^^^i^l'o^^^] BowDiSH, Bird Photographing in the Carolinas. 305 



BIRD PHOTOGRAPHING IN THE CAROLLNAS. 



BY B. S. BO^T)ISH. 



Plates XV-XVII. 



With an Annotated List of the Birds Observed. 

 Compiled by P. B. Philip p. 



Our party, consisting of Messrs. P. B. Philipp, Clinton G. Ab- 

 bott and B. S. Bowdish, left New York on the morning of June 9, 

 1909, and reached Charleston, South Carolina, on the following 

 morning, June 10. We went at once to the Museimi and saw 

 Professor Rea and from him learned the exact location of two 

 heron rookeries near Charleston Harbor, which were the main ob- 

 ject of our visit to Charleston. 



We were also directed to a Captain Fairchild, who runs a forty 

 foot gasolene boat, the 'Ethel', a model example of comfort for our 

 purpose, and whose dusky first mate was known as ' Jawn'. 



As we passed out from the dock we took several memento views 

 of the water-front, the custom house, and a lighthouse relief ship. 

 Further down the bay we caught snaps of historic old Fort Sumter 

 where was fired the first gun in the Civil War, and a little further out 

 met a torpedo boat destroyer coming in. 



For miles the coast is bordered with a wide fringe of salt marsh, 

 intersected with open water courses or channels of varying width and 

 depth, which cut the marsh up into islands, large and small. It was 

 through such scenes that we proceeded to the rookery. Great and 

 Little Blue, Louisiana and Green Herons, and one Snowy Heron 

 were seen feeding in the marsh, and we noted Royal, Common and 

 Least Terns, Laughing Gulls, a Willet and an Oystercatcher. 



As we approached Secessionville Rookery we passed the little set- 

 tlement Secessionville on the opposite side of the channel. Soon 

 we could see the Herons sitting on their nests and feeding in a strip 

 of marsh about the edge of the island. The size of the island was 

 estimated at two and one-half to three acres. It was grown with 

 dense patches of ba}' and sparkleberry bushes and cabbage palms, in- 

 terspersed with open spaces of salt grass and prickly ]>ear, the whole 

 bordered with a strip of salt marsh. The heron nests were scattered 



