A New Arrival

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Quite a treat at the beach yesterday. According to the regulars that walk the beach, this tree washed up overnight during the spring tide of January's Full Moon.

The east coast shoreline is always in constant flux. On Hilton Head Island the beach erodes on the north end and the south end gains beach. 

Just south of Charleston, South Carolina, there is a plantation that's now wildlife management area called Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve. It has 4,687 acres and part of it runs along the Atlantic ocean. It recently opened to the public in 2008 and we've only just begun to explore this treasure. 

I mention this place because along the plantation's shoreline there are many dead trees that protrude out of the sand. Land that's been reclaimed by the sea.  It's eerie and fascinatingly beautiful at the same time. I was thinking that it's totally possible that this tree traveled the tides from Botany Bay down to our beach on Hilton Head Island.  What stories this beauty of a tree could tell!

Fish Haul Creek Park

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At long last a few hours away that made me feel like I've had an entire weekend getaway!

Fish Haul is on Hilton Head Island, SC and borders Port Royal Sound. It's a birder's paradise and an ecological wonder. Every SC Low Country Master Naturalist class gets a field trip here and is warned not to get stuck in the pluff mud.

When Rob and I arrived just before 5 p.m., the tide was on its way out. I set up my chair facing east and reached in my bag for my supplies when I discovered I'd left my travel watercolor palette at home! Luckily the Pentel pocket brush, Micron pen and waterbrushes were there.  A black and white page was not what I had in mind on this beauty of an autumn day, but it did give me a chance to finally play with the Pentel brush. 

We spent about an hour on the beach. The receding tide moved out quickly and shorebirds that had settled on the highest ground at high tide took flight several times, moving farther out into the Sound, landing on newly visible shoals. Pelicans, gulls and skimmers filled the sky! Great Egrets started to collect just past the large rock eddy. They know there's good fishing in shallow tidal pools :)

I love the time of the 'long shadows.' The colors of the marsh grass, ocean and sky were incredible... so many shades of green and blue. But, oh the bugs! AT 5:45 p.m., it was as if someone turned on the bug switch. Boom! They were everywhere. No-seeums, mosquitoes and whatever... Dang.  Driven off by insects.