Hilton Head Shorebirds and Gulls – February 2018

Since our weather has been so constantly overcast and gloomy, we are craving some sun. The best way to find sun without travelling is to revisit our time in sunnier destinations.

Thanks to friends, we spent a week on Hilton Head Island in February 2018. This was a chance for us to learn about some new birds in new habitats.

We were attracted to the nearby beaches, even when it was overcast. There, we found some gulls and shorebirds that were new to us. The birds quickly moved away at our approach.

We learned to move slowly and wait for them to become comfortable with our presence in order to take photos.

Gulls take up to 4 years to mature and attain adult plumage. It takes time to learn to identify gulls at different stages of development. These are both Ring-billed Gulls.

Adult nonbreeding

First winter

These are both Bonaparte’s Gulls. Both will sport black heads during the summer months.

First Winter

Adult nonbreeding

These are all Laughing Gulls. Breeding plumage is usually observed from March through September.

Adult nonbreeding

Adult breeding

Adult nonbreeding

Herring Gulls are large gulls that take four years to mature.

First winter

First winter Herring Gull with Bonaparte’s Gull and Ruddy Turnstone

Sometimes what looks like a gull, is not a gull!

These are Forster’s Terns.

First winter, bill is still black

Adult breeding with Bonaparte’s Gull

First winter with dark outer primaries

One of the most elegant shorebirds is the Willet. These birds are in nonbreeding plumage. Their striking wing pattern shows only in flight.

On this beach, we sometimes saw rafts of scaup far out on the ocean, passing dolphins and Brown Pelicans. The pelicans tended to congregate on the pier at a nearby beach and marina.

At the marina beach, we watched an Osprey fishing for dinner. Ospreys are found year-round in South Carolina. “Our Ospreys” probably spend the winter farther south.

Our trips to other beaches taught us that timing is everything and that we needed to know whether the tide would be in or out. When the tide was out, birds were far in the distance and often on the other side of large tide pools. If the tide had been in, the birds would have been much closer!