The morning drive to Bulls Island
The last time I published with Dawn Chorus, I promised you a trip to Bulls Island, South Carolina. I first read about Bulls Island when I started looking for things to do near Charleston. When I read that
a company ran ferry trips out to the island, I knew I had just the thing for my family. We could spend an entire day roaming a barrier island, exploring beaches, inland lagoons, and maritime forest. It would mean a lot of walking, carrying our own lunch, and braving potentially bad winter weather but we were all up for the challenge so I booked our trip before we even arrived, crossing my fingers that the weather would cooperate.
Bulls Island is large for a barrier island. We actually didn't get to see everything. I don't think it's possible in a single trip. In fact, we met a father and son that were on their eighth trip. The first was a school trip with the son's junior high class and since then, they've made it back at least once a year. They swore that with every visit they see something brand new. It doesn't surprise me. This place is a mecca for wildlife.
Where does one alligator begin and the other end?
First bird sighting - Peregrine Falcon
We arrived at the ferry a little before 9am. If we hadn't known that we were in the right place, we might have turned around. There was no building at all; no office to confirm a trip; just a dock, a boat ramp and a few cars. No people that we could see. There was a huge sign welcoming us to Cape Romain,
the National Wildlife Refuge that includes Bulls Island. We took a few minutes to gather our gear and adjust for the weather - it was damp, slightly cold, and it threatened to rain. We were promised good weather by the weather man and were crossing our fingers that the day would change... it wasn't as cold as the day before and that was keeping our hopes up. By the time we had saddled up and taken a trip to the small bathroom in the brick building, we noticed another car or two had shown up. We also saw a couple of guys prepping a big ferry boat and we knew our trip was a go.
Close up of the Peregrine - he was skittish and took off when the boat got closer.
We headed out to the dock and were joined by four other people making us a total of eight. The guys out at the ferry started moving items to a smaller boat. Why waste gas when a smaller boat will do, right? So we all piled in, quickly settled and our Captain got down to the business of getting us out on the water. We had a team, Captain Will Christenson and his first mate, Nick Johnson. They made a great pair. Will was a treasure trove of information. We later found out that he is a marine biologist with extensive experience on the water. As Will was speaking to us, Nick was spotting birds from a distance so we had the benefit of both a great education and of seeing birds we might not otherwise have seen.
Spotted Sandpipers (I think... matchingmole, am I right?)
Parts of the island were hazardous when nature called.
Our boat was low to the water so that we were looking directly at the pluff mud that much of the islands are made of. Pluff mud, you say? Yes... it comes from the word plough from times when farmers used to collect this mud to fertilize their fields. We will corrupt our language with strange pronunciation and today plough mud is known a pluff mud. So be it. Don't step in pluff in mud as you may never escape! It looks pretty firm but looks can be deceiving. The pluff mud is rich in minerals because it's also home to the oyster beds in the region. The area is well known for excellent oysters and the cleanest water on the Atlantic Coast. It's a great combination. Harvest is closely controlled so that the population stays healthy. They also have an oyster shell recycling plan. Restaurants and fish markets can bring back their oyster shells so that they can be redeposited in the estuary. Young oysters use the old shells to attach and start new beds. When the tide is low, you can see the oyster shells clinging to the mud.
The morning was pretty gray and misty but we still managed to spot some good birds on the way in. Kingfishers were perched in many a place but were skittish and took off quickly. We got a great look at a Peregrine Falcon. He patiently sat as we approached and when we got a little too close, poof! He was gone. Unfortunately, my trigger finger was still warming up and I didn't manage to get any birds in flight that early in the day.
The Palmetto Trees of South Carolina fame
About a half hour of boating through the clean water past island after island of marsh grass and pluff mud and we arrived at Bulls Island. Our First Mate, Nick, walked us to the main picnic grounds. On the way there, he told us about the island and a little South Carolina trivia at the same time. The story that sticks with me most comes from the Revolutionary War. The South Carolina State Tree is the Palmetto Tree because it saved the colonists when the British attacked Sullivan Island. The fort at Sullivan had been built of Palmetto Wood and when the British fired their cannons, the cannon balls merely bounced off the walls and did no damage. Palmetto Wood is pretty damn strong.
We also learned that the island had been privately owned:
For 240 years, 36 parties claimed ownership of Bulls Island. In 1925, New York banker and broker Gayer Dominick purchased the island. An avid outdoorsman, Dominick built a large vacation home and developed the island into a hunting preserve. In 1936, Dominick conveyed the island to the U.S. Government and Bulls Island became part of the Cape Romain NWR.
US Fish and Wildlife, Cape Romain
Artifacts are a common find on the beach.
The island still has the original house and you can stay there on certain overnight trips. Other than that, there are a few outbuildings, one set of bathrooms by the picnic grounds, viewing stands built in convenient places and not much else but paths to take us to see wildlife. It was our kind of place!
We decided to head to the far beach first. We had just missed low tide but wanted to get there before high tide hit. We have a fascination with shells and have collections from most beaches we have visited and we wanted to add to our collection. Visitors to Bulls Island are allowed one small sandwich bag of shells apiece. No artifacts can come home but we did learn it was okay to bring them back to the boat for their collection. We found a big copper spoon but left it because we hadn't realized that they might have wanted it... lesson learned. If you go and find pottery shards or evidence of people, bring it back to share with the Captain!
Sand dollars were everywhere!
We walked up and down the beach finding sand dollars and Whelk shells that we first thought were Conch shells. We later learned that Conch have sharp edges because they are fighting creatures and use the edge to attack their prey. Whelks have a less pronounced edge because they don't fight. I had never realized that some sea snails in shells were fighters at all. It's great to still learn facts like these as an adult.
