Not Only on Foot: Charleston River Tour to Morris Island

Piping Plover

Date: November 25, 2024

Place: Charleston Outdoor Adventures, Charleston, South Carolina

Address: 1871 Bowens Island Rd, Charleston, SC 29412

 

 

This is a hiking blog but occasionally I post about other outdoor experiences as well. I consider nature boat tours a kind of a floating hike even if not much sweating is involved. Other boat tours I wrote about before were the travel to Santa Cruz Island, and a birding boat tour we did as part of the Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival. This blogpost is about an eco boat tour that Pappa Quail booked for us in Charleston, on our family trip to the southeast last November. 

After a wonderful day in Huntington Beach State Park in which we birded along the Mullet Pond and had a lovely beach hike at the North Murrels inlet beach, it was once again time to satisfy our historical and cultural interest in the area, so we started the next day with a nice and very informative walking city tour of downtown Charleston, and after a nice lunch in the downtown area, we drove directly to the nearby Bowens Island which was the starting place of the boat tour that Pappa Quail scheduled for us that afternoon.

The first thing the skipper did after the mandatory safety talk was to turn the boat opposite of where we were supposed to go. He moved us a short distance upstream to a wide curve of the river because it was a place where dolphins liked to hang around. Sure enough, a single dolphin was cruising there. We all got very excited, especially us from the West Coast. The dolphin was the common bottlenose dolphin - a lifer species for us. We would see many more on this river tour.

Common Bottlenose Dolphin

The dolphin didn't want our attention and soon slipped away in the murky water. The skipper turned the boat again and started moving downstream. Overhead flew many birds, and both Pappa Quail and the elder chika were busy clicking their cameras at them.

White Ibis

A heron jumped from the tall grass that grew on the river bank and flew over our heads. That heron was also caught on my daughter's quick camera.  

Tricolored Heron

The Charleston River where we started the tour at is also a commute channel for many boats, and numerous docks extended into the water. 

These docks were the perfect perch for birds, mostly pelicans and cormorants, with the occasional seagull. 

Double-crested Cormorants and Brown Pelicans

We were going very slowly through the more developed part of the river. Pappa Quail and the elder chika had plenty of time to identify the birds on the docks and the buildings, and to take their photos. 

Great Cormorant

After we passed under the road bridge the skipper increased the cruising speed. Soon we were passing through a wilder-looking area. He slowed down again at a place that looked like a confluence of two water ways and pointed at a forest to our south. This was Long Island, he told us, which was one of the numerous barrier islands in the area. The barrier islands were the dry land part of the extensive estuaries/wetlands area that separated the open ocean from the mainland along the southeastern coastline.

There were exposed mud bars along the sides of the slough and on the mud there were numerous birds that took the opportunity to rest in a fairly safe spot.

Laughing Gull

Some of the birds we saw on the mud bars were American oystercatchers, and Pappa Quail was excited because this species was a lifer for him. The elder chika and me have seen them already on our April 2024 trip to Puerto Rico. 

American Oystercatcher

The skipper made a point to tell us about the tide cycle in the region. By the time we would be back here after our Morris Island landing, he said, all of the exposed mud would be well under water, and the resting birds would be somewhere else. 

The grass that was growing on the estuary tide zone was definitely good with being flooded twice daily. The incoming tide of saline ocean water would wave in under the river's fresh water, the grass doesn't have to deal with high salinity conditions. 

A solitary willet prowled the exposed mud between the grass and the water. It was well camouflaged - I didn't noticed it. My chika however, has keen eyes. 

Willet

The birds of course, were not restricted to the exposed mud. Frequently birds would fly near or over our boat. 

Forster's Tern

Sometimes the birds would fly at the boat level or even below it. Shorebirds and waders were keeping low, flying below the grass tops when relocating between different mud bars.

Short-billed Dowitchers

The skipper slowed down again when we reached the next slough confluence. There, he said, the dolphins liked to hang around to catch the fish that are moving with the tide. Sure enough - a single dolphin was there, cruising along the muddy banks. 

Common Bottlenose Dolphin, male

The dolphin was well aware of our proximity, and did a little show for us, turning, flipping, and hitting his tail on the water surface. 

he also turned over and exposed his pinkish tummy to the air and to our cameras. We did keep a respectable distance but it might be that he just wanted us to move on. 

The dolphin we saw was a known individual of the resident population on the Charleston area. Each dolphin is identified by their skin tone, the shape of their fins and tails and the scars they've accumulated throughout their lives. 

After our encounter with the dolphin the skipper moved on at a higher speed - he wanted us to have plenty of time to roam around the beach at Morris Island. 

Morris Island

We saw more dolphins when we approached Morris Island. These were in a pod, and the skipper told us they were mature females and juvenile dolphins. Mature males are often solitary. 

Not forgetting his primary reason for going on the boat tour, Pappa Quail spotted more American oystercatchers on the opposite shore, across the river from Morris Island. 

