Huntington Beach

I didn’t sleep well last night. The tent sites at the Myrtle Beach KOA are located at a point in the park where all the traffic comes through. Most of the night there were cars passing 30 feet from my tent. At 3:00 am a truck with a very loud muffler and blaring music entered the campground (“Hey look at me.”).

After breakfast, I headed to the Huntington Beach State Park to view the birds I had read about.

Huntington Beach State Park

As I arrived, I passed a sign that said, “November 25, Access Free”. I passed the ranger station, which was empty on my way into the park. There’s a narrow access road which passes through the marsh. There was construction work in progress. It looked like there had been damage to the road and sidewalks on both sides. The view was stunning.

After crossing the causeway, there was parking areas scatter around the park. I continued to drive and found a large parking lot at the back of the park. This is where the AllTrails Huntington Beach State Park Trail started. I followed the path back towards the causeway which took me along the road I had just come in on.

The Marsh

Near the causeway there is a platform that goes out into the marsh beyond the salt marsh cordgrass. These waters had alligators living in them. I was hoping to get a few photos. A while ago, I watched a special on PBS about keystone species. The following text was on a sign before the platform:

Alligators are a keystone species of southern freshwater marshes. Their actions contibute to a healthy ecosystem in several ways. They create alligator poles that they use as an insurance policy against drought. These holes are critical to the species diversity of a wetland.

During dry spells, each acts as a miniature Noah’s Ark, providing enough water for small fish, insect larvae, snails, tadpoles and other creatures to survive these hard times.

Many wading birds are also dependent on alligators. Herons, egrets, and wood storks prefer to nest in the limbs of trees overhanging marshes with alligators below. The alligators act as a home security system for the birds, eating any potential predators that might prey on their eggs or young.

There wasn’t much to see from the platform at this time of year. Apparently, during the Spring and Summer months there is a lot of activity. The recent storms also had done damage to the marsh.

Marsh

It was clear that there had been recent damage to the marsh at Huntington Beach. I met a woman that had brought her family to see the marsh. There was a walkway out into the marsh where you could stand and observe the activity in the marsh. It was now destroyed.

I was standing in front of the entrance to the walkway when she came up. She had one hand on her chest and the other covering her mouth as she shook her head side-to-side. I thought she was going to break into tears. She said to her husband, “It’s destroyed.” She told me she was a Montessori school teach and that the kids loved to come here. Apparently, two storms, Colin and Ian in 2022 did the damage. The access road had been partially washed out as well. In other parts of the park equipment was in place to make repairs.

The grass in the marsh areas is spartina grass or salt marsh cordgrass. The spartina grass is difficult for many animals to digest. When the grass dies in the fall, the grass starts to breakdown. In the fall and winter, marsh birds use this as a fibrous food source.

Paul’s Photographs.

As I continued on the path, I saw a guy with a very large 600mm lens on his Nikon camera. We ended up chatting about photographing birds for about 30 minutes. He told me he mostly photographs birds. He said that he never uses auto focus and he tries to get the photograph right with a minimum of shots. This limits the amount of time he spends in Lightroom. His instagram id is Pauln_photos. He also likes to photograph wildlife, dogs and cats. Enjoy the photos!!!

Sandy Walk

The remainder of the path was a trail that ran parallel to the ocean and a small pond. There were signs to stay back from the water because of alligators in the pond. I was expecting to see some alligators along this path. Apparently, the alligators hibernate unless the sun is out and it warms up.

Octopus Tree

Walking through the forest, there is a fallen tree, known as the Octopus Tree. This is an oak tree that was pushed over in a storm and enough of the root system remained under ground that the tree continued to grow. As I understand, the tree rooted itself in other places.

Birds Along Causeway

I walked back to the car and packed everything up. As I was crossing the causeway on the way out of the park, I spotted several birds in the marsh hunting for small fish. I found parking and walked back hoping they would still be there. They had moved right in front of the viewing platform. I took far too many photographs and should have followed Paul’s philosophy.
It was fascinating watching the birds wait for a small fish to swim by and then the quickness which they had in catching their prey. As they swallowed the movement of the fish was visible in their long necks.

Myrtle Beach US Army Airfield

I was doing some shopping and noticed a military jet to my right. The was a memorial to The Myrtle Beach US Army Airfield which was used during WWII for training and deployment of Air Support personnel. It was decommissioned after the war in 1947 and the land went to the town of Myrtle Beach, SC as the Municipal Airport. It was later reactivated for the Korean and Vietnam Wars.