A Rewarding Afternoon Hike at the Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge

Common Gallinule

Date: November 27, 2024

Place: Pinkney Island Unit, Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina

Coordinates: 32.233858, -80.779585

Length: 3.8 miles

Level: easy

 

 

The first half of my family's 2024 Thanksgiving vacation was in the area of Charleston, South Carolina. On the second half of our vacation we were in the area of Savannah, Georgia. On our first day in Georgia we went back to South Carolina to explore Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. After a nice auto tour and a nice short hike we moved on to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is just north of Savannah. We arrived in the afternoon and after a short snack time we gathered our cameras and went on a hike.

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 

 The trailhead, located in the south part of the island, is in a small forested area. The trees there were mostly new growth - thin and tall. They were either evergreen or just late in turning to fall colors - the forest canopy was still fully foliaged and green.

At the trailhead

Already there, in the trees at the trailhead area, we paused to find the birds that twitted in the trees. The first sighting wasn't all that exciting: yellow-rumped warblers are the most common warblers in the Bay Area in California, but they're cute even on the other side of the continent.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

A sign explaining about the key trees and plants in the maritime forest welcomed us as we started our hike. It was good to see the diversity around us. Another sign explained about the efforts done to remove invasive species from the refuge area.

Of all the trees my attention was drawn to the little dwarf palms at the forest's understory. The forest was not dense enough to block sunshine from getting through and the understory was rich with shrubs and thick with the little dwarf palms.

Saw Palmetto, Serenoa repens

 Of the other shrubs in the understory the one that stood out the most was the Christmas icon yaupon holly with its bright red berries. 

Yaupon Holly

The presence of sapsuckers was evident by the sap wells that they drill in trees to get to the sugary tree sap. Usually we don't get to see the bird but this time we were treated to the sight of the master driller himself - the yellow-bellied sapsucker.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

The trail was wide and comfortable - it was a packed gravel road. The wind was pretty strong but between the trees we had some relief.

We exited the first forested areas into the open. We were walking on a sort of an isthmus between large salt marsh areas that extended a good distance until stopped by the open water of either Mackay Creek or Skull Creek, the wide estuary channels between which the island is located.

Between all the salt marsh grasses I found a singe blooming plant, which had a single inflorescence fully open. I wondered who pollinates a single blooming plant if others of this species are not synchronized is bloom time. 

More information signs were spread along our path, telling us about the local animals, plants, and birds. I didn't have the time to read all of them in real time but I did take photos so I could read them later. Having been in the Southeast for a few days, I was glad to be able to recognize some to the vegetation already, such as the Spanish Moss (which isn't a moss nor is it Spanish).

Spanish Moss

Mush of the salt marsh area seemed dry, or at least drained. There were flooded places however, and I wondered which part of the tide cycle was at the time.

Salt Marsh

An osprey flew above. That osprey was the only bird of pray that we've seen on our Pinckney Island hike.

Osprey

 

We passed a small grove of trees behind which we saw Ibis Pond, the first fresh water body on the trail. The pond was very green - it was covered with a layer of duckweed. A belt of reeds and cattails grew right at the pond's shores and a sign warned us about alligators in or near the water. 

Ibis Pond

 

There were coots swimming in the duckweed-covered pond. They didn't seem at all concerned about alligators.

Common Gallinules

There weren't any ibises in or near Ibis Pond. I guess they are summer residents there. We did see an alligator though. It was enjoying some quiet time on the island in the middle of the pond.

American Alligator

 

There was a rustling sound in the reeds and my family birders went over to check it out. It was a small bird - a Carolina wren that was hiding in there.

Carolina Wren

 

Much less shy, an eastern Phoebe was perched on a bush branch that hanged over the pond. The Phoebe is a fly catcher - it was waiting for insects to fly near.

Eastern Phoebe

Slowly we walked around the pond, searching the water for birds and other wildlife. I kept looking at the near shore, fearing an overzealous alligator might be lurking in the reeds. 

Ibis Pond

The cattails were at their seed releasing stage. They looked very beautiful with their sausage-like fruit. Their stems were definitely strong enough to carry the weight of an eastern Phoebe bird. 

Eastern Phoebe perched on cattail

For the most part, the birds that we've seen in Ibis Pond were coots. The elder chika did find one grebe though.

Pied-billed Grebe

Besides the birds and the alligators, there were pond slider turtles there as well. Many turtles. The turtles used every bit of the mild fall sunshine to warm themselves outside of the water. 

Yellow-bellied Slider

 

After circumventing Ibis Pond we went back to the main trail and continued walking too the northeast, That part of the trail came really close to Mackay Creek - the wide brackish water canal that brings water in every tide cycle up to the salt marshes.

Mackay Creek

There was a strip of trees between the trail and the shores of Mackay Creek.  In one spot under the trees I spotted a pile of metal cylinders. They looked to me like cannon shells but I couldn't imagine what would cannon shells be doing there. It might have been metal posts used for something and now decommissioned. 

