Biking to the Intracoastal Waterway

We just had to take advantage of the beautiful weather God blessed us with on Sunday, April 14! So we loaded our bicycles in the SUV and drove north up the coastline. 

Destination: the vast Santee Coastal Reserve located off Highway 17 north of McClellanville. I have visited several times over the years but never took a bike. I did a two-part posting about this wildlife management area back in 2015.

Part I.  Part II. 

This website from South Carolina Trails includes a map of the route we took on our bikes, giving the ride an "easy" rating. I would say it's not exactly easy as you really need to pay attention because the conditions of the path differ from good to a little rough as you go along. 

The goal today was to ride to the Intracoastal Waterway. It’s a few miles from the main parts of the reserve so bikes seemed like a fun and expedient way to get there. The trail, overall, was in good shape except for a few sandy patches. 

Once we got there we saw several vessels plying the waters, including this yacht whose skipper tooted the horn for us. 

Bear Island WMA- Summer Summit

 

On Wednesday, June 28 I finally made the trek down to Green Pond in the ACE Basin. I had the itch for months and the right day was there so off I went. 

The 12,000-acre Bear Island Wildlife Management Area was the destination. From my house it’s about 45 miles to the left turn off Highway 17 (Bennett's Point Road) then another 15 miles or so to the entrance to the vast nature preserve. 

I received a nice greeting near the gate from this friendly hen that walked up to my car. It seemed to belong to the home situated just outside the preserve.

This had to be an omen that good birding was ahead for me. 

I identified this as a Pedresa Chicken using a bird ID app I'm trying out called Picture Bird.  I open the app, bring in my bird photo and in seconds it tells me the type of bird. This was helpful in this outing to confirm birds I have seen before and to help with identities I was not so sure about. 

Just inside the entrance is a large body of water called Mary’s House Pond.

Past visits have taught me there are usually some large wading birds here. 

And sure enough, I spotted Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons. 

I tried out some different photo processing tools in my favorite Snapseed app. 

ACE Basin Excursion- “At Least (Bittern) A Lifer” Bird For Me

What better way to celebrate the end of another school year- and what a strange one it has been thanks to the coronavirus pandemic- then to head south to one of my favorite Lowcountry nature preserves.

It’s a long drive (59.5 miles from my house to this entrance sign, taking about one hour 10 minutes) to the Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, but well worth it to experience a vast protected preserve interesting in its layout and teeming with wildlife, especially alligators (avoid these) and multitudes of bird species.

The trip was a pleasant one as I drove with my window and sunroof wide open on a very mild mid-May day.

The time flew by as I listened to a favorite podcast (“Civil War Talk Radio”) that I hadn’t heard in a few months since school was closed as COVID-19 began to hit and shut down America.

It was only 60 degrees when I arrived at 9:30 a.m. at Bear Island (official location is TiTi Road, Green Pond, S.C.).