Noisette Creek Day

Yesterday, was Noisette Creek Appreciation Day. Seniors from the Charleston Academic Magnet School met at Noisette Creek (on the old Navy base) to learn from several guest presenters and to clean up litter.

Audubon South Carolina (ASC) participated along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Native Plant Society. Mike Dawson, center director at the Francis Beidler Forest, presented a birding 101 class. He is shown in the image at lunch discussing his attack by a butterfly-stroking Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus). You need to ask him about that when you stop by. After the students had learned the basics from Mike, Mark Musselman, education director at the Francis Beidler Forest, conducted a bird watching and identification session along Noisette Creek.

The groups saw a Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret hunting in the marsh across the creek, an Osprey overhead and on a nearby nest, a Kingfisher, Turkey Vultures, Barn Swallows, Mockingbirds, Blue Jays, a Northern Shrike, Northern Cardinals, Boat-tailed Grackles, a Snowy Egret, Brown Pelicans, Brown Thrashers, Red-winged Blackbirds, European Starlings, Mourning Doves, Laughing Gulls, Least Terns, a Red-tailed Hawk being harrassed by crows while perched hundreds of feet atop a radio tower, and a Red-breasted Merganser swimming up the creek. However, the highlight for many was seeing a Greenish Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta x quadrivittata) attempting to consume an American Robin that had become tangled and had died in a mulberry tree.