ACE Basin Birthday Treat!

On Tuesday, August 11 I headed down to the ACE Basin for a getaway on a special day for me, a certain landmark birthday.

A fine dinner that night with Alesia at Hall’s Chophouse and a surprise online get together with my kids and siblings would come later in the day. But by 10:30 a.m. or so I was at the Donnelley Wildlife Management Area located south of Charleston some 65 miles from my house in a place called Green Pond, S.C.

It was a very warm day but it felt good to be again roaming the vast and remote nature preserve once the domain of plantations (and slaves toiling in the rice fields).

To follow are my photographs from this summer outing.

First is featured some of the birds I captured in flight. Seeing a number of the distinctive Swallow-tailed Kites was a highlight. A veritable kettle of kits there was!  That is one of the collective names for Kites. "String" could be a good one too, right?


They and their close relative Mississippi Kite were spotted circling above a field near the lodge structure at Donnelley.

Here are a variety of other images from this adventure, starting with Roseate Spoonbills spotted in the pond behind the lodge house.

According to whatbird.com, a group of Roseate Spoonbills is called a "bowl." I don't know about you but I put my spoons in a drawer, so how about "drawer" being a collective name for these fabulous pink birds!  

Here’s the lodge house, which is surrounded by live oak trees and the Spanish moss they spawn.

Not far from the preserve’s entrance is this closed road that traverses a marsh area. It’s a good spot to try to see and photograph birds and plants. 

Pretty water lily and pads

Buttonbush

Cattail or Bulrush. I must confess I received help identifying the above three plants from a Facebook site called South Carolina Nature Lovers. 

This is the entrance to a park within the park, the Boynton Trail. 

There is an amusing story online about how this old Boynton House may be cursed. Check it out here. I've been to it and looked inside many times but never saw a ghost or felt it was cursed. More like forgotten.  

Northern Cardinal- not just a backyard feeder bird

Anhinga pair with their distinctive profile

Here we have at the top a Little Blue Heron and the lighter colored bird is a Tri-colored Heron.

Snowy Egrets

Glossy Ibis 

Common Moorhens 

Alligators big and small

Neat sign at the Donnelley entrance. I was glad to see a "drawer" (or "kettle") of Swallow-tailed Kites like the one pictured on this sign above the tree.  

These remote wildlife management areas are precious jewels in coastal South Carolina, and elsewhere around the state.