they need to get rest. I caught this glimpse of a group of four one morning in the big dunes beyond the Ocean Course.
In the summer a good place to walk is the salt marsh near the big lagoon on the eastern end of the island. All sorts of treasures hide in the spartina grass in the lagoon. Here is a ghost crab using the spartina for cover. And on the backside of the dunes, a night hawk.
Whenever I go to the lagoon on the east end of the Island, I try to visit the small pond to the right of the entrance road to the Ocean Course Clubhouse. This pond almost always has something of interest. One year it had a pair of nesting black-necked stilts. Stilts are never happy to have visitors. The unhappy father will buzz you with his antics in the sky, while the missus tries to herd the kids to safety from the intruder.
Whether you walk in the morning, in the afternoon, or in the cool of the early evening, most walks are peaceful and relaxed. After all, that is the usual purpose of a walk on Kiawah. One rarely needs to be concerned with personal safety. However, a very large alligator moving at high speed across your walking path, though rare, is a pretty spectacular event. NK
WINTER / SPRING 2017 • VOLUME 37
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