Fall Walk
By Frances Boyd
N
o need to drive to the mountains to see beautiful autumn colors.
Simply take a walk on the beach here on Kiawah Island. In the
fall the dunes brighten into many shades of yellow, orange and
even purple. Ripples of bright red vines from Virginia creeper
weave their way through the cord grass and sea oats. Perhaps most striking
of all colors are the purple/pink hues of the flowering sweetgrass. The Kiawah
Community Association has planted row upon row of this Lowcountry native plant
that delight motorists, bikers and hikers.
When the dunes come alive with color, so do the butterflies that frequent them.
Numerous varieties of butterflies make their way through Kiawah each year,
including the seriously endangered monarch and its look-alike viceroy butterfly.
Gulf fritillaries, pallamedes swallowtails and zebra longwings also flit from plant
to plant at the butterfly garden on the ocean side of the Sanctuary. Bike or run to
the resort’s luxury hotel and have a look. The Kiawah Conservancy Demonstration
Garden located Night Heron Park also attracts butterflies. The Conservancy, in
cooperation with the Kiawah Island Golf Resort, created the garden so that residents
and visitors alike could learn about native plants that require low maintenance while
attracting wildlife. The beautyberry bush is one of the best-loved shrubs on Kiawah
and easy to spot because of its stalks of luscious red berries.
The fall can be the best time of year to witness Atlantic bottlenose dolphins
engage in a unique feeding behavior called strand feeding. The Dolphins work
in groups, or sometimes by themselves, and use the riverbank to their advantage
by driving schools of fish onto the shore. Once temporarily ‘stranded’, the fish
are easily scooped up by the hungry dolphins. This behavior is consistent and
centralized along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts because the dune sides
and marsh edges behind the many barrier islands have steep slopes that allow the
dolphin to slide safely back into the water with a mouthful of fish.
While on a casual paddle along the Island, kayakers may see an American mink.
River otters, another wetland creature on Kiawah, may rarely appear. A walker near
one of the ponds will likely eye a glossy ibis, wood stork or even a roseate spoonbill.
On the banks of most ponds, anhinga, whose heads stick from the water like a
snake, sun themselves with their wings outstretched. These birds that dive deeply
into the water to catch fish must dry their wings before they can take off flying again.
Experiencing nature on Kiawah is amazing. Prepare to run into a doe and a
mother bobcat in a standoff, each looking out for their young in their own way. See
several pond turtles lined up right alongside a sunning alligator. Catch a bobcat
napping on a boardwalk. And, while hundreds of bird species pass through Kiawah
during September and October, some are reluctant to migrate on schedule. After
all, it is hard to leave a place like Kiawah Island! NK
“Fall Trees” (left) by Brian Sturgell; photo by Pamela Cohen
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