Huntington Beach State Park

Here are a few shots from Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina from last week.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

nice set, really like 5 and 6

Hey I see you got some shots of "Radar"!
He's the great egret with the transmitter pack attached to his pack that has two antennas sticking out.
Radar is head egret of the marsh at Huntington and pretty much owns the joint.
Was pic #2 taken near one of the rice trunks on the pond side? If so that's Hank the Heron and he works at the park. His job is to be available for photos.
You also got a pic of a GBH standing on "Gator Island". Normally there would be an alligator sunning there.

Terrific series

Phil,

Thanks for the rundown on the individual birds. You obviously spend a lot of time there. We only get there a couple of times a year when we spend time at our Myrtle Beach condo. We do enjoy the park, though, and always seem to see something different each time we visit. This time, we saw a bunch of wood storks perched in the trees right by the entrance along the causeway (photo #4).

Picture #2 was taken along the causeway. If I recall, the heron was on the right hand side of the causeway (as you enter the park).

We usually do not have any luck spotting gators when visiting the park, but this time we did see two of them.

Scott,
Did you see any other bird species? We plan to visit HBSP in another 3 weeks or so. It would be our first time.
Thanks.

ldn323 wrote in post #15172232
Scott,
Did you see any other bird species? We plan to visit HBSP in another 3 weeks or so. It would be our first time.
Thanks.

On this particular visit the only other bird species we saw were a couple snowy egrets. On past trips, though, we have seen pelicans, white ibises, cormorants, avocets, and terns. There are supposed to be ospreys in the park, too, but we have yet to see one.

This link from a previous visit last year has some photos of the birds I mentioned above. It is really a great place to bird watch. Bring your best telephoto lens and binoculars.

Scott M wrote in post #15171135
Phil,

Thanks for the rundown on the individual birds. You obviously spend a lot of time there. We only get there a couple of times a year when we spend time at our Myrtle Beach condo. We do enjoy the park, though, and always seem to see something different each time we visit. This time, we saw a bunch of wood storks perched in the trees right by the entrance along the causeway (photo #4).

Picture #2 was taken along the causeway. If I recall, the heron was on the right hand side of the causeway (as you enter the park).

We usually do not have any luck spotting gators when visiting the park, but this time we did see two of them.

I do spend quite a bit of time there and get to know many of the birds and even some alligators by sight.
My photo blog (which I update daily) features much of the variety of birds and gators which can be seen at Huntington.
A couple of days ago I had cattle egrets, yesterday was white ibis, today's post features alligators in the swamp.

Nice series Scott. I wish I'd known you were coming. I was at the park last weekend, in fact most weekends I'm there. Weekdays I'm working and judging by the nice weather you had it was probably a weekday, that's usually how my luck works.

Steve, while we usually go during the week, this time we actually visited the park on our first weekend there -- Sunday, October 14th. Friends who were supposed to visit us from Raleigh on the weekend had to cancel, so our Sunday was free. The only downside was that Murrell's Inlet had their annual chili cook-off event that day, and we always go into town to eat after our visit to the park. It was really crowded in town, but luckily the restaurants were not very busy.