Visiting Phinizy Swamp Nature Park, Ga.
Phinizy Swamp Nature Park, along with the Phinizy Swamp Wildlife Management Area, has been designated an “Important Bird Area” by the Audubon Society.
Based on this information, I drove there to visit the site (31/2 hours drive one way for me) The Nature Park is located not very far from the city of Augusta and very close to the border with South Carolina.
All swamps of Georgia have a certain rough beauty that fascinate me. Let me describe them: It is a tangle of many kinds of plants, bushes, trees, aquatic plants, moss etc. All are mixed together at random but when looking at the landscape is perfect as is! Is a paradox. Despite the complexity and disarray, all components harmonize into a beautiful natural site.
One thing I notice and didn’t like was the lack of maintenance the trails had many spots with garbage left by visitors. Funny thing is that I saw garbage bins at different places along trails. I guess some visitors don’t care much about cleaning. I also saw several fallen trees across the trails that don’t look that fell recently. Part of trails have a boardwalk, here too I saw sections of the boardwalk broken down and out of alignment.
The park has several small fishing ponds, they look fine. I was expecting to see hundreds of birds but I felt disappointed not to find many!
One of the main bodies of water is fenced I believe is called the Beaver Dam reservoir. This fence goes all around the pond and that makes it hard for photographers to get a good shot at the wading birds foraging at the marshes.
I hiked around looking for anything that move, after a while I saw a few warblers but had no chance to take even one shot because they hide quickly in the dense foliage. I could hear the loud pecking of the woodpecker but I couldn’t see one! I think that maybe is the wrong time of the season. I’m sure that the swamp is the perfect habitat for many types of birds. I wasn’t lucky to find many birds. Shot some pictures of egrets, that’s it!
My opinion is that this swamp is beautiful but not such a great place for birding. At least the day I went!
All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian101
H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 
I did not know about this swamp, so I enjoyed reading your description and seeing the landscape and egret photos. I love swamps too. So mysterious and full of texture! I’m sorry about the disappointment of not finding a variety of birds. The Audubon Society information must be outdated!
Thank you for your kind comment. I’m inclined to think that it wasn’t the right time of the year to visit that swamp.