Please join Field Trips chair, Lynn Hodgson, for a Sunday adventure to Webb Wildlife Center and Game Management Area, 1282 Webb Ave (or 2680 Augusta Stage Coach Rd) Garnett, SC 29922.   

Webb Wildlife Management Area covers about 81,000 acres of mixed habitats along the Savannah River. We will do a driving tour, with several stops for birding in hardwood forests, longleaf pine communities, near bald cypress swamps, and at a freshwater rookery. There is a nature trail, which we will try out; but it is often flooded. Bachmann’s sparrows, swallow-tailed kites, prothonotary warblers, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and painted buntings all live here. The entry road (Webb Ave) passes through a tunnel of live oaks and is superb habitat for locating Bachmann’s sparrows and red-headed woodpeckers. If you can, arrive early enough to listen and look for them. The Bachmann’s sparrows often quiet down later in the day – early morning is the time to hear them.

The Webb Visitor Center is not open on weekends. So, we will meet just beyond all the buildings at the sign-in kiosk at the beginning of the Bluff Lake Trail. A small restroom nearby is usually open. We will bird into the afternoon, so dress for the weather (hot? sunny? muggy? rainy?) and bugs. Bring binoculars, lunch, and plenty of water. Webb is about an hour and a half from Hilton Head.

Registration is necessary.

Directions from Hilton Head: take Rte. 278 north, cross I-95, go left at the next light – Whyte Hardee Blvd.(= Rte. 17). In town, take a right on Deerfield Rd (=Rte. 321 north). Stick with 321 through a couple of name changes. You will come to a funky and confusing intersection where 3 roads come together. Clyo Rd comes in from the south (don’t take that!). Head due west, crossing the railroad tracks on Augusta Stagecoach Rd. Look for the brown binocular signs. Go through Brighton, SC (blink and you will miss it), then look for Webb Ave on the left. Lynn’s cell is 808-282-5218.

Photo: Swallow-tail Kite by Robert Shupak