Audubon South Carolina

ASC operates two centers. Francis Beidler Forest in Four Holes Swamp is a 17,000-acre wildlife sanctuary featuring a 1-3/4 mile boardwalk through an old-growth cypress-tupelo swamp. Open Tues-Sun (closed Mon. & some holidays; admission fee). Silver Bluff along the Savannah River has 3,154 acres of upland pine forest, hardwood bottomlands, fields, lakes and streams with a checklist of over 200 species, including Wood Storks! Ed. programming and tours. Images © FBF, 2006-2016.

Monday, September 10, 2007

South Carolina Important Bird Area Committee

The South Carolina Important Bird Area (IBA) Committee met on September 7th at the Bonneau Ferry Wildlife Management Area. This 10,700-acre property, owned by South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, is managed for deer and duck hunting and “non-

consumptive” wildlife uses. Members of the committee (l to r) are: Marion Clark, John Cely, David Chamberlain, Ann Shahid, Lorraine Brown, Paul Koehler, and Jeff Mollenhauer. Members not pictured are Drew Lanham and Laurel Moore-Barnhill.

During the meeting, the IBA committee approved the nomination of Tomkins Island as the 43rd IBA for South Carolina. This 5-acre spoils island, located in the mouth of the Savannah River, was constructed as a mitigation effort in 2005 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In the short time since creation of the island, over 4,000 Royal Tern pairs (most of birds in image) have nested at the site along with nearly 3,000 Sandwich Terns and other assorted “sea birds.”