Edisto Island offers a variety of locations that are easily accessed year-round for bird watchers of all skill levels. Whether birding from the front porch, or in one of the many natural areas, visitors will be rewarded throughout the summer and winter months and during spring and fall migration. With multiple public beach access points, viewing beach and surf birds with binoculars, or a spotting scope, is easily accomplished. Brown pelicans, ring-billed gulls, herring gulls, laughing gulls, willets, sanderlings, and ruddy turnstones are commonly observed. Winter birding near the Pavilion will provide looks at red-breasted mergansers, red-throated loons, northern gannets with the occasional scoter and scaup. Access points near Big Bay Creek are a great place to see black skimmers, Forster’s terns, marbled godwits, dunlin, plovers and dowitchers. Bay Creek Park and Edisto Beach State Park provide access to saltmarsh habitats where great blue herons, tri-colored herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, swallows, marsh wrens, and clapper rails can be observed. Forest and scrub habitats, which occur in abundance along the Edisto Beach bike trail and Edisto Beach State Park, are great places to see painting buntings, blue-gray gnatcatchers, vireos, warblers, and woodpeckers. The many golf course ponds and the lagoons are good spots for the American anhinga, black-crowned night heron, green heron, hooded merganser, and belted kingfisher. Birdwatchers should also plan a trip to Botany Bay Wildlife Management Area. Only five miles away from the beach, this 4,687 acre public tract provides easy access to forest, field, marsh, and beach habitats. In addition to what can be seen on Edisto Beach, birds that can be viewed here include bald eagle, osprey, wood stork, white ibis, wild turkey, Wilson’s plover, buntings, sparrows, and a variety of other shore and songbirds. Those planning a day trip from Edisto Beach should also visit the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, and Bear Island Wildlife Management Area. These public areas lie within the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto River watersheds (ACE Basin), a region renowned for an abundance of coastal habitats with excellent birding opportunities year round. Needless to say, Edisto Island is definitely a birding destination and one that is sure to provide a memorable outdoor experience.
Eran S. Kilpatrick, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biology University of South Carolina Salkehatchie
erankil@mailbox.sc.edu
7. Marsh Wren
16. Ring-billed Gull
8. Northern Harrier
17. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
9. Northern Parula
18. Sanderling
10. Northern Pintail
19. Snowy Egret
11. Northern Shovelers
20. Sora
12. Osprey
21. Wild Turkey
13. Painted Bunting
22. Wilson's Plover
14. Prothonotary Warbler
23. Yellow-billed Cuckoo 24. Yellow-throated Warbler
15. Red-bellied Woodpecker
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