Spring Walk
S
By Frances Boyd
pringtime on Kiawah is “baby-time,” and who can resist a baby—be it
furry or feathery? Baby ospreys in nests high up in the trees are easy to
spot if you use the parents’ high-pitched calls to pinpoint their location.
These large fishing birds communicate with one another using three
types of calls while artfully fluttering in place high in the sky before they dive
headlong into a pond. A few birds participate in a “time-share” situation, such
as the great horned owls that may move into an abandoned eagle or osprey nest.
Chickadees raise their clutches in bluebird boxes before the bluebirds arrive or
sometimes after they have arrived, creating a situation that can be dicey. When
a bluebird pair moves into a box, they collect pine straw for their nest, building
it right on top of the chickadee’s abode if the box already had been occupied.
Volunteers monitor the boxes and are delighted to document the times when
beautiful blue eggs hatch into awkward featherless newborns and finally fluff and
fatten until the nest becomes too small to hold them. A walk near any of the golf
courses reveals box after box, and a watchful eye can often detect a quick flash of
bright blue as the male flits into or out of a nest.
Spring is mating season for alligators, and they emerge from spending a great
deal of the winter in muddy pond bank cavities. Because they are hungry and
looking for a mate, males may move from pond to pond and often vocalize with a
startling barking roar. Competition is not an issue for bucks by March, and males
hang out in groups of five or more, giving real meaning to the term “stag party.”
A walk on the beach turns up a plethora of horseshoe crab shells that have been
shed each year as the crabs grow. Red knots, birds that pass through Kiawah but
do not nest here, feed on clams before migrating north to breed. They gather in
large flocks at both ends of the Island and often fly together in swirling formations.
Piping plovers also spend quite a bit of time on Kiawah beaches. Be careful not to
walk on the dunes and do not let dogs venture into the critical areas at either end of
the Island where many birds nest.
Often spring visitors on kayak trips see great globs of cannonball jellyfish
floating near the banks of the Kiawah River. A careful look onto the mud banks
may be rewarded with a glimpse of the endangered diamond-backed terrapin as
well as legions of scurrying fiddler crabs. Spring days are glorious indeed, with
mild weather and plenty of sunshine. NK
“Egret” (l