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Huntington Beach SP – The Beach & Gators

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Willet

By: Pat Coate

This is the final posting on Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. The park is a birders’ wonderland containing many habitats including saltwater marsh, freshwater lake, beach and wooded areas. Today’s pictures are primarily from the beach and freshwater lake.

There are about 3 miles of beach with a jetty at one end. While walking out to the jetty I came across the willet pictured above. It was interesting to watch him (or her) with his prey. First, it kept running away from a second willet that was trying to move in on its dinner. Then, when it got a moment’s respite from the competition, the willet would drop the fish into the water and pick it right back up.

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Posted by  |  15 November 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Huntington Beach State Park – Saltwater Marsh Life Birds

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Semipalmated Plover

By: Pat Coate

This is Part Two (of three) on Huntington Beach State Park located near Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. As I mentioned last week, one of the highlights of the park is the causeway you cross as you enter the park. On one side there is a freshwater lake and on the other a tidal marsh (pictures of the causeway below).

While enjoying the many birds and alligators along the causeway, I was able to add three life birds: black-bellied plover, semipalmated plover and clapper rail.

The semipalmated plover is a fairly common shorebird during migration. (Dad, this is the ‘fake’ bird you took a picture of on your trip to New England). This bird breeds in Alaska and many of the northern most Canadian provinces. It is an active feeder, walking about and pecking here and there for food.

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Posted by  |  8 November 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Huntington Beach State Park (SC)

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Great Egret

By: Pat Coate

While in SC, I spent some time at Huntington Beach State Park near Murrells Inlet. What a great place! It has three miles of beach with nesting Wilsons plovers and lots of sea and shore birds. But what’s really fun is the causeway as you enter the park. On one side is a freshwater lake complete with alligators, osprey and eagles, and the other side is a very active tidal salt marsh.

Today’s pictures are from the salt marsh – many of birds fishing at low tide.

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Posted by  |  1 November 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Birdie Blog

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The Gang (minus one): Vicki, Tina, me, Chris, Jo, Brenda

By: Pat Coate

Great girls’ get-away in Myrtle Beach. Trip co-ordinator Brenda got us great deals at terrific and challenging courses (Founders, World Tour, Prestwick) and most of us did manage a birdie somewhere along the way. I don’t think it ever rains there as we had gorgeous weather every day – though Hurricane Sandy may soon change that.

Birds seen along the courses included great egret, great blue heron, pileated and red-bellied woodpeckers, Carolina chickadees, fish crows, mallards, mute swan, yellow-rumped warblers, boat-tailed grackles, double-crested cormorant, blue jay, cardinal, turkey vulture, mourning dove, gulls, hawks, eastern phoebe, and mockingbird.

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Posted by  |  26 October 2012 | Categories: iPhone | 1 Comment

Evening Grosbeak


Very exciting . . . watch this time of the year for Evening Grosbeaks and Pine Siskins! Had a huge flock at the Admin Building in Allegany State Park this morning!

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Posted by  |  25 October 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Leave a comment

Ravens 2 – The Original Quidditch Games?

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Trying to snatch the Quaffle?

By: Pat Coate

As mentioned last week, there was a group of about 20 ravens hanging out near where I stayed in Ontario. It was amazing to watch this group soar and play. I really think that J.K. Rowling got her inspiration for the game of Quidditch from watching ravens. Quidditch is an aggressive, somewhat contact sport played by teams of wizards/witches flying on brooms in Rowling’s wildly popular Harry Potter series. The teams represent the four houses of Hogwarts, a school for wizards and witches. Furthering my suspicion that Ms. Rowling drew her inspiration from ravens, I note that one of the four houses is named Ravenclaw.

Quidditch is played with a Quaffle, or enchanted ball, that is used to score points by shooting it through a hoop. In the raven version of quidditch, it seems that a pine cone or twig serves as the Quaffle.
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Posted by  |  18 October 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Ravens 1

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Raven in silhouette

By: Pat Coate

While in Ontario a group of ravens were usually hanging out nearby and when the winds were right they put on quite a show right above me.

Most of the photos are silhouettes. This one here shows a couple of the key field marks of ravens (versus crows): deep, slim “fingers” at the tips of the wings and the wedge-shaped tail.
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Posted by  |  11 October 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Leave a comment

Swimming Buck

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8 pointer

By: Pat Coate

Was lucky enough to spend some time at a cottage on a beautiful lake in Ontario recently. I looked up from my breakfast one rainy morning to see a brown blob swimming out from the bay. I thought “Hmm, that’s an awfully big bird”. When I got the binoculars on it, it was quite clear that it was not a bird at all!
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Posted by  |  4 October 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Happy Autumn

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Fall beginning to bloom

By: Pat Coate

The calendar, cool nights and the landscape say that fall is upon us. The Enchanted Mountains are such a beautiful and inspiring place to live – gorgeous in all seasons, but especially in the fall.
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Posted by  |  27 September 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Shorebirds along Lake Erie in Northern Ohio

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Greater Yellowlegs

By: Pat Coate

Here are a few shots of shorebirds seen while visiting some of the northeast Ohio birding spots along Lake Erie. I made stops from Magee Marsh to Sandusky. Hopefully I have made the correct IDs.
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Posted by  |  20 September 2012 | Categories: iPhone | Tags: , | 1 Comment