March 1, 2016 Musgrove Mill State Park: A Birding Hotspot

A false spring, a haze and a temperature of 70 degrees. Daffodils are blooming. There is hope in the light air. There are new bird houses in the trees at Musgrove Mill State Historic Site.

There is a new Park Manager named Dawn Weaver who lets me in the locked office. She is about to go to the bank, but instead she takes me to the back porch and shows me the new bird feeding station where on one recent day, birders counted 200 birds.  Circling high in the air and screaming their screeching calls, are two hawks.  She tells me they may be about to mate.  They are, indeed, checking out the trees near the office for a place to build their home.  There are also a pair of eagles who live on the park grounds.

Dawn Weaver came a few months ago from Huntington Beach State Park, a coastal birding hotspot. She tells me of how she saw her first Roseate Spoonbill on her second day at the park. Some birders put her to the test to identify it. A few days later, a nine year old girl told her sadly that she was having to leave to go home without seeing a Roseate Spoonbill. Dawn took her to the place where she saw one before and could not find one.  Suddenly two of these beautiful pink birds flew by them and landed on the pond.

Before I go to walk the trail down by the Enoree, Dawn shows me the eBird website from Cornell Ornithology Labs.  Their maps now indicate Musgrove Mill as  birding hotspot.  People who watch birds can sign up at eBird.org and add their own lists of birds.

Before I hit the trail, she tells me that there is an area where the wild boars dug up the trail, but they have cleaned it up.  She says they only come out at night.

I am not afraid of the wild pigs.  I have met them before at Congaree National Park and found they had no interest in me whatsoever.

Don't go out in the woods  tonight
You're sure of a big surprise
If you go out in the woods tonight
You'd better go in disguise

If you go out in the woods tonight
You better not go alone
Don't go out in the woods tonight
It's safer to stay at home

For tonight is the night the wild boars have their picnic!

Plagerized from the song by Amarin Rose "The Teddy Bear's Picnic"