Day 30 – At 7:30 a.m. it was 33 degrees, sunny & no wind. Rob took a walk to the Ocean. He said it was a beautiful beach, but there were no birds. He did see plenty of birds at Sandpiper Pond which he passed on the way to the beach. There was frost on the boardwalk.
Later this morning, we went back to the causeway, armed with the cameras. This time almost all of the action was on the saltwater side due to the low-ish tide. The whole walk is about a mile. We had a great time.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
We went back to the RV for lunch. When we got out of the car at our campsite, we noticed several little birds flitting about in the bushes. Several adorable Carolina Wrens were making a ruckus. Since we already had the cameras with us, Rob got a great shot of one little guy singing away, trying to attract a mate.
Carolina Wren, Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC
After lunch we drove over to the dump station & dumped tanks. Activity at the campground continues to pick up. We decided to take a bike ride when we returned to our site, figuring that if we waited until the weekend, it would be too crowded on the bike trails. We had a wonderful bike ride around the campground, pretty much from one end to the other. The Atalaya Straight Trail is a hiking & biking path which runs between two ponds. We’d read that it was a great birding location & that we might see alligators there. We took the Atalaya Straight Trail from the campground to the bike trail that ran parallel to Route 17, winding its way through the trees. There were several other bikers on that trail, but it wasn’t too crowded at all. When we took the Atatlaya Straight Trail to the bike trail at Route 17, Rob said he saw an alligator, so we circled back to the Straight Trail again to have another look. We saw & heard many birds; it sounded like a tropical jungle in the brush. And, yes, he did see an alligator & it was still there, basking in the sun. Not a real big alligator, but not a baby, either. Our first alligator of this trip. Unfortunately, we had no camera gear with us since we were on the bikes. Oh well, we can return on foot another time.
Back to the campground, we made dinner and went through our pictures. The campsite on one side of us is now occupied, as is the one across from us. Nobody is overly noisy yet. It was another great day. The high was 58 degrees, sunny on & off, a little breezy.