A Taste of a Different World: Hiking in the Swamp of the Audubon's Beidler Forest Sanctuary

 

Date: November 22, 2024

Place: Audubon's Beidler Forest Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina

Coordinates: 33.220770, -80.354076

Length: 1.7 miles

Level: easy

 

 

Last fall Pappa Quail and I debated over where to go on the chikas' Thanksgiving break. In previous years we would go on road trips, and we pretty much covered all of California and some Nevada and Arizona areas. We discussed revisiting some of the places we've already traveled to when a new idea came to me - I suggested flying to Savannah, Georgia. After a short discussion, Pappa Quail agreed - we have never been in that part of the country, and he was bound to see lifer birds there. As it happened, we actually spent more time in South Carolina rather than in Georgia. On the first day of our break we flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, rented a car, and drove to Charleston, where we had planned to stay for the next few nights. Our flight to Charlotte was a red eye. When we landed I was too tired to drive and so Pappa Quail took the wheel and drove for a couple of hours while the chikas and me dosed off in the passenger seats. Knowing how long it'll take to drive from Charlotte to Charleston, Pappa Quail had planned a birding stop on the way. So after a brief lunch break  he drove us to the Audubon's Beidler Forest Sanctuary where, after listening to the docent at the visitor center we headed out through the back door and onto the board walk trail.  

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 It wasn't clear to me at first why was there a need for a boardwalk, but Pappa Quail, who has hiked in similar southeastern forests in Texas on a different trip told me that this area was periodically flooded. 

Near the trailhead the forest floor was dry, with no sign of recent flooding. What did cover the forest floor, other than dry leaves were lots of little palmetto palms.

I took a few close up photos of the palmetto palms. The only time I've seen these dwarf palms before was in Texas, on a family trip years ago. I was fascinated by them then, and I was still fascinated by them now.  

Dwarf Palmetto, Sabal minor

The Audubon Society focuses birds but preserving habitat and educating the public are high on their agenda. It was nice seeing plant ID signs along the trail. It was especially nice when it was clear what plant was the sign referring to, since many of the plants were winter-bare.

Wax Myrtle, Morella cerifera

Most of the palm species I know grow to decent size trees. Height in the Beidler forest was reserved for other tree species though. Towering over the trail were many tree species, both broad leaf and conifers I recognized none of the species.

After a fairly short distance we started seeing some flooding on the forest floor. Most of it seemed standing water, without any flow. Some of the flooded areas were hard to see because the very quiet water was covered with fallen leaves.

Pappa Quail and the elder chika craned their necks in search of birds. I craned mine in admiration of the tree canopies. Some of the trees were represented in the info signs, with names and illustrations.

Mockernut Hickory, Carya alba

Those trees that still had their leaves on filtered through the soft fall light. Their canopies shines and glowed in soft, almost magical illumination.

My younger chika who was at the rear called me and pointed down on the boardwalk. I walked to where she was standing and looked down to where she was pointing. A bright green stinkbug was walking on the wood plank. It had red spikes on its shoulders. Very cool.

Spined Green Stink Bug

More and more of the forest floor was now flooded. The rainy season has just begun in the area, and it was expected that the flood zone would get much bigger as winter progresses. I expect that summer time there should be gorgeous, but also full of mosquitoes.

Bald Cypress, Taxodium distichum

We reached the junction where the loop part of the trail started and took the left turn, following the boardwalk clock-wise. 

We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day. The sunshine that filtered through the canopies to the shallow standing water below came back as a beautiful, and very colorful image of the reddish earth below the water, fallen leaves on the water surface, fallen logs and tree trunks, and reflections of the higher forest story 

I even managed to capture the sun itself, reflecting from the water, as if shining from a deep, mysterious netherworld.  

I did not hold back on photographing the water surface with all of the beauty it held. It did make quite a challenge to select photos for this blog post, though. 

There were plenty of information signs along the trail. While most of the information posted was about the nature we were walking in, some signs were also dedicated to the human history of the place. It was our first hike in this part of the country, and the sign telling us about the Carolina Gold rice raised using slave labor in fields that used to be forests such as this one, and cleared of trees using slave labor. The sign stated that very few old growth forests such as this one remained in the southeast. I hugged the nearest tree I could reach from the boardwalk, conveying regards from the California redwoods which also suffered similar demise in the name of modern settling and productivity. 

We saw very little green in the forest so late in fall. What little green there was at eye level immediately drew my attention. It was quite lovely to see, too. 

The trees that didn't drop their leaves yet were the main source of green in the flooded swamp area. On eye level these were the young trees, such as this juvenile oak. 

Oak, Quercus sp.

Audubon's Beidler Forest Preserve Preserve is within a larger seasonal flooding area named the Four Holes Swamp. In this area used to hide maroon communities of runaway slaves. 

