We’ve spent most of the winter along or near the Atlantic Ocean in southeastern states. We spent considerable time exploring the local area in and around Charleston.
We spotted this snowy egret at Middleton Plantation, which is sort of part historical site and part wildlife refuge a few miles south of the city. In this part of the world, wildlife refuges generally mean reptiles and birds. At Middleton, we saw a lot of alligators to go with a wide variety of birds, the most notable being snowy egrets, great egrets, great blue herons, cormorants and other big feathered creatures. So far we haven’t tripped over any of the smaller reptiles…rattlers, water moccasins and copperheads among other less dangerous snakes. Every place we stopped, though, had warnings about these things.
Historically, Middleton is where Lord Cornwallis landed with his part of the British Army during the Revolutionary War. Some months later he surrendered to General George Washington’s Continental Army near Yorktown, Virginia. Up to then, Cornwallis had been relatively successful. Eighty-four years after Cornwallis surrendered, Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman were less than kind to Middleton in the closing weeks of the Civil War.