Berkeley County School District Instructional Fair

Today, we made four presentations at the Berkeley County School District Instructional Fair to highlight the educational opportunities at the Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest. On our webpage, teachers can find lesson plans along with images for the Beidler Forest plants and animals to use in their classroom before or after a trip to the swamp.

After wrapping up the last session, we headed to the Waterfront Park on old Navy base to count birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Although the area where Noisette Creek enters the Cooper River yielded only two Great Blue Herons, the trees and bushes around the park offered up a variety of bird species and a passing container ship churned the river sufficiently to entice 300 or so Laughing Gulls to follow behind and collect morsels from the wake.

Here is what we saw during our half hour of bird watching:

(2) Great Blue Herons
(300) Laughing Gulls

(1) Great Egret

(1) Double-crested Cormorant

(2) Pied-billed Grebes

(1) Loggerhead Shrike

(1) Northern Mockingbird

(10) Yellow-rumped Warblers

(5) White-throated Sparrows

(3) Mourning Doves

(2) Northern Cardinals

(1) Carolina Wren

(2) Blue Jays

Don't forget...you don't need to be an expert bird watcher to participate in this annual bird count!