Birder license causes a stir
Dawn on the porch of Christi's guesthouse is awesome. We drank our coffee and tea to a chorus of Carolina wrens and watched the top of a Sweet Gum tree fill with Cedar Waxwings. Unfortunately we had to leave and head to Titusville, FL. The first events of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival were to start the following day.
Lunch breaks are important when you are driving the Bird Buggy and we decided a stopover at Santee National Wildlife Refuge was a perfect spot. We were so right!
This park was established in 1941 and includes about 13,000 acres of" mixed hardwood and pine forest, freshwater marshes, forested wetlands, waterfowl impoundments, croplands, grassland fields and open water." I was in the process of making lunch and Flip was trying to determine why we had no water pressure (turns out there was lime pieces in the faucets and cleaning the faucet screens solved the problems) when I noticed two gals peering at our license plate. Obviously they were birders as they both had good pairs of binoculars. I went out to greet them. They apologized for being so nosey, but one of the women, Carol, exclaimed that I had her license plate. Puzzled I asked how that could be. Seems Carol had lived in Massachusetts 20 years before and had "Birder" as her license plate. When she moved to South Carolina she tuned in the Mass plate. Amazingly Flip and I were the first ones to request it after all those years. Carol and her friend gave us great suggestions as to which trails use for certain birds. We didn't have enough time to thoroughly enjoy this great park. We will return! Our best birds were 35 real Wild Turkeys, White Pelican and Swamp Sparrow. This would be the last time for a while that we would see Canada Geese.
Lunch breaks are important when you are driving the Bird Buggy and we decided a stopover at Santee National Wildlife Refuge was a perfect spot. We were so right!
This park was established in 1941 and includes about 13,000 acres of" mixed hardwood and pine forest, freshwater marshes, forested wetlands, waterfowl impoundments, croplands, grassland fields and open water." I was in the process of making lunch and Flip was trying to determine why we had no water pressure (turns out there was lime pieces in the faucets and cleaning the faucet screens solved the problems) when I noticed two gals peering at our license plate. Obviously they were birders as they both had good pairs of binoculars. I went out to greet them. They apologized for being so nosey, but one of the women, Carol, exclaimed that I had her license plate. Puzzled I asked how that could be. Seems Carol had lived in Massachusetts 20 years before and had "Birder" as her license plate. When she moved to South Carolina she tuned in the Mass plate. Amazingly Flip and I were the first ones to request it after all those years. Carol and her friend gave us great suggestions as to which trails use for certain birds. We didn't have enough time to thoroughly enjoy this great park. We will return! Our best birds were 35 real Wild Turkeys, White Pelican and Swamp Sparrow. This would be the last time for a while that we would see Canada Geese.
DO NOT go back there after mid-April without a steel mesh mosquito suit of armor. OMG. It's the Santee Coastal Mosquito Refuge. The boardwalk out into the swamp is primeval--Prothonotaries up the WAZOO, as you can imagine.
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What an amazingly wonderful small world.
Love it.
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Rob, thanks for the warning. We will try to return either early April or in the fall, or is that mosquito heaven as well?
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A small world indeed. I only wish I had thought to get Carol's email address!
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