Jeep safaris for visitors became popular on Kiawah Island during the 1970s.
David Chamberlain met us at the front gate. David
would oversee the ecological, archeological, and geological
surveys with assistance from research scientists at regional
universities. Becky was a botanist charged with identifying
plant communities on the undeveloped Island. My job as a
herpetologist was to determine what reptiles and amphibians
were present. Karen and Johnny were technicians at SREL.
(A side note and head nod to coincidence, Karen lived in the
garage apartment of an Aiken house still owned by the C. C.
Royal family.)
On my arrival 45 years ago, I knew Kiawah was going
to provide ecological adventures. We spent the day driving
around the Island in one of the Ford Broncos David provided
for the project, visiting myriad habitats from beachfront
dunes to maritime forests and numerous slightly brackish
lakes with waterfowl names like Blue Heron, Bufflehead, and
Pintail. We were joined by John Mark Dean, a University
of South Carolina professor, bringing the total human
inhabitants on my first day to six.
The Island had no paved streets—nothing but dirt roads
from the front gate to Cougar Island at the far east end.
Aside from the Vanderhorst House, the only intact structures
on the Island were 16 cottages, one of which served as our
assembly site on future visits. Still present were remnants
of wooden barracks built in 1942 when a U.S. Coast Guard
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outfit watched for German U-boats off the coast. According
to David Chamberlain, “Coast Guard personnel were initially
on horseback [accompanied by dogs] and carried only a rifle.
By 1943 they had Jeeps; [they] were disbanded in 1944 when
it became apparent the German submarine threat was pretty
well gone.”
From a herpetological standpoint, my most exciting first-
day discovery was Sparrow Pond. According to my field notes,
it was “an oval-shaped depression about 200 yards long with
a small pool at each end. During wet periods, the depression
presumably fills with water to make a single lake.” Waist-high
sedges and cattails grew in the mud between the two ponds.
“A large adult alligator trail ran between them.” We also saw
yellow-bellied slider turtle heads that disappeared as we
approached one of the ponds.
I noted further: “Muddling will work very well.” Muddling
is a technique for finding and catching turtles by walking in
shallow muddy water and bumping into them or reaching
under the bank to feel for them—unsophisticated but
highly effective. Other creatures, including snakes and small
alligators, maybe in the mud or under a bank as well, can be
disconcerting, even to a herpetologist.
To test the muddling technique in Sparrow Pond, I waded
into the smaller of the two pools, saw a large slider turtle
moving through the mud, and caught it easily. Female sliders
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