Silver Bluff Geoart - Wood Stork 46
Red-winged Starling
Marsh Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Please read through the Searching Guidelines below before heading to the geocache.
There is import information to keep geocaching in good graces with the management.
Plate 67
Red-winged Starling or Marsh Blackbird or Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius phoeniceus
Among our most familiar birds, the Red-winged Blackbird seems to sing its nasal songs in every marsh and wet field from coast to coast. They are notably bold, and several will often attack a larger bird, such as a hawk or crow, that flies over their nesting area. The red shoulder patches of the male, hidden under body feathers much of the time, are brilliantly displayed when he is singing. Outside the nesting season, Red-winged Blackbirds sometimes roost in huge concentrations.
Courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing”
This Play Anywhere Wherigo® will require you to discover a key phrase that you will then enter into the Wherigo cartridge. The keyphrase is made up of four "words" that could be a collection of letters or actual words. There are no spaces in the keyphrase. The cartridge will provide you with the final location. You may download the cartridge and play it from the comfort of your home before you begin your adventure at the sanctuary.
The difficulty of this cache is a 1. So, here is the keyword.
red-winged
Yes, that easy.
OK. So, maybe not that easy. It should be red-winged, but it might also be red-wing. I am sorry to say that I had used red-wing in some places and red-winged in others. That caused some problems, including the many incorrect responses on the checker. If you have problems with either this checker or the wherigo (it will depend on when you downloaded it), try either adding or removing "ed" at the end. At the time of this update, red-winged should be correct.
Sliver Bluff Geoart Information
The geoart was created at a sanctuary in the area along the Savanna River called, Silver Bluff. The sanctuary is open from dawn to dusk, and permission for this hide was granted by the sanctuary manager. If you see sanctuary personnel during your visit, please thank them for supporting geocaching. The geoart consists of 55 geocaches in the shape of a wood stork. This sanctuary annually has hosted the largest inland concentration of foraging, endangered wood storks in South Carolina. There were some caches already existing at the sanctuary, and they were incorporated into the geoart. The difficulty/terrain ratings of the 55 geocaches are all different and provide a diverse geocaching experience. When combined with the related geoart of 26 geocaches, all 81 possible D/T ratings are included.
Searching Guidelines
As you are searching for Silver Bluff Geoart caches, please follow the following guidelines.
- Parking along roads: There are dirt roads in the area. They are not heavily used, but please be careful. Please do not block the roads or park on the roads. Be sure to pull off of the dirt roads completely. Please do not park near the gate at the end of Silver Bluff Road. Also, do not walk past that particular gate. Use the Quail Trail to access the caches at the south end of the sanctuary.
- Access to Authorized Personnel Only Areas: You are authorized to go past the signs that say, "Authorized Personnel Only" when searching for geocaches. Near the main office, there is a dirt road that has such a sign. There are some Terrain 1 (wheelchair accessible) caches down the road, and people are welcome to drive down that road into the authorized personnel areas for disability access. If you are asked about entering that area, just kindly mention that you are a geocacher who needs to take advantage of the disability access.
- Bird Boxes: There are many bird boxes in the sanctuary. No geocaches are hidden in bird boxes and there are no fake bird boxes. There might be some containers attached magnetically to the metal baffles below the boxes or on the ground by the boxes. Please be careful when approaching bird boxes, because there might be birds actively using them in the spring.
- Main Office, Trail Heads and Parking: You are welcome but not required to stop by the main office during your visit. Access to the trail heads is from the main parking area. There is also parking at Kathwood providing access to the walkways around the ponds.
John Audubon Drawing Information
The image on the cache page is from the original drawing by John James Audubon and was printed between 1827 and 1838. You may search the internet for the bird name with the plate number to find the original plates and complete descriptions of the birds as written by Audubon.
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.