Playing around ..

Howdee all,

Jeff and I took a drive yesterday checking out a few areas north of Charleston.

We stopped at

Mount Pleasant Palmetto Islands County Park

Mount Pleasant Palmetto Islands County Park is a nature-oriented, 943-acre park designed for family and group use. The park is built in a tropical setting, with bicycle paths, boardwalks, and picnic sites with grills located throughout the park for your enjoyment.

Jeff and I climbed the above tower for a glimpse of the surrounding area.

Panorama of the view from the tower.

We didn’t see many birds here, an immature Little Blue Heron, Great Egret and Great Blue heron

We did take the fast way down from the tower…

That’s Jeff..

Here I am giving it a try.

That was fun!

We took a walk around most of the trails in the park.

A nice place for family outings.

not much in the way of birding…

Many many Yellow-rumped Warblers

Ruby-crowned Kinglets..

I took this Camellia photo at

Charles Pinkney Historic Site

If you don’t know anything about him read this.

1789 to 1792 and again from 1796 to 1797, Pinckney
in 1798 was chosen U.S. Senator by the state legisla-
ture. In the Senate, he vigorously opposed President
John Adams’s Federalist administration. The 1800
Figure 6, Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney
presidential election pitted Republicans Thomas
Jefferson and Aaron Burr against Adams and Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney. Charles Pinckney worked
tirelessly to carry South Carolina for Jefferson and
defeat his cousin’s vice presidential bid. When Jefferson
won the presidency with the help of South Carolina’s
electoral votes, he appointed Pinckney United States
minister to Spain.

 

We then traveled to the coast stopping to check out the birds..

Black Skimmers..

our first of the year..

Ring-billed Gull

We then traveled to

Fort Moultrie..

The first fort on Sullivan's Island was still incomplete when Commodore Sir Peter Parker and nine warships attacked it on June 28, 1776. After a nine-hour battle, the ships were forced to retire. Charleston was saved from British occupation, and the fort was named in honor of its commander, Colonel. William Moultrie. In 1780 the British finally captured Charleston, abandoning it only on the advent of peace.

More of the forts history here..

We also visited

Sullivans Island Lighthouse

Description: The modern monolithic Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse, the last major lighthouse built by the federal government, resembles an air traffic control tower more than a traditional lighthouse. The tower's unique triangular shape, with one point directed towards the ocean, allows it to withstand winds of up to 125 miles per hour.

When erosion threatened the Morris Island Lighthouse, located south of Charleston Harbor, the decision was made to construct a replacement beacon on Sullivan’s Island, north of the harbor’s entrance. Although the triangular tower, built of concrete and steel and clad in a skin of aluminum, doesn’t have much Southern charm, it does have some redeeming qualities. Inside the tower, the keepers of the light are treated to air conditioning and an elevator that offers a leisurely, 74-second trip skyward. After the elevator ride, it is still necessary to scale a 25-foot vertical ladder to reach the lantern room, where a powerful light source is housed.

When first activated on June 15, 1962, the lighthouse featured an amazing 28 million candlepower light, produced by carbon arc lamps costing $900 apiece, that was the second brightest in the western hemisphere. This powerful beam proved dangerous to its keepers and bothersome to its neighbors. In order to access the lantern room when the powerful lamps were lit, keepers were required to don an asbestos welding suit. To pacify neighbors, plate steel was installed in the landward side of the lantern room. The beacon was downgraded a decade later to a light of just over a million candlepower. Visible from twenty-six miles, the light now has a unique flashing characteristic consisting of a 0.2-second flash, a 4.8-second eclipse, another 0.2-second flash, and a 24.8-second eclipse.

The Charleston Lighthouse was originally painted white and red-orange, but the coloring proved so unpopular that the tower's daymark was soon changed to the current black-top, white-bottom paint scheme.

 

Jeff and I have left Hollywood and are now heading to Edisto Beach.

We will be there for 4 nights. There is very spotty internet and telephone.

There is some free wifi at the park office we hope to use.

Looking forward to some more Beach wanderings..

See you there!