Santee National Wildlife Refuge - Cuddo Unit - Summerton, SC

We enjoyed our day off. Did some grocery shopping and got caught up on a few things.

On Tuesday Oct 16^th we woke to a pretty cold morning. We have been having unseasonably warm weather (in the 80’s) and today it didn’t hit 70 with the lows were around 46. Yikes! Good thing we are headed South.

cozy little fireplace....

We inquired at the Visitor’s Center to see if the Cuddo Unit was open. She said it was open as there was a gap in the hunting season. When we told her we tried to go in over the weekend she said since it was just Bow Hunting we could have done the drive. She also said if the sign is still up to ignore it and go on in.

 Visitor's Center (the lake is behind it)

 cotton fields ready to be harvested

The sign was up but we proceeded in. The wildlife drive is 7.5 miles. We drove slowly listening and looking for birds. It was cold and windy!

 Eastern Phoebe (there were tons of these here today)

 wild turkeys alongside the road

 Merlin

the were signs cautioning about large alligators (we only saw one very young one)

 Cormorant

 House Finch

 Common Yellowthroat

The Common Yellowthroat's Common Yellow Butt....

 Eastern Phoebe eating a large insect (grasshopper I think)

This deer just stood and watched us for a long time. She seemed really curious and even took a couple of steps towards us. We were parked a long way from her, but we waited for her to leave on her own before continuing the drive. Geez, doesn't she know it Deer Season? (maybe she knows they have this week off)

 Eastern Phoebe

We stopped to bird the road for a while and saw this beautiful Kingfisher.

 Belted Kingfisher - female

Blue-headed Vireo

 IF you look closely you can see the tiny gator where the plants meet the pond

 close-up of the little guy (about a foot long)

 Greg on the trail

 Yellow-billed Cuckoo

  Yellow-billed Cuckoo

 Yellow-billed Cuckoo

 Downy Woodpecker

 Palm Warbler - we ran into quite a flock of these

 Palm Warbler

Northern Flicker

Once again we missed lunch by several hours and went for a late Lunch at Fayz By the Lake. Very good food and the lake setting was a bonus.

 just one of the many rooms/areas of the restaurant

 Fried Catfish sandwich & onion rings

 Fried chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries

 view of Fayz from the lake

 Canada Goose

Osprey in the RV Park

We enjoyed our week in this area and tomorrow we are headed to Brunswick, GA.