Some of the trees had hanging from their branches what I first thought was lichen but later I found out it was called Spanish Moss. The Spanish Moss, I learned, was neither Spanish nor a moss, but an epiphytic plant. In the old days people used Spanish Moss to stuff mattresses and car upholstery. The plant had to be boiled first because it is the habitat of 'chiggers': tiny bugs that would irritate the skin. 

Spanish Moss, Tillandsia usneoides

At the far end of the boardwalk we reached a lovely viewpoint on Goodson Lake. Goodson Lake was not an actual lake (meaning not fed by creeks and rivers), said the information sign at the site, but a year-round flooded area of the swamp. 

Goodson Lake

A real lake or not, Goodson Lake was gorgeous. Its surface was mirror-calm and the reflections were perfect. 

Many of the photos I took at that place I would not be able to tell were of reflections if not for the occasional floating leaf, or my memory. 

Pappa Quail and the elder chika were searching the trees for birds. I saw that my young chika was gazing at the water so I joined here there, staring together into the watery looking glass.

A slider turtle was warming itself on a log floating in the lake. It was the first (and the only) reptile that we saw that day on the wild (not including the snake in the visitor center). This was reassuring somewhat, because signs posted by the trail warned us about the resident alligators.

Yellow-bellied Slider

After a good break at the Goodson Lake view area we resumed our walk. A three-leaved little plant, getting ready for winter by the color of its leaves, attracted my attention. It looked very familiar to me. Indeed - that was the poison ivy, the eastern relative of our California's poison oak. Leaves of three - let it be! I certainly didn't touch it, but it did look pretty.

Poison Ivy, Toxicodendron radicans

Fungi shelves poking out of tree trunks also attracted my attention. Over all I didn't see too many mushrooms on this hike. Perhaps late fall wasn't the season for them in South Carolina.

Pappa Quail and the elder chika were experiencing a lot of frustration throughout the hike - we were hearing birds in the trees, but as often is the case in forests - the birds didn't make themselves readily visible. Eventually however, they did manage to capture some birds on camera, the first of them being a very common species, one that we see plenty of in California as well.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

We walked very slowly. My family birders kept stopping to look for birds. Me and my younger chika were engaged in a philosophical discussion, and on the while, I was enjoying the swamp forest, which was a very new sight for me. I have never seen anything like this flooded forest anywhere before. I knew that plants could grow and thrive in flooded conditions but it amazed me how many different forms this ability took.

A baby cedar

The next bird that Pappa Quail and the elder chika found got them a bit more excited, but it too turned out to be of a very familiar species. Pappa Quail said that this was not the best season to visit here to see a large variety of bird species. 

Hermit Thrush

Not seeing many birds, the elder chika gave her attention to other things as well. She took also photos of sights that she knew would interest me. She was right of course.

Lichen

My elder chika also saw and photographed the resident squirrel before it darted into hiding. The Eastern Gray Squirrel was introduced in California in the 19th century and became an invasive species there. Here we were seeing it in its natural habitat.

Eastern Gray Squirrel

Although none of the trees in the forest were as large as the redwoods or firs of the west, some of the trees we saw did grow to very impressive size. 

The prominent tree in the flooded area is the bald cypress. One interesting thing about these trees are the conical buttresses that poke out of the water out of their roots. An info sign said that it is thought that these buttresses might function as structural support, as starch storage organs, or as 'snorkels' for gas exchange. 

We were getting close to the trail junction where the loop would be complete. Before that we saw some netting on a nearby cedar, and a sign posted there told us that these were part of a gall experiment - the researchers were trying to capture the adult midges that were forming galls on these trees.

Nearly all of the historical information signs focused on the time of slavery and of the enslaved Africans -of their agonizing history and of their culture. There was one sign however, posted near the end of the loop, with some words about the native people of the are. Very little information remained about these people because there was no real interest in documenting their lives and eventually they were forcefully removed from their ancestral land. It is known however, that the marooned runaway slave communities interacted closely with them, and received help and support from the local indigenous people.

I cannot imagine how it was like to live in a regularly flooded area in the ancient time, certainly with local apex predator as the alligator. But then again, people did and do thrive in so many different places, I'm sure they had their ways of dealing with all of the challenges that the swamp presented. For them it was a familiar home and their way of life. 

 

After this hike we went on a short walk in the fields at the edge of the preserve, but didn't see much else other than some Carolina chickadees on a bird feeder. It was late afternoon when we eventually resumed our drive to Charleston, where we would stay for the next four days. 

Audubon's Beidler Forest Preserve was our introduction to the nature of the South Carolina/Georgia coastal region. It was beautiful and strange, and definitely new to me, and I was happy to see it.