Today we’ve moved further north, crossing from South Carolina into North Carolina. Birding this morning was limited to a quick drive through and short mosquito-ridden trail walk in the Francis Marion National Forest. We saw very little and only added a couple of State ticks – best birds were Yellow-throated Warbler and Acadian Flycatcher. We then headed for our over-night stay near Wilmington NC, breaking our journey at Huntington State Park. Another small coastal barrier island with a nice mix of habitats. Here we added a couple of ‘trip ticks’, one was a our target species – Brown-headed Nuthatch – the other was a complete surprise! The only duck on Sandpiper Pond turned out to be a female type White-winged Scoter. At the very southern edge of its wintering range and not mentioned in any previous eBird reports – though oddly enough both Ring-necked Duck and Pied-billed Grebe had been reported. Close views of Wood Stork and Yellow-crowned Night Heron added value to our trip.

We closed our South Carolina State list on 109 – our overall GABRaT ll list is currently at 186, plus a few of the recent naturalised escape species from Florida: Egyptian Goose, Scaly-breasted Munia, Red Jungle Fowl and Grey-headed Swamphen