Friday 9th December – Simon takes Ruth birding!

Clearly my lack of bird identification knowledge had got to Simon.  He had spotted a tour to a ‘Bird of Prey’ centre near Charleston and booked us on it for today as a treat for me.  He’s actually all right when you get to know him!  They had warned us it would be cold today and they were not wrong.  It was roughly 4°C but with wind chill it felt sub-zero even though it was a glorious blue-sky day.  I put four layers of clothing on!

We treated ourselves to a rare breakfast out as we wanted to try a Waffle House and had seen one on our route yesterday.  It also gave us the opportunity to try ‘grits’, which we were told today is creamed oatmeal.  Apparently South Carolina has the best grits.  I will choose to pass next time though, it looks and tastes like sloppy, bland porridge so I’d much rather stick to the waffles in future!

Red-tailed hawk

Our tour at the Awendaw Bird of Prey centre started at 1030am .  Our guide took us around some of the aviaries explaining the history of the birds including how they had come to be at the centre.  The vast majority of birds had been hit by cars along roadways and were being rehabilitated or had been taken in as fledglings by ‘helpful’ members of the public and were too conditioned ever to be able to live freely.  It was great to be able to see the birds at close quarters rather than seeing a bundle of feathers flying past and going ‘what was that?!’  I took the opportunity to show the clever people the picture of the bird I’d taken in High Falls Park, Georgia and that is why I can be confident now when I identify a red-shouldered hawk as opposed to a red-tailed hawk (right).


Four of the birds were ‘flown’ for us but we saw many species of wild bird flying wild in the area including, incredibly, two bald eagles which locked talons in mid-air as part of a courtship ritual.  The guy talking to us was overjoyed, saying ‘I’ve been waiting my entire life to see that in the wild and there it was, for you folks, you lucky people!’  We are very lucky people.  I have chosen the best of the pictures I took that don’t consist of half a bird or a blurry bird flying past me!

American Sparrow Hawk

Barred Owl (and left)

Common Black Hawk (to be honest, that's a guess!)

Wild vultures, the one on the ground is trying to warm up by basking in the sun

Black Vulture

There was so much to see, despite the cold we stayed until 130pm.   Even treated myself to a ‘birds of South-East America’ identification chart to try and educate myself for our forthcoming time in Florida.

We crammed so much into today despite having many miles to cover.  Having torn ourselves away from the Bird centre we started heading due south towards Georgia where we were booked into Skidaway Island State Park for two nights.  Not far down the road Simon spotted a bike shop and we waited there for about twenty minutes whilst they fitted a new, stronger chain to his bike. We then took another quick detour to Folly Beach on the recommendation of a friend.  The area was stunning including the beach but thankfully it was far too exposed for today’s weather so, apart for finding a horseshoe crab (right) and taking a couple of snaps we did not stay long.  I’m sure in the summer it is an amazing beach location.  

Very much an ex-horseshoe crab!

Despite my protestations, we fitted in a Walmart shop (I hate Walmart) as well so that by the time we arrived at the State Park it was gone 8pm.  Coincidentally, we have spent more money today than on any day so far (when we haven’t been buying an RV of course).  We filled up with gas twice, had breakfast out, paid for a bike repair and a bird guide, went to Walmart and whilst Simon was in the bike shop I was on hold to NASA in Florida sorting out our multi-day tickets to be able to attend a launch there later this month.  Then we added two very expensive nights camping in Georgia ($41.50 a night!) All-in this cost $611.75!! I took some deep breaths…. But it's all for a good cause right?!