WILDLIFE ON KIAWAH ISLAND

JULY - DECEMBER 2011 WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS ARCHIVE

logo-cyan.jpg
Town of Kiawah Island
21 Beachwalker Drive
Kiawah Island, SC 29455
(843) 768-9166
Email a Town Biologist
*  December 7, 2011  -  We saw a surprising species of bird on the beach near the Beach Club today, a Rock Pigeon.  Rock Pigeons were introduced to North America from Europe in the 1600's and can be found throughout the United States.  Although a common sight in city parks and under bridges, including the Limehouse Bridge, this is the first pigeon we have ever seen on the island.  
 
*  December 1, 2011  -  We spotted our first Red-Throated Loon of the season today in an unusual place, Bass Pond.  While we see quite a few Red-Throated Loons each year in the ocean, this is the first time we have seen one in a pond.  We were able to get very good looks at it with a spotting scope.  Red-throated Loons are smaller and have a thinner bill than Common Loons and typically keep their bill upturned as they swim.  Hopefully this bird will stick around a while for others to see.
 
*  November 15, 2011  -  We saw our first Northern Gannets of the fall today.  3-4 gannets were seen flying over the ocean near the Beach Club.  These ocean-going birds can be difficult to spot since they are typically a 1/4 mile or more out over the ocean.  If you want to see gannets, keep a pair of binoculars handy and look for large white birds with black wingtips diving into the ocean.  Gannets are commonly seen of our beaches from now until April.
 
*  November 8, 2011  -  We saw our first groups of scaup today.  A total of approximately 200 Lesser Scaup were seen flying over the ocean near the Beach Club.  Numbers of scaup will increase dramatically over the next month and we typically have several thousand that winter off our beach.  We also saw 400-500 Black Scoters as well.  
 
*  November 7, 2011  -  Bird banding efforts are still ongoing at Captain Sam's Spit and we reached a banding milestone today.  We banded our 2,000th bird of the fall!  The "lucky" bird was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  View Fall 2011 banding details.  We have now banded a total of 4,781 birds on Kiawah Island since 2009.
 
*  October 24, 2011  -  We saw our first Common Loon of the fall today in the ocean near The Sanctuary Hotel.   
 
*  October 24, 2011  -  We had yet another great weekend of bird banding!  We banded 4 days in a row, Friday-Monday.  Total birds banded each day:  Friday (100), Saturday (131), Sunday (50), and Monday (63).  A total of 344 birds banded and 26 recaptures.   Highlights included:  our second Black-throated Green Warbler, our second Pine Warbler, and our first Sharp-shinned Hawk of the season.  Yellow-rumped Warblers made a big showing this weekend with 111 banded.  View Fall 2011 banding details. 
 
*  October 17, 2011  -  We had another great weekend of bird banding!  Lots of migrating birds coming through after the latest cold front.  We banded 4 days in a row, Friday-Monday.  Total birds banded each day:  Friday (20), Saturday (86), Sunday (93), and Monday (51).  A total of 250 birds banded and 10 recaptures.   The highlight of the weekend was a hatch-year male Black-throated Green Warbler.  This is the first banding record for Kiawah and the first we have seen on the island as well.  We also added 7 additional "first of the fall" species, including:  Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-rumped Warbler,Blue-Headed Vireo, House Finch, Song Sparrow, and Swamp Sparrow.  View Fall 2011 banding details. 
 
*  October 15, 2011  -  A coyote was seen today by Town Biologists crossing Beachwalker Drive near the County Park in the early morning.  This is the first coyote that we have seen on the island, though we have received a handful of reports from residents over the last few years.  Coyotes are not native to South Carolina and can negatively impact populations of native wildlife.  Biologists will continue to monitor changes in coyote numbers and distribution in the coming years.
 
*  October 12, 2011  -  Sea ducks have returned to Kiawah Island.  Biologists spotted 2 separate groups of Black Scoters flying over the ocean today.  There were a total of approximately 250 ducks between the 2 groups.  These are the first scoters we have seen this fall.  Numbers of scoters will slowly increase from now until December or January when there will be literally thousands of them in front of the Kiawah beach.  Keep an eye out for these fall arrivals if you are out on the beach. 
 
