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A group of Black River Outdoors Guides and some naturalists from Huntington Beach State Park spent last Sunday afternoon paddling in the marsh behind Pawleys Island looking for the rare and elusive Diamond Backed Terrapin.  These little salt marsh turtles were hunted heavily for turtle soup in the past (this is no longer a popular…

We were quite busy with our Kayak EcoTours during the two weeks surrounding Easter. Spring Break brings lots of visitors to the Myrtle Beach area. I am finally finding time to do a Blog post. The Salt Marsh really comes to life at low tide. Birds love to eat at low tide, when their prey…

I saw my first ever Leatherback Sea Turtle in the wild today on our Full Moon Kayak EcoTour. We paddled out into Murrells Inlet in daylight, and walked along the beach out to the jetty. We had seen quite a few cannonball jellyfish along the way, along with Least Terns, Red-Breasted Mergansers, herons and egrets. The…

After a week leading tours in the Salt Marsh, it was great being back in the Cypress Swamp again today. I had a group of nine people, including two young kids, one of whom was NOT happy about going in the swamp. Things started out pretty normally, with lizards and frogs hanging out in the…

The rest of March is forecast to be perfect for our Kayak EcoTours. It is warm enough to bring out the snakes, and alligators. This has been evident on our tours this week. The them of today’s tour was Brown Watersnakes. They were everywhere. We saw three very big females, as well as so many…

The weather was overcast this morning, so I wasn’t sure how many reptiles and amphibians we would see on today’s Cypress Swamp Tour. While we didn’t see a huge number, the variety was interesting. We had a small alligator basking on the floating plants for the third trip in a row. There were Green Anoles…

We had another beautiful day in the Cypress Swamp at Cox Ferry Lake Recreation Area in the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge. The 4-5 foot alligator was back out again in the upper part of the lake. There were only two Osprey at the nest today, so I am guessing the female made her choice and…

We had a beautiful Spring day on the Cypress Swamp. Spring was bursting out everywhere, as the Bald Cypress trees get their new needles, and most of the other trees and bushes are leafing out. We had the first alligator of 2017 for this tour, and a very nice female Brown Watersnake. After picking her…