Well, this is a little removed from coastal issues, but when somebody starts talking about the skies raining diamonds, you have to share it: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1999/1006/diamonds.html

I like to kid that the greatest invention of the 20th century was the toilet: You flush and it just disappears! But it doesn’t. And not everything we drain into wastewater treatment plants gets treated there. We’re just starting to learn what the problems are:http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130502/PC16/130509844/1165/-x2018-startling-x2019-pollutant-found-in-lowcountry-oysters

In the controversy over developing Capt. Sams Spit on Kiawah Island, sometimes the details can be lost. From a recent Charleston Audubon Society chapter bird count on the spit:

Beachwalker Park, Charleston, US-SC

Apr 26, 2013 8:45 AM – 11:30 AM

Comments:     CCPRC Beachwalker Birdwalk.  near high tide, mostly sunny, winds NE ~15mph

58 species (+1 other taxa)

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)  21

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)  32

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1

Great Egret (Ardea alba)  3

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)  1

Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor)  1

Green Heron (Butorides virescens)  1

Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus)  8

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)  10

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)  1

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  1

Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)  30

Wilson’s Plover (Charadrius wilsonia)  8

Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)  175     near inlet, roosting

Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)  9

Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)  1

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)  1

Willet (Tringa semipalmata)  17

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)  2

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)  20     several small groups

Red Knot (Calidris canutus)  1200     feeding along the beach for nearly 0.5 mile.  also supratidal at inlet.

Sanderling (Calidris alba)  35

Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)  7

Dunlin (Calidris alpina)  125     mixed in among shorebirds along beach and near inlet

Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)  20

Bonaparte’s Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia)  1

Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla)  50

Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  8

Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)  5

Least Tern (Sternula antillarum)  15     feeding near shore along the walk to inlet, roosting at the inlet and flying/courting over inlet

Gull-billed Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica)  9

Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)  2

Forster’s Tern (Sterna forsteri)  25

Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus)  15

Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis)  35

Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)  45

Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus)  1

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)  4

Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)  1

Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus)  2

Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)  1

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)  10

Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus)  4

crow sp. (Corvus sp. (crow sp.))  5

Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis)  6

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)  2

Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis)  3

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)  5

Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)  2     seen clearly at entrance gate.  prominent white “eyebrow”

Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)  2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)  1

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)  1

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)  9

Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus)  2

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) (Setophaga coronata coronata)  5

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)  5

Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris)  2

Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)  30

Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major)  12

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13889807

See more here: http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/saltpaddling.html

I know I’ve been neglecting this blog. Here’s something to make it up, a sequence of wildcats versus coyotes photos, while I fetch around for more cool stuff: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmtnprairie/sets/72157633115008883/with/8600014537/

photo courtesy of Ray Swagerty.

Twilight, haze and ground lights have obscured PANSTARRS for a lot of us, but the comet really is up there. It just might take a dark spot or binoculars to see. This was shot Thursday evening in West Ashley. Here’s the specs, in case you’re interested: 8:22PM. Nikon D7000, 400mm, f8, ISO1000, for 4 seconds, tripod mounted, infrared remote release, mirror lock-up.

Thanks, Ray.

photo by Brian Klimowski, Flagstaff, AZ on Tuesday, courtesy of spaceweather.com.

So far, the comet flirting with the moon hasn’t shown its face to the naked eyed. But that’s expected to change tonight, as both move far enough from the twilight. In the Charleston area at 8 p.m., the comet will be one-third as high as the moon, and a little bit to its right. Friday night, it will be a little higher. It should be viewable without binoculars into next week, when the waxing moon gets too bright for it. Enjoy.

Photo is by Leroy Burnell of The Post and Courier.

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130312/PC16/130319791/1165/coastal-conservation-league-drops-opposition-to-groin-at-folly-beach-park

There’s a comet up there:

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130312/PC16/130319797/1005/viewing-and-vetting-the-comet-panstarrs

I’ve neglected this blog for awhile now, and I apologize if you’ve been checking it. There’s only so much media somebody can be social for. Let me make it up a little with another episode of Where in the World is Mary Lee? The restless two-ton great white shark is now south of Bermuda in the deep ocean, after last visiting the Lowcountry, cruising up to the summer feeding grounds off New England, wandering off  the edge of the Continental Shelf and apparently liking it out there.

Genie, her not-so-much-smaller-that-it would-matter-to-you fellow great white, last pinged a surfacing signal in January, when she was off the South Carolina coast. She hasn’t been heard from since.

Meanwhile, Ocearch, the group that tagged both sharks, has mounted an expedition off Florida to find a few more. Reporters are along for that 10-day trip and you can follow it on the Ocearch Facebook page. Enjoy.