Finds for the day... we didn't bring it all home.
We also saw lots of driftwood. If we would have had multiple days on just this island, I know my boys would have built either a structure or a great artistic piece from drift wood. It was a common activity in Northern California. I think they were inspired by
the artwork of Andy Goldsworthy when young children and his style has stuck with them. But we were on a schedule. We had birds and alligators to find before the ferry showed up at 4pm. So after a quick lunch and pit stop to the bushes (see picture of what I brought back with me) we started hiking to Alligator Alley.
Nature's artwork at its best
Just one of the mushroom varieties we saw.
In the maritime forest, we were able to see lots of interesting things as well, including lots of funghi (recent rains were good for something) and a huge spider in its web just hanging in the middle of the trail. We heard lots of small birds but didn't take the time to see any. We decided that shorebirds would be the goal for the day. The boys love being outside but they don't enjoy the patience that small arboreal birds need in order to be seen and photographed. That will have to wait until my husband and I are taking trips without the teens. We're willing to wait!
Once we arrived in Alligator Alley we understood why it was named that way. The area is actually a series of ponds built up for duck hunting. We were walking on a manmade dike in between a more natural marsh and a duck pond. The alligators really liked the man-made side for some reason. They were everywhere and they came in every size. It would be nice to think that they didn't move much. We didn't see them move but we came back the same way later that afternoon and there was a big old guy smack dab in the trail. Luckily, we didn't need to go through. If we had had all day, it would have been an interesting place to just sit and watch. Again, I would love to come out for a multiple day trip. There is just so much to do.
Well camoflauged.
This was the one spot where I managed a shot of a small bird, an Eastern Phoebe in fall color. He sat patiently on a manmade post watching the swamp. I'm not sure if he was keeping an on the gators or if he was just enjoying the day. The warm sun had come out, the breeze was lightly blowing, and he seemed in no hurry to go anywhere.
Eastern Phoebe, washed yellow for fall.
Looks more like a Cheshire Cat, don't you think?
After the alligators, we headed to a part of the island where there are lots of water birds. We made one mistake. We let the youngest lead the way and he was in a gregarious mood. We were walking through the forest and it was hard to tell that we were approaching the water but once I heard the flap, flap, flap sound of wings hitting water, I knew he had spooked the cormorants. What a picture that would have been! Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Luckily, many birds aren't as easily spooked and I got great shots through the trees of White Ibis and a Stork, a first for me. A little further down the trail, we climbed a viewing stand and just took in the gorgeous view. We could see cormorants drying their wings from dead trees in the water, ibis feeding in the shallows nearby, and in the far distance, The Boneyard, a place where nature has left trees standing in the ocean, gray, tall, and statuesque. It's a place we need to see up close. There are special trips to take photographs at dawn at this very special place. See? Yet another reason to return!
Cormorants and a hunting Great White Egret.
My first Stork sighting ever! Saw lots of stork nests in Europe but never a bird.
White Ibis... he's a little nervous because someone is stalking him from the bushes.
Feeding juvenile White Ibis.
Greater Yellowlegs
My best educated guess: Female Buffleheads.
Hooded Mergansers
Tri-color Heron.
Great White Egret.
Spider in the forest - his body was about 1" by 1.5"
By this time in the afternoon, the weather had warmed up nicely. Though we didn't see as many birds as we would have liked, it was a good trip. We started hiking back to our starting point. We did spend a lot of time in between places and must have hiked about seven miles that day. And we still missed visiting the Boneyard, the Old Fort and the trail that went out around the far side of the birds. There are some people who don't come out on the 9am ferry and wait until 12noon. They have to return on the 4pm with us. I don't know if they would have seen enough to make that trip worthwhile. If you do go, plan on staying the entire day. In fact, if you want to see lots of water birds, you might want to bring a bicycle for the trails through the woods. You could carry a bigger lunch that way as well!
View of the inland wetlands on this barrier island.
Because we're a family of planners, we ended up back at the dock with time to spare. But that didn't mean we were finished. The sun was very low in the sky and that meant more creatures were coming out to play. It was sort of strange to look across a flat expanse of mud and realize that it was moving. The crabs were on the go! This was also the time of night we got the best shots of a maritime forest spider. The light was just right and though we had to play around a bit to fool our automatic focus, we got some neat shots of his striped red and black legs. The highlight of the evening, though, were the Forester's Terns. It was hunting time and they excelled at flying up and down the waterway, diving for their dinner. We watched them again and again!
Attack of the Killer Crabs - okay so they were only tiny guys, not really that scary looking.
Forester's Tern
Lucky shot!
Our trip back was on the big ferry boat and Captain Will had so much to tell us. My future marine biologist was intent, spending much of the time soaking in new facts and some of the time sharing what he already knows. They have a large table of finds in the center of the boat and we learned about the Whelks on the trip back as well as lots of facts about other animals and birds that we had seen that day. I couldn't keep my eyes from the water and the marsh grass. The sun was setting and had turned the water into striped silk. Groups of birds made gorgeous silhouettes on small sand bars and then again in flight against the evening sky.
Water like silk.
Late evening flight.
We left the ferry with a great feeling of contentment. But we weren't finished yet. There, in the marsh grass next to the dock, stood the most beautiful Blue Heron I have ever seen. He wasn't really very special but he was standing in the brightly lit gold of marsh grass, the light bouncing off his white feathers and the bright yellow of his beak. In the background was Cape Romain. It was a grand way to say goodbye.
Evening sun on the marsh grass.
Great Blue Heron in evening light.
Full circle!