110 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasantPodcast.com The coastal Carolina region offers diverse wildlife habitat that makes it a popular area for birdwatching. We’ve compiled a list of some of the top birding hotspots along our coast, so grab your binoculars and camera, download your birding apps and let your avian adventures begin. CAW CAW INTERPRETIVE CENTER Featuring over six miles of trails, this wildlife preserve and cultural site boasts varied habitat consisting of an elevated boardwalk through cypress wetlands as well as marshes, former rice fields and bottomland hardwood forest. It’s prime habitat to see red-headed woodpeckers, with their arresting crimson heads, sometimes seen foraging insects on the wing or in dead tree cavities in the swampland. If you’re lucky, you might glimpse the silent and stealthy barred owl. ccprc.com/53/Caw-Caw-Interpretive-Center HUNTINGTON BEACH STATE PARK Known as one of the best birding sites in the Southeast, more than 300 species of birds have been recorded within Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet. With ponds greeting you on either side as you enter, hiking trails and beachfront access, the park provides ample birdwatching opportunities for viewing wading birds, songbirds and shorebirds, including photogenic favorites like roseate spoonbills and painted buntings. southcarolinaparks.com/huntington-beach PATRIOTS POINT NATURE TRAIL This short, easy trail winding through a wooded area adjacent to the ball fields and golf course at Patriots Point supplies a critical food stopover during spring and particularly fall migration for warblers and thrushes passing through that use it as a rest and refueling stop. Within the past year, birders have reported thrilling finds such as American woodcocks, ovenbirds, blackpoll warblers and even a rare sighting of a western tanager. sctrails.net/trails/trail/patriots-point SANTEE COASTAL RESERVE Santee Coastal Reserve has designated nature trails and over 4,000 acres of brackish water impoundment managed for wintering waterfowl. As you pass through the longleaf pine forest on the drive in, look for the redcockaded woodpecker, as these trees serve as preferred habitat for this federally-threatened species. sctrails.net/trails/trail/santee-coastal-reserve-bike-hike SULLIVAN’S ISLAND NATURE TRAIL/FORT MOULTRIE The Sullivan’s Island Nature Trail, which traverses through a maritime forest, and the surrounding grasslands area around Fort Moultrie, constitute another important flyway to spot fall and spring migrants. Stroll the beach and scan for shorebirds and seabirds like willets, dunlins, sanderlings, terns, gulls and loons. Rare bird sightings reported here have included the western kingbird and the Leconte’s sparrow. sullivansisland.sc.gov/nature-trail Bird is the WORD Coastal Carolina Birdwatching Guide BY COLIN MCCANDLESS on the coast Male painted bunting at Sullivan’s Island Nature Trail. Photo credit/ Craig Watson.
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