Winter is the best time for birding aboard the Skimmer in terms of both quantity and variety of sightings. Shorebird flocks can number into the thousands. They typically include Dunlin, Dowitchers, Black Bellied and Semipalmated Plovers, Western Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones and Willets. On the same shell rakes where these birds gather, Oystercatchers congregate by the dozens and often in flocks of more than a hundred. Common Loons, Buffleheads, and Horned Grebes are scattered at regular intervals along the waterways, as well as Red-breasted and Hooded Mergansers. Rafts of Scaup too may be sighted and with luck a Red- throated Loon. 

Two special treats are reserved for winter, one is the presence of large numbers of marsh sparrows- both Seaside and Sharp-tailed. Viewing can be exceptional, no binoculars needed. Perhaps best of all though is the opportunity to observe nesting Bald Eagles in the Lowcountry salt marsh habitat. Trips during January, February, and March can provide treasured glimpses ranging from fuzzyheaded hatchlings being fed to fledglings hovering above the nest. 

Outstanding birding also takes place in the spring, as northward shorebird migration coincides with horseshoe crab spawning. In this smaller version of the famed Delaware Bay event, critical refueling points (as short as a quarter mile) may attract up to ten thousand birds. As they gorge on crab eggs, one has the rare opportunity to view dense concentrations of shorebirds at close range. Ruddy Turnstones, Dunlin, Sanderlings (some in full breeding plumage), and Semipalmated Sandpipers make up the vast majority, while some years also include good numbers of the ever-decreasing Red Knot. These refueling points are found along one of the last fragments of natural beachfront in South Carolina, a gorgeous area that has in the past provided sightings of Reddish Egrets, Black Necked Stilts, and White Pelicans.