*  October 10, 2011  -  We were able to get in a bird banding session on Wednesday, October 5th but the weather on Friday and over the weekend prevented us from getting back out.  We had a good day on Wednesday with 92 birds banded and 1 recapture.  The highlight of the day was a hatch-year female Pine Warbler (first banding record for Kiawah).  View Fall 2011 banding details. 
 
*  October 3, 2011  -  Bird banding over the weekend was fantastic!  Lots of migrating birds coming through before and after the cold front this weekend just as we expected.  We banded 4 days in a row, Friday-Monday.  Total birds banded each day:  Friday (118), Saturday (96), Sunday (107), and Monday (137).  Grand total of 458 birds banded and 11 recaptures in 4 days!    Highlights included a Scarlet Tanager on Saturday (first banding record for Kiawah) and a Golden-winged Warbler on Monday (first banding record on Kiawah).  We also had quite a few "first of the fall" arrivals, including Indigo Bunting, Orange-crowned Warbler, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Tennessee Warbler, House Wren, and Wood Thrush.  View Fall 2011 banding details. 
 
*  September 29, 2011  -  Bird banding this week has been pretty slow.  Monday's session produced 22 new birds and 6 recaptures.  On Wednesday, we caught 21 new birds and had 1 recapture.  Highlights included our 2nd Yellow-bellied Flycatcher of the season on Monday and our 2nd Yellow-billed Cuckoo of the season on Wednesday.  The next banding session is scheduled for Friday, 30th.  A cold front will be moving into our area on Friday and it should bring lots of birds our way.  Check back often for more updates.  View Fall 2011 banding details. 
 
*  September 23, 2011  -  We conducted our 19th bird banding session of the fall today. We banded 10 birds and had 9 recaptures.  View full details. 
 
*  September 22, 2011  -  We conducted our Fall Deer Spotlight Survey over the last 2 nights (September 20th and 21st).  We saw a total of 124 deer, including 37 bucks, 63 does, 12 fawns, and 12 unidentified deer.  The deer density estimate from this survey was 72 deer per square mile.  This is the highest deer density we have seen in 10 years but is still in line with management goals.  Detailed data from this survey. General deer information and historical spotlight data.
 
*  September 18, 2011  -  We conducted our 17th bird banding session of the fall today. We banded 21 birds and had 5 recaptures.  Highlights included a Blue Jay (first of season), Common Ground-Dove, and Eastern Kingbird.  View full details. 
 
*  September 17, 2011  -  We conducted our 15th and 16th bird banding session of the fall today.  It was a great day.  So good in fact, that we banded in the morning and again in the afternoon.  We banded a total of 92 birds and had 17 recaptures.  The best bird of day was a Bell's Vireo!  Bell's vireos are very rare in the eastern U.S. and there are only a handful of records of the species from South Carolina.  The first ever record was in October 1985 when one was captured in a mist net at Patriot's Point in Mt. Pleasant.  We also banded another new species for our study today, a Chestnut-sided warbler. View full details.
 
*  September 14, 2011  -  We conducted our 14th bird banding session of the fall today.  It was a good day with 40 birds banded and 7 recaptures.  The highlight of the day was a female Blackburnian Warbler, the first we have banded on Kiawah.  Banding will continue on Friday and Saturday this week and we have high hopes that the approaching cold front will bring more birds our way.  Check back for updates.  View full details.
 
*  September 13, 2011  -  Two Lesser Black-backed Gulls were seen on the west end of the beach near Captain Sam's Inlet this morning.  This species is uncommon on our beach and we usually only see a handful each year.  Picture in slideshow to right. 
 
*  September 13, 2011  -  We conducted our 13th bird banding session of the fall today.  We had another good day with 29 birds banded and 6 recaptures.  Highlights inlcuded a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  This is only the second time we have captured each of these species since the banding program began in 2009. View full details.
 
*  September 11, 2011  -  We had a very good week of bird banding this past week.  After a very slow Sunday and Monday of banding, things really picked up Wednesday-Saturday.  We banded each of these days for a total of 6 days last week.  Totals for the week were 146 birds banded and 31 recaptures.  We banded a new species for Kiawah Island on Saturday, an Acadian Flycatcher.  We also banded our 3,000th bird on Friday!  The lucky bird was a juvenile  Northern Mockingbird.  View full details.
 
*  September 9, 2011  -  Two Lark Sparrows were seen today near the Ocean Course Driving Range.  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first sighting of this species on Kiawah Island.  Primarily a western species, lark sparrows are seen on occasion in South Carolina, normally in late summer.  Picture in slideshow to right. 
 
