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| Bird Key Stono
Bird
Key Stono is an estuarine sandbar
comprising approximately 20 acres at the mouth of the Stono River in Charleston County
(where the Stono meets the Folly River).
It is one of only three Heritage Preserve costal islands that have protected seabird
nesting. The preserve provides nesting,
roosting and foraging habitat for a variety of sea and shore birds. Beginning in
the mid-1980’s, thousands of eastern brown pelicans, several species of terns, black
skimmers, laughing gulls, two species of herons and other incidental species successfully
nested on Bird Key Stono every year. From the late 1980’s to 1994, the island
supported the largest number of nesting eastern brown pelicans in the range of the
species. |
Brown Pelican
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|
| Unfortunately,
Pelicans are declining in South Carolina. There were 7,739 nesting pairs of brown pelicans
in 1989 compared with only 3,001 nesting pairs in 2002. And royal terns and sandwich terns
are declining in South Carolina at the same rate as brown pelicans. The preserve is a sandspit island formed by deposits from
associated river systems. It shifts in position and structure due to erosion and
deposition of sand. Bird Key Stono supports colonies of nesting water birds because
of its isolated nature and lack of mammalian predators such as raccoons and dogs.
Brown Pelican |
Royal Tern |
Sandwich Tern |
Great Blue Heron |
Laughing Gull |
Black Skimmers |
Arctic Terns |
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| Important:
For more information contact:
Nongame and Heritage Trust Section, S. C. Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 167,
Columbia, SC 29202, 734-3893
To visit their
web site click here.
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