Monday, April 28, 2008

The Fantasy Land of Seabrook Island


The island that Megan, my Mom, my brother, and myself traveled to this weekend for my cousin's wedding really was a fantasy land. A gated, private island, catering to those with more resources than ourselves! Wow, what huge houses there are on this island, built right into the dunes and and around the swales of what once was a pristine, natural area. It is still fairly intact, and the beach there is the only place along the South Carolina shore where sand is actually accumulating. These are images from our walk along the shore Saturday evening. Storms were threatening, so I left the big gun at home (my XTI and bag) and shot these images with Megan's Kodak p850, a very serviceable 5 megapixel super zoom. Take a close look at each photo. There is a life bird for me in one of them, see if you can spot it.














18 comments:

  1. Hi Tom--I bet it's the skimmer. Good for you for getting a shot of it actually skimming too. I live a half hour away. Get my email from my blog and let me know if you'd like to go to any other nature places while you're here. Sorry it's going to be cold tomorrow for you.

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  2. Bruce- I'm actually back in Ohio, unfortunately. Our trip was a whirlwind visit for a wedding. We did have wonderfully warm weather while we were in SC, and you got it, it was the skimmer. I wasn't even sure what I was taking a picture of when I photographed this bird, but I did suspect it was a skimmer. Once I downloaded the photograph, I was amazed that I had caught it skimming. I wasn't sure if it was just flying low, or actually doing its namesake behavior. I'll check out your blog. Thanks for stopping by.

    Tom

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  3. That was a whirlwind trip- still wonder if we really did it! I long for a bit of relaxation in the sun w/ the waves...

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  4. Tom: Great photos from your trip. that crab is really a great shot.

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  5. Really lovely photos and I bet you had a wonderful time there...it looks so beautiful and "untouched". Congrats on the skimmer....I always get excited with a new life bird!

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  6. I live in Portage Lakes about 15 minutes south of Akron/ CV National Park. It's hard trying to explain to my friends in Oregon, Arizona, Utah, Florida etc... that Ohio is actually a beautiful place too! Great blog!

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  7. Would love to see a google earth link or GPS coordinates for this kind of stuff!

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  8. James- What are ya trying to do? Make more work for me? :)

    I have done it in the past. Do a google maps search for Seabrook Island...it'll take you right there. This beach is on the southernmost portion of the island.

    Tom

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  9. Great place and visiting the beach can always be fun! I love seeing all the things when it is low tide!

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  10. Great photos. That certainly was a great place. I loved the photos of the first crab looking fellow. Wonderful post today.

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  11. What great pictures you have here Tom... looks a perfect place to have spent some time. The marking on the Jellyfish really stood out.. that camera did very well.

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  12. One of my favorite habitats - the tidal interdune swale! Once you get as far south as SC, those areas fill up with puffer fish and all varieties of invertebrates!

    Nice ghost crab and what appears to be a purple spider crab? (washed up on the beach).

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  13. I love the skimmer, but you're making me miss the beach horribly, you know! Perhaps a day trip is in order. Looks like y'all had a great time. :)

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  14. Everyone- Thanks for the nice comments. I'm not really sure what type of crab that spider looking crab is. It was dead on the beach. The ghost crab looking thing bewildered me a bit, since I've mostly seen them at night, but maybe this one is a different species. We also noticed that the rear of its shell was all cracked- we wondered if it was injured. Hope everyone enjoyed the post, I just put up more images from our SC trip. I've been wicked busy lately, I was out in the field today, and will be out again tomorrow and Friday, again up to NE Ohio.

    -Tom-

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  15. Awww, shucks! I though your new life bird was going to be a Purple, Plastic-footed Plover.

    Great shots of the beach and dunes.

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  16. Awesome photos! Do you ever feel as though sometimes little things like those crabs were there just for you to take a picture that day?

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  17. Thanks Marvin! I'm going to keep my eye out for that species.

    2sweet- With this ghost crab, I totally did. It actually came running right at us, amazingly. I still think that something was wrong with it- it was injured and it was active in the day- just sort of strange.

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