There was a large variety of tree species within the refuge. There were pines, palms, and many broadleaf trees species. All of them still had their greens on, including the deciduous species. 

Trail

The palm trees were bearing fruit. These were like dates, but small and black. The birds apparently, loved them. 

Tufted Titmouse

Some of the birds we saw there that day were completely new to me - lifer species for me. They were not new to Pappa Quail and the elder chika though. They've seen many of them on an earlier visit in south Texas in 2023.

Black and White Warbler

We reached the turn to Starr Pond and left the main trail to get to that pond. A nice stand of poplars separated the main trail from the Starr Pond surrounding trail. These poplars seemed to be feeling the autumn already - their leaves were yellowing. 

Starr Pond was also covered with aquatic vegetation but not only duckweed. Other, larger leafed aquatic plants were floating on the surface. We stood at the corner of the lake and scanned the surface for a few minutes. It looked very quiet.

Starr Pond

Then Pappa Quail and the elder chika got excited - on the opposite shore stood a small group of ducks. These were black-bellied whistling ducks, and for me they were a lifer species. 

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

The Starr Pond Trail goes around three quarters of the pond's circumference. The trail was was a short-mowed grass and as we were advancing on it we noticed a gray dot moving some distance ahead. 

Pappa Quail checked the dot with his binoculars and announced that that gray dot was an armadillo. Now that sure was exciting! There are no armadillos in California. The only time I've seen one in the wild was on a family trip to southeast Texas a few years ago. 

Nine-banded Armadillo

The armadillo we've seen in Texas then was half hidden. This one was completely in the open, and wasn't very impressed with us. Certainly not as much as we were impressed by it. Eventually it did go into the trail side vegetation when we passed it by on the trail. 

Nine-banded Armadillo

Past the armadillo we were treated again - a much closer group of whistling ducks detached from the near shore and floated into the center of the lake. They moved slowly enough so we got a really nice close up view of these beautiful birds. 

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

The eastern side of Starr Pond was completely covered which what looked like water lilies. There were no flowers blooming there, however. 

Starr Pond

We found the trail out of the Starr Pond Area and connected with an inner trail that cut through the forest to the next pond we wanted to check out - the Osprey Pond. 

Trail

Osprey Pond was so calm that the water reflected perfectly the clouds and the trees on the far shore. Another important factor that made the reflection possible was that the water surface was clear of duckweed and other aquatic plants. 

Osprey Pond

Sapsuckers have been here too, as was evident from the heavily drilled tree trunks and branches nearby. We saw plenty of sap wells but the master driller bird wasn't present for us to see. 

Considering how many thin stumps protruded from the water in the center of the pond I assumed that this particular spot was flooded after there was already some tree growth there, and that those trees subsequently died. 

The birds were making good use of these protruding stumps. The most obvious one was a single anhinga that flew in and perched on one of these sticks just before ur eyes. 

Anhinga

Smaller, but no less attractive, was a singe kingfisher that used the dead stump as an ambush spot. Despite the relative distance, the kingfisher was less appreciative of our attention, and soon took off and settled on a branch on the other side of the pond. 

Belted Kingfisher

My eyes were attracted to the beautiful trees on the opposite shore. Those trees, I have no idea what species they were, were in full fall attire and stood out with their flame colored foliage on the green background of the trees that didn't get the memo yet. 

Fall Colors

While I admired the trees the rest of my family admired the large alligator that rested, lying partially in the water, on the opposite shore. 

American Alligator

We paced around the lake slowly and just as we were about to turn out to reach the main trail we spotted a group of wood storks standing close to the lake shore. 

Wood Storks

This was the second time we've seen wood storks on our trip - the first time was in Huntington Beach State Park, north of Charleston. Wood storks were lifers for all of us on this trip. 

Wood Storks

One might expect more insects near a pond. An eastern Phoebe was also expecting that - sitting in ambush on a bowing bough close to the water.

Eastern Phoebe

The last bird we took notice of before turning away from Osprey Pond was a great blue heron that stood motionless on the shore.  

Great Blue Heron

My younger chika found a mushroom growing right in the middle of the grassy trail and she called me over to take a look. 

When we reached the main trail we needed to make a choice - to continue further into the refuge or should we turn back and return to the parking area? The lowering sun answered it for us - these were short days and we didn't want to be hiking out when it turned dark. 

Trail

On our way back we passed by the other side of Starr Pond and of Ibis Pond, but we didn't go near to check them out again - daylight was definitely fading now. Bythe time we got to the open salt marshthe sun was dipping into the trees.

I caught the sun as it peeked between the trees. Even this low the sun was too intense to look at directly, but the camera lens tolerated it. 

We caught up with the last direct sunlight as we walked into the parking are. The wind had calmed down by then but the air chilled significantly. It was time to go back to town and call it a day. 

Just before we packed our cameras in the car I turned around and saw a squirrel climbing a nearby palm. We saw several on that hike but this one was the only squirrel that I got a picture of. It too seemed in a hurry to get back to its home.