Gulls and Duck Donuts

 Saturday, February 10, I walked a long, long way down the beach at low tide. This is the view looking back at the condo.

A long way from the condo

This is looking ahead to the mouth of House Creek, which also features the low spot that didn’t end like I thought it would, so I walked through it instead of turning back and got my feet wet. Note: it was not a warm day. House Creek leads to a wetland with multiple little rivulets and runs past Russel Burgess Coastal Preserve and Heritage Shores Nature Preserve.

House Creek runs in front of the trees and other vegetation in the distance

I walked all the way to the edge of the creek, but even though the low tide was very low that day, the creek was too deep to cross. I was disappointed because I could see that there were new birds on the other side and could not get close. I’m sure the birds knew that. There are a few gulls in my book that have black spots behind their eyes. Based on the ranges given, I concluded that this were Bonaparte’s gulls. Although they sound exotic, they commonly winter all along the Atlantic coast.

Bonaparte's (?) gulls

This next one is a mystery, perhaps a black-backed gull, although great or lesser is anyone’s guess. The head is so white. It doesn’t match anything in Sibley.

Great (?) Black-backed (?) gull

If it is the great black-backed gull, it would be quite a lot larger than Bonaparte’s gull. If this picture shows Bonaparte’s gulls with juvenile great black-backed gulls, the size difference might be right. Have I mentioned that shore birds are annoying?

Mixed gulls

I walked a bit along the creek. A willet walked so close to me I could have almost touched it. Brave bird!

Brave willet

A handful of people gathered on the beach to fly large kites. Here is an example of two of them.

Fancy kites

I got back to the condo about 2:00. Jane had been researching little parks around the area. The parks did not live up to the hype. On the other side of the House Creek wetland we finally saw some ibis, a bird so common in Florida, they are known as Florida chickens.

Uncommon ibis

We went past a pond and saw a turtle. It’s hard to identify because it is mostly in silhouette. It might be an elegant slider. I can’t tell if it has its pinkies up.

Elegant (?) slider

It was going on 4:00 when we got back to North Myrtle Beach. Ready for a food adventure, we went to Duck Donuts. Duck Donuts makes donuts to order. I don’t me just the frosting part. They fry the donuts in an automated fryer after you order. Does it take forever? You betcha!

Duck Donuts box

But we got our donuts. I had nuts. Jane has sprinkles, which are not sprinkles but jimmies. Ignorant rubes!

Warm donuts--very messy

We picked up Jan at the airport and resumed vacation with the full company again.