There is so much surrounding us and so much to see in Beaufort SC. The Lowcountry’s amazing natural landscape offers amazing water vistas, beautiful grand oaks draped in Spanish moss and rows of palmetto trees always placed in just the right spot. Surrounded by a myriad of rivers and estuaries, Beaufort is also a haven for watersports, fishing, kayaking and a whole host of other activities.
It’s a nature lover’s paradise around here.
With all of the natural landscape of Beaufort, and with being a coastal town with plenty of large unincorporated areas, our wildlife is something to behold as well.
Among the variety of deer, alligators, turtles, hundreds of species of birds, and even dolphins, one in particular sticks out.
The American bald eagle. They’re everywhere around Beaufort and the sea islands because the national symbol of the U.S.A. loves Beaufort, too.
We see them on Parris Island. We see them on our sea islands. We see them in the maritime forests of Hunting Island beach & state park.
We even see them perched in backyard trees throughout the whole area. You know they’re thriving when you see them while your sitting on the porch enjoying your sweet tea.
That’s because Beaufort is the perfect home for them.
Bald eagles love virtually any kind of wetland habitat including seacoasts, rivers, large lakes or marshes or other large bodies of open water with an abundance of fish.
In 2017 it was estimated that there are a whopping 69 nesting pairs of bald eagles in Beaufort County…compared to only 5 in 1990.
According to the SCDNR website, when tracking of bald eagle nests began in 1977, biologists found just 13 occupied nesting territories in all of South Carolina. In 2016, the agency monitored more than 350 bald eagle nests.
Once a common sight across the entire country, the bald eagle was severely affected in the mid-20th century by a variety of factors. It’s estimated that once upon a time, the bald eagle population was 300,000–500,000, but by the 1950s there were estimates of only 412 nesting pairs left in the U.S.
The bald eagle was declared an endangered species in the U.S. in the 1960s. Through preservation and protection, their numbers began to grow again and the population began to rebound.
In the early 1980s, the estimated total population was 100,000 and that grew to about 110,000–115,000 by 1992. It was officially removed from the endangered species list in 1995, when it was reclassified from endangered to threatened. After spending a few years on the threatened list, bald eagles were officially de-listed altogether on June 28, 2007.
Today, it’s estimated there are over 143,000 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48 states.
There’s nothing more spectacular to a nature lover than being able to observe wildlife in its natural habitat. Beaufort is a fantastic example of this, with its abundance of nature and beauty, surrounded by water; it’s the perfect home for bald eagles.
Read more about nature in the Lowcountry in our Beaufort Outdoors column.
