I just got back from a fantastic week of birding in the upper coastal plain, piedmont, and mountain regions of South Carolina.  Ever since I started writing the guide back in October 2006, I have been planning this trip.  It was definitely an ambitious route with 3-4 locations per day and I spent an average of 12 hours each day birding.  But all the hard work paid off in the end, since I managed to see 138 species total on the trip and that was without ever setting foot on the coast!  I could have easily topped 160 species if I would have added a day on the coast and looked for egrets, herons, shorebirds, and terns.  Songbird migration, especially in the upper piedmont and mountains was fantastic.  It seemed like at nearly every stop on my route, I was able to pick up a new species of warbler for the trip.  By the end of the trip I had seen 29 species of warblers, including some real beauties like Nashville, Chestnut-sided, Bay-breasted, Magnolia, Blackburnian, Cape May, Canada, and Yellow Warblers.  Black-throated Blue Warblers, American Redstarts, and Ovenbirds seemed to be the most common migrating warblers.  I also managed to do pretty well with thrushes, since I picked up a couple late Hermit Thrushes in the coastal plain and Gray-cheeked Thrush in Congaree National Park.  Veery seemed to be much more common early in the week, but by the end of the week I was seeing mainly Swainson’s Thrush.  I’ve listed the complete list of locations and interesting bird sightings below, just in case you are interested.  There wasn’t a stop on this trip that I didn’t enjoy and I highly recommend this route for a spring trip, although you may want to visit Huntington Beach SP, Santee Coastal Reserve, Charleston Harbor, Edisto Island, Bear Island/Donnelly WMAs, or Hilton Head Island in order to pick up some of the species that I missed.

Monday, April 30:  Santee NWR, Congaree Bluffs HP, Congaree NP, Congaree Creek HP

Tuesday, May 1: Silver Bluff Audubon Center, Saluda Shoals Park, Lynches Woods Park

Wednesday, May 2:  Caesar’s Head SP, Jones Gap SP, Lake Conestee, Bunched Arrowhead HP

Thursday, May 3: Walhalla Fish Hatchery, Burrell’s Ford, Sassafras Mountain

Friday, May 4:  Cottonwood Nature Trail, Croft State Natural Area, Kings Mountain SP

Saturday, May 5:  Landsford Canal SP, Forty Acre Rock HP, Carolina Sandhills NWR

Sunday, May 6:  Lynchburg Savanna HP, Longleaf Pine HP, Poinsett SP, Beidler Forest

  Complete Species List 

1.     Canada Goose

2.     Wood Duck

3.     Mallard

4.     HOODED MERGANSER – Silver Bluff

5.     RED-BREASTED MERGANSER – Croft SNA

6.     Northern Bobwhite

7.     Double-crested Cormorant

8.     Anhinga

9.     Great Blue Heron

10.  Great Egret

11.  Cattle Egret

12.  YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON – Beidler Forest

13.  Black Vulture

14.  Turkey Vulture

15.  Osprey

16.  SWALLOW-TAILED KITE – Beidler Forest

17.  Mississippi Kite

18.  BALD EAGLE – Silver Bluff, Carolina Sandhills NWR

19.  Cooper's Hawk

20.  Red-shouldered Hawk

21.  Broad-winged Hawk

22.  Red-tailed Hawk

23.  Killdeer

24.  Solitary Sandpiper

25.  Spotted Sandpiper

26.  AMERICAN WOODCOCK – Jones Gap SP

27.  Laughing Gull

28.  Rock Pigeon

29.  Eurasian Collared Dove

30.  Mourning Dove

31.  Yellow-billed Cuckoo

32.  Barred Owl

33.  COMMON NIGHTHAWK – Lynches Woods Park

34.  Chuck-will's-widow

35.  Chimney Swift

36.  Ruby-throated Hummingbird

37.  Belted Kingfisher

38.  Red-headed Woodpecker

39.  Red-bellied Woodpecker

40.  Downy Woodpecker

41.  Hairy Woodpecker

42.  RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER – Carolina Sandhills NWR

43.  Northern Flicker

44.  Pileated Woodpecker

45.  Eastern Wood-Pewee

46.  Acadian Flycatcher

47.  Eastern Phoebe

48.  Great Crested Flycatcher

49.  Eastern Kingbird

50.  Loggerhead Shrike

51.  White-eyed Vireo

52.  Yellow-throated Vireo

53.  Blue-headed Vireo

54.  Red-eyed Vireo

55.  Blue Jay

56.  American Crow

57.  Fish Crow

58.  COMMON RAVEN – Sassafras Mountain

59.  Purple Martin

60.  Northern Rough-winged Swallow

61.  CLIFF SWALLOW – Landsford Canal SP

62.  Barn Swallow

63.  Carolina Chickadee

64.  Tufted Titmouse

65.  RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH – Burrell’s Ford

66.  White-breasted Nuthatch

67.  Brown-headed Nuthatch

68.  BROWN CREEPER – Burrell’s Ford

69.  Carolina Wren

70.  GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET – Walhalla Fish Hatchery, Burrell’s Ford

71.  RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET – Burrell’s Ford

72.  Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

73.  Eastern Bluebird

74.  Veery

75.  GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH – Congaree NP

76.  Swainson's Thrush

77.  HERMIT THRUSH – Santee NWR, Congaree Creek HP

78.  Wood Thrush

79.  American Robin

80.  Gray Catbird

81.  Northern Mockingbird

82.  Brown Thrasher

83.  European Starling

84.  Cedar Waxwing

85.  NASHVILLE WARBLER – Cottonwood Nature Trail

86.  Northern Parula

87.  YELLOW WARBLER – Landsford Canal SP

88.  CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER – Croft SNA, Landsford Canal SP

89.  MAGNOLIA WARBLER – Cottonwood Nature Trail

90.  CAPE MAY WARBLER – Caesar’s Head SP, Landsford Canal SP

91.  Black-throated Blue Warbler

92.  Yellow-rumped Warbler

93.  Black-throated Green Warbler

94.  BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER – Walhalla Fish Hatchery

95.  Yellow-throated Warbler

96.  Pine Warbler

97.  Prairie Warbler

98.  Palm Warbler

99.  BAY-BREASTED WARBLER – Bunched Arrowhead HP

100.    Blackpoll Warbler

101.    Black-and-white Warbler

102.    American Redstart

103.    Prothonotary Warbler

104.    Worm-eating Warbler

105.    SWAINSON’S WARBLER – Sassafras Mountain

106.    Ovenbird

107.    Northern Waterthrush

108.    Louisiana Waterthrush

109.    Kentucky Warbler

110.    Common Yellowthroat

111.    Hooded Warbler

112.    CANADA WARBLER – Burrell’s Ford, Croft SNA

113.    Yellow-breasted Chat

114.    Summer Tanager

115.    Scarlet Tanager

116.    Eastern Towhee

117.    Bachman's Sparrow

118.    Chipping Sparrow

119.    Field Sparrow

120.    Song Sparrow

121.    SWAMP SPARROW – Lake Conestee, Longleaf Pine HP

122.    White-throated Sparrow

123.    Dark-eyed Junco

124.    Northern Cardinal

125.    ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK – Silver Bluff, Caesar’s Head SP

126.    Blue Grosbeak

127.    Indigo Bunting

128.    PAINTED BUNTING – Santee NWR

129.    BOBOLINK – Santee NWR

130.    Red-winged Blackbird

131.    Eastern Meadowlark

132.    Common Grackle

133.    Brown-headed Cowbird

134.    Orchard Oriole

135.    Baltimore Oriole

136.    House Finch

137.    American Goldfinch

138.    House Sparrow