My favorite local birding spot continues to be at, of all places, a cemetery. I stopped by Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery one steamy afternoon this week thinking birdwise it would be dead (ugh). But it turned out to be one of my best birding photography adventures ever!
A couple sweaty hours later I had photographed no less than eight species and I saw a couple more. The star to me was the Wood Stork, my favorite bird because of its size, prehistoric looks, cool black bordered wings and rarity. You just don't see these big birds as often as many of the other coastal species.
Seeing a Green Heron was also a treat. I had never seen this small bird before and needed some help to accurately ID it. It may have been the intense heat making the birds not want to fly away so quickly but I was able to get fairly close to many perched birds. They knew I was there but didn't fly away, allowing me to get all the photos I wanted.
Like Wood Storks, American Anhingas are big and awkward. And also like the Wood Stork seeing an Anhinga with its wings extended is an impressive site.
More cemetery birds next posting!
