I’ve been in South Carolina for the past several days visiting some very dear friends and their children. It was spectacular! We learned to milk goats and make soap and cheese. Also caught some redfish and ate some crabs out of their traps on the river. Charleston is beautiful!!!

The Bottoms are withering. Water is leaving rapidly right now. Several pools are completely dry. I drove through the Conservancy and saw a large number of gulls, pelicans, and egrets. Nobody except a few pelicans appeared to be happy. Killdeer don’t count. They are always happy and greet you with their world-famous call. There are some babies out there and they are cute little fuzz balls. Some baby black-necked stilts are trying to grow legs and a bill like mom.  Everyone is panting in the heat. I’m sure some of them die from heat stroke.  

I’m surprised to see as many white-faced ibis in the marsh. I wasn’t aware that they could tolerate the heat. They are starting to lose color.  

The cattle egrets are really on their game right now. There are large numbers of them hanging out with the cattle in and around the Bottoms. I have lots of funny pictures of cattle egrets sitting on the cows – they are a bit grumpy when disturbed.

The raptors are leaving or gone, I think. This red-tailed hawk was very polite and gave me a good shot of his signature red tail. There are lots of turkey vultures around. Roadkill keeps them pretty busy. There was an Osprey nest with babies in Charleston. Pictures were not so good, so you can’t see.  

It must be a bit warm for snakes to be comfortable. I saw only a couple of garter snakes on my tour today. I’m sure they are shaded up for protection.  

There are vast areas in every pool that are completely dry. Lots of dead carp and such. Pool One at the Redwing road is completely dry.  

The prettiest two birds in the marsh right now are the Avocets and the Franklin Gulls. They both tend to stick with their own group and just cruise through the edges of the other sleeping or feeding birds. The avocets point their bills straight down their backs when they sleep. They also tend to stand on one leg or crouch down like they were on a nest. They are so pretty.

It is hot so take water when you go. The mosquitoes are not bad at all right now. I’ve been walking down at the trail by the swimming pool and motel at 5:30 a.m. every day. It’s easy to get some miles when it is that cool and beautiful. If you take the Bottoms tour, I can promise it won’t be crowded!

Doc

Doctor Dan Witt is a retired physician and nature enthusiast. He can be reached at danwitt01@gmail.com.