.
Reference:
Lee, James; David Osborn and Karl Miller
“Habitat Use by a Dense Population of Southern Fox Squirrels”
Southeastern Naturalist 8 (1) 2009
GeorgiaBeforePeople 