Mingo Point: A Kiawah Island birding hotspot

Local and visiting birders searching for "birdy" areas on Kiawah Island are often directed by Kiawah Naturalists to Mingo Point.

Perhaps best known as the site of the resort's Monday Night Oyster Roast and BBQ, Mingo Point is also an excellent place for birding. Resort Naturalists maintain a variety of bird feeders (including sunflower, njyer, and nectar feeders) near their kayak outpost. 

In recent years, a number of rare or uncommon birds have been observed at or near Mingo Point. Some recent birds of note include: Yellow-headed Blackbird, Roseate Spoonbill, Philadelphia Vireo, Canada Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Magnificent Frigatebird (from the river near Mingo Point), and American White Pelican.

During the breeding season, Mingo Point is a solid spot for Brown-headed Nuthatch, Painted Bunting, Pileated, Downy, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Northern Parula, Yellow-throated Warbler, Fish Crow, Clapper Rail, wading birds, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, and, occasionally, Summer Tanager. 

Overview of Mingo Point:

Habitat: Mingo Point consists primarily of three plant communities: salt marsh, salt shrub thicket, and maritime forest.

Location: southwest end of the island. Located after the Kiawah River Bridge but before the first security gate. It is approximately 4 minutes (or 1.7 miles) from the traffic circle by Freshfields Village as you drive to the entrance of Kiawah Island.

**Owner: Mingo Point is private property-- owned and operated by the Kiawah Island Golf Resort. The golf resort runs fishing charters, motorboat, kayak, and paddleboard tours from this property. Mingo Point is not open to the public for unsupervised, personal fishing, shrimping, crabbing, or motorized boat launches (even if you are a Kiawah Island Property owner or resort guest). What does that mean? Simple: if you want to play, you have to pay. And you must pay and have permission from the resort in order to launch your own kayak, canoe, or paddleboard from Mingo Point. If you have questions about what you are allowed to do at Mingo Point, call the Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
Note: Resort Security regularly checks the property for trespassers, nefarious characters, illegally parked cars, and the like.
You can still visit the property and look around and ask questions. And birders are always welcome there.
Birding at Mingo Point can be done by walking around the parking lots and visiting the feeders near the Kayak Outpost which is located to the far left (southwest) side of the property. 

Bobolink Flyover

While walking to the bird banding station this morning on Captain Sam's Spit, Aaron pointed out a Bobolink after it let out a flight call.
While they do not breed around here, we do occasionally see a Bobolink or two during spring and fall migrations.
I personally have not seen a live Bobolink on Kiawah Island since the spring of 2009. That is when I started working as a Naturalist for the Kiawah Island Nature Program. I can vividly recall hearing dozens of Bobolinks in the live oaks around the Nature Center at Night Heron Park. The distinctive song of the male Bobolink is hard to forget, as it sounds like a sped-up cassette tape.

Maybe we will get lucky and catch some of these fantastic birds at the banding station.

A decent place to look for Bobolinks on Kiawah Island is all the way out at the Ocean Course (east end of the island), especially on the front 9 holes behind the dunes.

Rainy Day Banding #12 and 35

6-September-2014
With the threat of rain on the horizon, we decided to try and band birds anyway. The first net round showed promise for a good day of banding, as the very first net I checked had two Yellow Warblers and one Prairie Warbler. This doesn't sound like a lot of birds. And it's not. But recently it has been so slow that many rounds we only net one bird. So I was excited to see three in one net.
However, my premature enthusiasm quickly dissolved as we confronted empty net after empty net. The next few rounds also proved quiet: A Northern Cardinal here, a Painted Bunting there, one Red-eyed Vireo. It was a pretty typical, early fall migration day for us on Captain Sam's Spit.
A lack of a breeze and a whirl of persistent gnats only exacerbated the ennui of a slow banding day. Happy to flee the gnats and stretch our legs, we began another net round when suddenly the sky opened up. (The rain gods must have been listening to my prayers).
As experienced bird banders, we knew that we must get birds out of nets and close the nets as soon as possible. Fortunately, there was only one bird to extract (a recap Carolina Chickadee, of course!), and we were able to close the nets rapidly and without incident.
And then we played the waiting game.
The rain dropped a lot heavier and lasted a lot longer than I thought it would.
Normally, we all maintain pretty good poker faces on slow days. But this Saturday morning, no one attempted to hide his or her readiness to go home. One could almost read the comforting thoughts of hot coffee, showers, brunch, and couch sleeping on our faces. The unanimous decision to pack up and head home was made, and within 40 minutes, we were all enjoying our respective lazy, Saturday morning rituals.