Christmas Birding on the BEach, Hilton Head Island

William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, landscape, birding and nature photography blog documenting the beauty, design and wonder of God’s creation. -- Genesis 1:20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.”

Sanderling wading shore bird on Hilton Head Island Beach, South Carolina. The sanderling, Calidris alba, is a long distance migrant Arctic breeder. Blue water beach of the Atlantic Ocean.

While I didn't get to participate in an official Christmas Bird Count, I did to a lot of birding on the beach during the week of Christmas! My parents brought my family and my brother's family from Chicago all together on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We had a great time together, and I still did manage to get away at least once a day to scan the shores, dunes and trees of the Atlantic Ocean coast on this beautiful island. 

Saturday, December 21, 2019. Just after arriving, I ran down to the beach between rain showers. Royal Tern bird Hilton Head Island Beach, South Carolina USA in winter. Thalasseus maximus lives on the coast and is only found near salt water. They tend to feed near the shore.

Semipalmated Plover shorebird on the Atlantic ocean beach on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA. Charadrius semipalmatus is a small plover that migrate in winter to coastal areas of the southern United States. Sand dune, beach, coastal habitat.

Piping Plover, Charadrius melodus, feeding in the sand on the Atlantic ocean beach on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA. Coastal shorebird sand dune habitat. Piping Plovers are on the U.S. endangered species list. They are endangered due to habitat loss.

Piping Plover shorebird on the Atlantic ocean beach on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA

“The country abounds with grapes, large figs and peaches, the wood with deer, conies, turkeys, quails, curlues, plovers, teile, herons… swans, geese, cranes, duck and mallard and innumerable waterfowl…”
Captain William Hilton, 1664

Sanderling wading shore bird on Hilton Head Island Beach, South Carolina. The sanderling, Calidris alba, is a long distance migrant Arctic breeder. Blue water beach of the Atlantic Ocean.

Sanderling, Calidris alba, is a small sandpiper shore bird. Long distance migrant Arctic breeder. Hilton Head Island beach, South Carolina USA in winter, December 2019. Grey sand and water reflection.

I like this shot as it shows the relative sizes of the gulls that loiter on the beach and the "peeps" that run the beach under them, almost between their legs! Sanderling, Calidris alba, is a small sandpiper shore bird. Two sleeping Ring-billed Gulls, Larus delawarensis. Hilton Head Island beach, South Carolina USA in winter, December 2019.

Ash-throated Flycatcher

I was following a Cooper's Hawk down the peach when up popped a flycatcher into a pine tree along the sand dunes. My first thought was Great-crested Flycatcher, for that is what I've seen here in the southeast... but only in the summer. When the Merlin app wouldn't pull up any flycatchers as likely for this time of year, I began to wonder. I posted it up on iNaturalist and soon began to get some more experienced folks to weigh in. Turns out is a vagrant Ash-throated Flycatcher. There was a nice discussion thread here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36889389. From Cornell: "The Ash-throated Flycatcher is a rare but regular vagrant to the East Coast. Individuals turn up nearly every year across the U.S. and they have been found in all coastal states and provinces. See where they have been seen at eBird."

And one not quite a bird...

American Alligator at a small inland pond near Harbourtown on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. December 27, 2019.

Sanderling, Calidris alba, is a small sandpiper shore bird. Long distance migrant Arctic breeder. Hilton Head Island beach, South Carolina USA in winter, December 2019. Grey sand and water reflection.

Royal Tern bird standing on the beach near other seagulls. Royal Tern is in the family of seabirds, gulls and terns. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA