This post is made up of a few random shots taken along the coast. Some are on the beach, others along the coastal salt marshes. Most summers we shoot primarily inland in the swamps and marshes. Early on we spent some time on the barrier islands, somehow 2022 has seen us bring home sand as much as the usual pluff mud.

Below is an American Oystercatcher. You can’t miss them, not many neon birds walking on the beaches. When in flight you can hear them from a long way off. Their wings beat so fast they make whistle sound.

If you live along an inlet in the Lowcountry you have to own a boat, and have a pier. That pier may be a very long one too. Salt marshes are everywhere, so the pier needs to run atop the marsh right out to the water.

That pier (and boat) is not cheap. But if you have the house, well the pier is the least of your expenses.

Above, a juvenile Brown Pelican floating in the surf. If you visit this site you already know I love the Pelicans. Almost never pass up a photo op.

Laughing Gulls, probably more common than people around here. These birds are just as common in the marshes as the shore.

This last shot is of course more Brown Pelicans. This was taken at the mouth of the Kiawah river. The entire coastline of South Carolina is a series of rivers entering the Atlantic Ocean. This is why the old plantations here were rice growers, not cotton.

Since we still have months of hot weather I suspect I’ll have a few more coastal articles before our fall(ish) weather starts.