Lee State Park

June and July HOT, humid, and uneventful.   We locals have to endure it and lacking funds for travel right now we have to make what's close at hand an adventure.  It's been many years since I visited Lee State Park.  We made a fact finding run one day, then my sis and I came back after the holiday to spend some time, hike, picnic, bird, and have a float! There is no admission, and that means the Visitors Center is open for only one hr per day Su-Thur and 11-5 Fri n Sat. 

There is a campground, an equine camp, and a primitive camping area.   The main camp has water n electric and a dump station.  A host was present and those sites are $17 a night, according to the website.  I think you could get a site for one night without a reservation since they have a 2 day limit to make a reservation.  

There is a couple of artesian wells with icy cold water coming out... a great spot to cool off hot feet!

A small wetland is off this short boardwalk we heard common yellow throat singing all around us there...

There is a swimming area and we took a float after a hot walk on the main boardwalk! It is not a long walk, it hooks up with a trail around the ponds also.

Saw the green anole...one of the many lizard species found here

the blue grey gnatcatcher

NO crowds and that is the best part.  The trees are lush and mature this area is a flood plane so a little swampy...and there is def some good birding this Northern Parula came within arms length to check us out.  

A life bird for my sis!  And we both got this county bird the Wood Stork flying up high we spotted 8 all together.

                                                                        

We had a wonderful time and saw 22 species of bird.  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

here is an aside:

There was a notice posted in the ladies room that I thought was very interesting,...it was about a study done in 2014 by the National Audubon Society at the Beidler National Forest, Dorchester County, SC.  That's in the low country of state.  Prothonotary Warblers were fitted with GPS leg bands.  One of the warblers was recaptured and the leg band was still in place and still working.   It had flown through Florida, Cuba, Central America, down the Pacific coast of Colombia and back to Four Holes Swamp — an odyssey of 4,000 miles.  The study found nearly all of the wetlands birds wintered in a relatively small area of coastal mangrove and inland forests in northern Colombia — an area that is being heavily logged.

This is why Protection of land is soooo important!  Mature woodlands are hard to come by anymore...I wish people who have the resources to bring land back to it's native state would do so because if they don't where are these wonderful birds going to live, nest, find food?

A national forest gets logged, the area in Columbia is being logged...this disturbance could cause the demise of many warblers...yes birds adapt but there is a tipping point.  Large areas HAVE to be set aside and left alone!!