South Carolina on the road

A photo opportunity in Elko, S. C.. This four cycle flywheel single piston engine was off of highway U.S. 78. I suspect that one time this engine that was to hooked natural gas, ran some type of cotton gin or some other agricultural industry. I tried to find any information on the Internet, but Elko is a very small town and not much to be found. Now I wish I had found someone there and asked what they could tell me about this machine.   

Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge stretches for 22 miles along the South Carolina coast. Consisting of saltwater marshes, tidal creeks, and open bays. The water is a mixture of ocean tides and water from several small freshwater rivers.

The two pictures above are of the salt marsh. The picture to the right you see a high land area with trees. The pictures below are close-ups of that high land, and the bird and the tree is an osprey.

With the tide out some of the marshes secrets come to life. The pictures above show Mud Fiddler Crabs. The pictures below show oysters in the mud. But they are attached to the rocks or some other hard object.

The first picture above are of a Snowy Egret Breeding Plumage standing in an oyster bed. The second picture is the same as the first with the exception that it is zoomed in on it's feet. Notice the rock. In the third picture you see that it has a rock in its feet. .What this egret was doing was lifting this rock in flight and crashing it onto the oysters to break them opened for a tasty treat

Black Headed Gulls in the pictures above have spring fever, and were doing the courtship dance. In the picture below a couple of loud mouth Crows and two indignant Black Headed Gulls