One half of Eyes on Wings made the trip to the upstate to Santee National Wildlife Refuge for the South Carolina Wildlife Federation Probirder Event with leader Steve Patterson as our instructor. It was a fun couple days, with a group of like minded people. We had Sharon who was always finding us something interesting with her Master Naturalist skills. Ellie was kind enough to stay out in the strong heat of the afternoon sun with me to get eyes on a King Rail. What a wonderful treat to see this beautiful Rail finally come out of the reeds, from which it was calling for more the 20mintues, before allowing us to get a clear look at it. We were not able to get a picture of the rail, as Lee, who had a camera with a telephoto lens, had moved down the path with the larger group and for good reason.
The Yellow-breasted Chat was spotted providing everyone great looks at it while chatting away.
We saw many Orchard Orioles and Blue Grosbeaks which were everywhere, singing from the trees. We stopped under a big old tree for lunch and found a brightly colored Red Summer Tanager. I was amazed how all the activity did not faze him as he perched there for sometime. Richard posted a great photo on FB. After lunch we made it over to the Cuddo portion of the refuge. Steve had some fun slowly opening a Duck box hoping we might get a surprise Screech Owl. The female wood Duck inside came flying out, and luckily Steve did not fall into the pond.. We also saw good number of Double Crested Cormorants.
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