Heritage Shores

Yesterday I drove to Heritage Shores which is near Cherry Beach in North Myrtle Beach. I had to pay $4.50 per hour to park which is extremely frustrating. I found a fairly large nature preserve among all the housing developments. I walked across five board walks and on sandy paths. Where the sandy paths were low and wet I saw the many round holes signifying a fiddler crab lives here. Fiddler crabs dig their homes straight down. When the tide comes in they plug the entrance to their home with a ball of sand. To see fiddler crabs you generally have to look at the path ten to twelve feet ahead of you. When the fiddler crabs hear me coming, my foot steps shaking the sand, they disappear into their homes. Once in awhile I will see a fiddler crab under me and I wonder if that one is deaf. 

People are not allowed to fish or take crabs at this nature preserve. The tide was low on this visit and I saw something incredible. Oysters, shown in the picture above, were spitting a stream of water 8 inches into the air at regular intervals. This is only visible when oyster is still in water but the water isn't very deep above them. I watched the oysters spit for a good 15 minutes while laughing gulls chuckled at me. Oysters are cleaning the water when they spit like this. Ocean creatures are incredible.

 

Vereen Historical Memorial Gardens

I walked a couple of miles to the Vereen Historical Memorial Gardens. 

They have a mile long paved road lines with azaleas that are in full flower. On either side of the paved road are sandy paths wandering through the woods. This was a lovely place to visit.

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I walked up to a bale of turtles.

This turtle charged up to me. What, was it expecting a free handout of hamburger?

 

Myrtle Beach

I took a long, slow ride north on Highway 17 and am now staying in Myrtle Beach. I think Myrtle Beach is a cheesey and touristy town. I saw at least a dozen lagoon or pirate type entertainment centers.

The state park was nice though. I took a couple mile hike through a forest before I got to the beach. The white sandy beach was lovely. Walking on the beach is my favorite.

They had a board walk along the beach before I reached the campgrounds.

 

Audubon Swamp Garden

I spent a couple of days in Charleston, South Carolina. I met an old friend. She took me out for lunch, gave me a tour of her town home, and drove me around town for a couple hours and went shopping together. The next day I visited the Audubon Swamp Garden. Look at these lovely knees on the cypress.

At this nature preserve they build sunning platforms for the gators.

I watched this American bittern hunt for 5 minutes. As he moved on his or her log, the log turned and the bittern had to keep moving to keep it's balance. Soon another bittern flew in and they hunted together. I was lucky to get this view of a bittern.

A great blue heron made a nest on top of a tree out in the lake. This must be a very safe place for a heron nest.

This tree had a dozen  great egrets perched in it's branches.

Woah, maybe I shouldn't proceed on this path. When I came back 30 minutes later the gator had moved on. Another smaller gator was ten feet away.

Turtles don't share the same sunning ramps as gators.

Here is the tree with the heron nest and a couple gators sunning on a ramp.

I like Charleston, it's a cute little town.