More birds were flying overhead, perfectly framed in the deep blue, clear sky.  

Royal Tern

The most prominent feature of Morris Island was the deserted lighthouse. This lighthouse, the skipper told us, was once on land, when Morris Island was twice the size it was now. Building the jetties of the Charleston Harbor he said, stopped the flow of sediment from the river. Without new sediments deposited on its shores, the natural erosion of Morris Island (and of other coastline areas) was no longer balanced, and the island lost and is losing land still, at a quick rate. Now the lighthouse is off shore and is also off limits to visitors. 

Morris Island Lighthouse

The skipper landed the boat and we all got out on the beach, which was strewn with oyster shells. He timed our stay for one hour and told us that we could look for shark teeth and take them as souvenirs. 

Morris Island Beach

We looked a little but at the shells, but pretty quickly Pappa Quail and I left the chikas to search on their own while both of us went a bit more inland where we found a log and sat down for a quick snack. We has a nice view from there to the end of the island. From the place where we were, the lighthouse still looked like it was on dry land. 

I didn't see any trees on the island, except for a small juniper that was more of a dome-shaped bush than an actual tree. We could hear birds there and Pappa Quail said they were sparrows. 

Behind the low sand dunes was a large field of the grass and far on the horizon were the towers of the hanging Charleston Bridge. We had driven back and forth on that bridge for a few days now. Naturally, there was no mountain in sight, the entire area was flat.

A movement below caught my eye - from a freshly dug hole in the sand a small, pale crab was peeking out. At the moment I lifted my camera the alarmed crab retreated back int its hole. We played this camera tag fpr a few moments but eventually my patience won and I got my photo of the wary crab. 

Sand Crab

After our snack break Pappa Quail and I got up and continued wandering around. I was looking for interesting plants and I saw that vining sand plant like the one I saw the day before at Huntington Beach State Park. 

I also saw a wildflower in bloom - a small gumweed plant, similar to those we see on the Pacific Coast, which had a few open inflorescences. 

Gumweed, Grindelia sp. 

Pappa Quail was looking for birds but he also took photos of the butterflies that we saw on the island. The familiar monarch butterfly was one of them. 

Monarch Butterfly

But then we also saw the gulf fritillary - a butterfly that we've only seen a couple of days before at Fort Sumter. 

Gulf Fritillary

I was very surprised to see yucca plants on Morris Island. For all I know, yucca are desert plants of the southwest. It is possible however, that these were introduced, not native plants. 

On the edge of the grassy area was a sandy depression with a puddle. It looked like this would be an area flooded on high tide rather than collected fresh rainwater, but I didn't try checking the water salinity. We made our way down there to see what we could find. 

Little crabs were running to and fro on the semi-damp sand. I did my best to take photos of these little critters but the elder chika, who joined us at that spot, did better capturing them with her birding lens. 

Fiddler Crab, female

These crabs, it turned out, were fiddler crabs. The males of this species have one of their pincers much larger than the other. Apparently they use it in combat with other male crabs. 

Fiddler Crab, male

The main focus of both the elder chika and Pappa Quail were the little birds that were near the puddle. We kept our distance so to not bother them, and from that distance I could barely see the well camouflaged birds. 

There was a solitary semipalmated plover there. We've seen such a plover on the mud bars on the way in, and many of them in California. 

Semipalmated Plover

But there were also a number of piping plovers near that pond. They were certainly a lifer species for that trip, having seen on for the first time just the day before at Huntington Beach State park. Here there were several of them, and they seemed unbothered by our relative proximity. Still, we kept our distance.

Pappa Quail looked at his watch and motioned us that is was time to start heading back to the boat. On the shore I could see the silhouette of my younger chika - she was still looking at shells and sand dollars. We started moving slowly in her direction. I moved the slowest, stopping still for any interesting thing I saw. 

One of the things that caught my attention was a weathered red brick. The boat skipper told us that the original base f the lighthouse was built of bricks made from mud by slaves, likely at the Boone Plantation, where we had visited two days ago.

 I wondered if that brick was a relic of that sad time period, detached from the now useless lighthouse. apparently those old bricks are more valueable now, because of the historic burden they carry. 

Morris Island Lighthouse

Another familiar bird waited for us at the strandline area. This one was a western sandpiper, a bird which we were very familiar with from California. 

Western Sandpiper

The sun wes getting a bit lower on the west. I loved the light playing with the low waves and ripples that washed onto the island's shore. 

The gull was also apparently enjoying ut. It wasn't looking for fod, it was simply standing there, allowing the small waves wash his feet again and again. 

Ring-billed Gull

It was time to say goodby to Morris Island. All of our group gathered by the boat and I was the last one, other than the skipper, to climb on board. The skipper had to pull the boat a little more inland - the tide was already rolling in.

We didn't stop at all on the way back. The skipper kept the boat fast, saying that he had to be back prompt, because there was another group going out after us. None of us objected - it was a very fulfilling tour, and one I'd love to do again next time I'd visit Charleston.