IT IS A WARM APRIL MORNING AT THE SANCTUARY HOTEL WHEN PEGGY BARNES AND KIM ANUSZKIEWICZ SET OUT ON THEIR REGULAR BLUEBIRD PATROL.
With clipboards and nest box cameras in hand, they move easily from box to box, checking on the feathered residents who have made Kiawah Island their home.
“ See how neat this nest is?” Peggy says, tilting the box for a closer look.“ That’ s a bluebird. Carolina wrens, on the other hand, they’ re like teenagers. Everything thrown around in a mess.”
Kim laughs.“ It’ s true. Wrens will use anything— pine needles, moss, sticks— and toss it all in. Bluebirds are much tidier.”
Their easy banter carries the warmth of friendship, one that began years earlier not with bluebirds, but with turtles.
The two first met on Turtle Patrol, Kiawah’ s much-loved volunteer program that monitors loggerhead nests.“ Kim was my shift leader,” Peggy recalls.“ I knew nothing about it, just that it was early mornings, sand beneath your feet, and a chance to see something extraordinary.”
When a fellow volunteer moved away, Kim invited Peggy to join her on Bluebird Patrol. Soon, the pair spent spring mornings on The Ocean
Course, peeking into nest boxes, and jotting down notes for the Town’ s wildlife office.
“ We’ ve had some adventures,” Kim admits. There was the day a frog leapt from a box just as the inspection camera slid in. Another morning, a snake had beaten the bluebirds back to their nest.“ I screamed like a little girl,” Kim confesses,“ and I’ m sure everyone on the golf course heard me.”
Peggy’ s husband, accompanying her that day, calmly fetched a stick and relocated the intruder.“ The picture tells the story,” Peggy says.“ Snake, lump, snake. He was fat and happy.”
These encounters, equal parts surprise and humor, stitch their friendship together.“ We come out here for the birds,” Kim says,“ but we’ ve had some Nat Geo moments.”
That bond now carries into their leadership of the Kiawah Conservancy Board of Trustees. Peggy, who became Board Chair in 2024, serves until March 2026, when Kim, currently Vice Chair, will step into the role.
“ I first came to Kiawah Island in 1980,” Peggy says.“ It was wild back then, like a jungle. Over time, I realized how unique this place is. Joining the Conservancy felt like a way to protect what I loved.”
Kim’ s journey is different. Originally from the California Bay Area, she and her husband bought a
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