*  September 5, 2011  -  We conducted our 7th and 8th bird banding sessions yesterday and today.  Sunday morning was quite slow with only 16 birds captured, including 8 recaptures.  The highlight of the day was a first of the season Black-throated Blue Warbler.  This morning was even slower.  We did not catch a single new bird and only had 5 recaptures.  Hopefully, better numbers of migrants will move into our area soon.  View full details.
 
*  September 2, 2011  -  We conducted our 6th bird banding session of the season today.  We banded 29 new birds and had 4 recaptures (10 species).  The highlight of the day was our first thrush of the season, a Veery.  View full details.
 
*  September 1, 2011  -  We conducted 3 more banding sessions over the last week, bringing our total up to 5 so far this season.  Our top 3 species at this point are:  Prairie Warblers (35),  Painted Buntings (27), and Common Yellowthroats (26).  Migration seem to be picking up this week and the next few weeks should be even better.  Check back often for updates.  View full details.
 
*  August 27, 2011  -  We saw a single Blue-winged Teal today on the west end of the beach near Captain Sam's inlet.  This is the first sighting of the season for this species.  Blue-winged teal are the earliest duck species to arrive in our area and we normally see small groups starting in late August each year. 
 
*  August 26, 2011  -  While Hurricane Irene didn't bring too much bad weather to the island, it did bring a very unusual bird up from the south.  A Magnificent Frigatebird was seen today flying over the ocean near the Sanctuary Hotel.  This is the first record of this species on or near Kiawah Island that we are aware of.  This bird was likely staying in front of the bad weather or got caught up in the hurricane circulaton itself.  These birds are common in South Florida and the Carribean but rarely seen this far north.   
 
*  August 23, 2011  -  A Great Black-backed Gull was seen today on the east end of the beach.  This migratory gull species is easily distinguished by its large size, black back, white head, and pale pink legs.  It is the largest gull species in the world.  We typically see 5-6 of these gulls during the fall and winter each year.         
 
*  August 22, 2011  -  We conducted our second banding session of the 2011 fall migration season today.  It was pretty windy today and only a few nets were opened.  We captured 7 birds, representing 5 species.  Two of the 7 birds we caught were recaptures.  View full details.
 
*  August 19, 2011  -  We conducted our first banding session of the 2011 fall migration season today.  We had a good first day.  We captured 35 birds, representing 9 species.  Four of the 35 birds we caught were recaptures, including 1 color-banded painted bunting.  This adult male painted bunting has been caught several times over the last 2 years, more details to follow.  The highlight of the morning was a new species for our banding program, an Eastern Kingbird.  Check out a picture in the slideshow to the right.  View full details. 
 
*  August 15, 2011  -  A single buff-breasted sandpiper was seen today on the beach near the Ocean Course Clubhouse.  This is a rare bird for Kiawah though we have seen buff-breasted sandpipers in this same area for several years in a row, typically during the first few weeks of September.  These birds are migrating south from breeding areas and will likely leave our area soon on their way to South America for the winter.   
 
*  August 10, 2011  -  Unfortunate news today.  Bobcat 600, a female, was found dead today on Sea Marsh Drive.  She appeared to have been hit and killed by a car.  This is the second collared bobcat killed by a car this year out of 8 that were fitted with collars.  Collisions with cars are the primary cause of death for Kiawah's bobcats.  Please drive cautiously during late evening, night, and early morning and be alert for wildlife crossing the roadway.   
 
*  August 3, 2011  -  A group of 30-40 black terns was seen today on the west end of the beach near Captain Sam's Inlet.  These early migrating terns are common on Kiawah's beach during late July and August.  They are normally seen roosting/resting on both ends of the island.  Pictures in slideshow to right.   
 
*  July 29, 2011  -  Town Biologists and KICA Lakes Department staff completed our annual alligator population survey this week.  Surveys were conducted on July 25 and 28.  We saw 157 alligators the first night and 149 the second night.  These numbers were averaged and then converted into a population estimate using a formula based on pond water temperature.  The estimate for 2011 was 462 alligators.  Alligator numbers have remained fairly stable over the last few years.  To find out more about alligators and to see all of our historic survey data, visit the Alligator Page.   
 
*  July 21, 2011  -  Our resident hen wild turkey was seen again today at the end of Ocean Course Drive.