ACE Basin- No Bears but Many Birds and Gators at Bear Island

 

It was good to get out of the house Sunday and make the lengthy drive south to the ACE Basin. The vast protected preserve is worth the drive time because it’s always a great commune with nature. And it’s so quiet out there except for the calls of birds and the grunts of alligators. And we did see lots of both. 

To follow are my photographs that show some of what can be seen at the precious preserve called the Bear Island Wildlife Management Area.

This long road dissects the 12,000-acre undeveloped property. It extends from the entrance straight to the outer limits of Bear Island. 

A pair of Black Vultures on a power line pole. I took this photo from inside my car. The first time we left the car just inside the preserve was very buggy. We applied the Off and fortunately, the rest of our time here was pretty much bug-free. 

On both sides of the main road, you can turn to see various areas many that have these wooden trunks used to control water flow. These large structures date back hundreds of years when slaves worked these fields cultivating rice that was a huge industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Read here about these trunks and why they are still used. 

For the above photo I used Snapseed's effects to create a dark, gloomy mood. Snapseed is a wonderful free photo processing app that I have on my iPad, which is where I download photos from my camera, a Canon PowerShot SX 50 superzoom. It's several years old now. I think only used ones can be bought today. 

A lovely Snowy Egret on one of the rice field trunks. Note its distinctive yellow "slippers." 

This is one place we stopped, parked and walked. Park workers had recently conducted controlled burns here. 

Alligator sequence here. From wide shot showing three of the big beasts...

To this medium shot showing two...

And then a close up of one. Smile for the camera!  

In another location we spotted this huge Gator. Alesia went back to the car after seeing this one. 

Not far from the Bear Island entrance there is an osprey nest that has been there for years. 

We didn't see any little ones in the nest but did see two other osprey fly by that seemed to be family to this one. 

Almost the shot of the day!  Look at the size of those claws!  

A Tri-colored Heron blending in nicely with the tall straw grass. 

This is one of the two most unique birds or ducks seen on this day. These are Blue-winged Teals. 

The tell is the white band around the male's bill. 

Boat-tailed Grackle calling out for company

These are the other unique capture of the day. These are female Buffleheads. didn't see any males with the much larger white spots on their heads. Like the teals shown above the buffleheads also like to winter in these parts. 

Yellow-rumped Warbler (above and below)- what a cutie is the Butter Butt YRW. 

Savannah Sparrow (below)

I received ID help from whatbird.com's community forum with this sparrow

Last but not least, I spotted this beautiful Monarch butterfly just as we were about to depart bear island. Thanks to the Carolina Leps (look it up- I had to) Facebook site for the type of butterfly help.

Bear island and south Carolina's ACE Basin- always time well-spent when nature calls!