Month: February 2022

Thanks to all of the bird lovers that joined us for this winter’s Palmetto Pro-Birder walk at Bear Island WMA! Thanks also to Jessica Kinsella, Stewardship Coordinator for ACE Basin, which is managed in partnership with SC DNR, for teaching us about the property and showing us how a rice trunk works!  We viewed 85 species total, including a Black Skimmer that was chasing Tundra Swans and ducks.
We also viewed trees filled with dozens of Roseate Spoonbills, and saw a cute little rail called a Sora weaving in and out of the marsh grass. SCWF loves sharing special places like this with you, and we hope to see you at our next nature adventure!
Here is the list of the 85 species we saw and/or heard!

1. Tundra Swan
2. Gadwall
3. Wood Duck
4. Blue-winged Teal
5. Green-winged Teal
6. Northern Pintail (photos of a high-flying flock captured by Zach)
7. Mottled Duck
8. Northern Shoveler
9. Bufflehead
10. Hooded Merganser
11. Pied Billed Grebe
12. Sora
13. American Avocet (one seen flying in and then landing in the far end of Mary’s Pond)
14. Common Gallinule
15. American Coot
16. Bonaparte’s Gull
17. Ring-billed Gull (two flyover birds at Bear Island)
18. Forster’s Tern
19. Caspian Tern
20. Black Skimmer
21. Double-crested Cormorant
22. Anhinga
23. Green Heron
24. Great Blue Heron
25. Little Blue Heron
26. Tri-colored Heron
27. Snowy Egret
28. Great Egret
29. Black-crowned Night Heron
30. White Ibis
31. Glossy Ibis
32. Wood Stork
33. American White Pelican
34. Roseate Spoonbill
35. Greater Yellowlegs
36. Lesser Yellowlegs
37. Killdeer
38. Mourning Dove
39. Eurasion Collared Dove
40. Turkey Vulture
41. Black Vulture
42. Northern Harrier
43. Red-tailed Hawk
44. Red-shouldered Hawk
45. Bald Eagle
46. Barn Owl(In the nesting box on Bear Island)
47. Belted Kingfisher
48. Fish Crow
49. American Crow
50. Blue Jay
51. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
52. Red-headed Woodpecker
53. Red-bellied Woodpecker
54. Pileated Woodpecker
55. Downy Woodpecker
56. Northern Flicker
57. Red-cockaded Woodpecker
58. Carolina Chickadee
59. Tufted Titmouse
60. Tree Swallow
61. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
62. Carolina Wren
63. Marsh Wren
64. Eastern Bluebird
65. American Robin
66. Swamp Sparrow
67. Song Sparrow
68. Chipping Sparrow
69. Eastern Towhee
70. Red-winged Blackbird
71. Common Grackle
72. Boat-tailed Grackle
73. Eastern Phoebe
74. White-breasted Nuthatch
75. Brown-headed Nuthatch
76. Northern Mockingbird
77. Gray Catbird
78. Eastern Meadowlark
79. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
80. White-eyed Vireo
81. Northern Cardinal
82. Pine Warbler
83. Palm Warbler
84. Common Yellowthroat (A cute warbler that we heard at both places).
85. Yellow-rumped Warbler

This past Friday, February 11, early childhood educators from around the state gathered at the Riverbanks Zoo & Botanical Gardens to become certified in two complementary national curricula— Project Learning Tree: Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood and Project WILD: Growing Up WILD.

BeBe Dalton Harrison, SCWF’s Director of Education, led the instruction in Growing Up WILD, whose mission is to “provide wildlife-based conservation and environmental education that fosters responsible actions toward wildlife and related natural resources.” In essence, the program is designed to help students learn how to think and not what to think about natural resources and conservation. Matt Schnabel, the Environmental Education Coordinator at the SC Forestry Commission, led the training for Project Learning Tree: Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood, which teaches students how to think about environmental issues through the lens of trees and forests.

“Helping to foster a child’s natural curiosity about the outdoors is very rewarding. Some teachers may not feel comfortable with outdoor-themed lessons, and these programs make it easy and fun to teach what can sometimes be a challenging topic with a hands-on and exciting lesson”, says Harrison. Whether teaching indoors or out, Project Learning Tree and Project WILD make it easy for teachers and students alike to learn about their own backyards and schoolyards. After this day of interactive, hands-on instruction, 14 teachers were certified in both of these curricula, and will be able to share the exciting lessons from Project Learning Tree and Project WILD with their students!

Did you know it’s important to clean out bird boxes so Eastern Bluebirds and other cavity nesters, like the Carolina Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse, will return the following year to build a new nest?

On Friday, January 28, SCWF staff members, Jay Keck and Bev Roberts, were joined by volunteers who cleaned out and collected data from over 30 bird boxes at Camp Discovery in Blythewood, SC.  Camp Discovery’s mission is engaging and inspiring through discovery in science and nature.  This 116-acre outdoor learning environment is a perfect home for Eastern Bluebirds, Woodpeckers, and other cavity nesters!  SCWF’s volunteers removed old nests from last year’s season to make space for the creation of new nests for this year’s breeding season.  In addition to cleaning out dormant wasp nests and other debris, repairs were made to damaged boxes, and four were replaced with brand new boxes.  They also collected data about the contents of each box, which will be used to help educate the hundreds of students that will visit Camp Discovery in 2022.

Thank you to all of the enthusiastic and helpful volunteers that spent time with us on Friday! We hope to have an even bigger volunteer day next year, during which, we plan to replace around 20 of the boxes with new ones. Hope to see you there next year!
If you would like a bluebird box for your yard, they are available to purchase in SCWF’s office.  https://www.scwf.org/merchandise