Rain Maker!

This was the fastest September of all! WHAT? it's hot again? Dang we had this short little fall it lasted about 4 days then humid n hot like Summer again...LOL During that short reprieve I was able to paint that metal chair I found and if you wanna see how I did here is a You Tube of that important event..haha!

The birding has been very slow this month..One new bird in my radius birding patch since the Spotted Sandpiper at the beginning of Sept.  So adding 2 is all for this whole month.  I'll save that for the end of this post...We have some activity with our regular birds...

wood duck drake

And this is a heavy crop of a Pileated Woodpecker gliding through the air...how aerodynamic is that?

It's been SO dry when I put the sprinkler on an area of the yard the birds came to take showers

The Northern Mockingbird spread his wings and tail feathers in appreciation of the cool water...

This young Northern Parula looked 3 times normal size all fluffed up and getting as much water as possible, it even tried to catch some drops in an open mouth...

The Eastern Bluebird got in on the action as well...

.     .     .

Today I made my way over to the new park that recently opened up in our county.  I have entered it to ebird and made it into a hotspot..So far I'm the only one birding there.  

It is a riverside county park, and there is this little creek that empties into the river here...birds are active along the banks of this creek.  The only problem is fishermen...and hopefully they will lose interest it's a sloped bank and lots of timber down in this creek...

See what I mean...and it can't be too much fun trying to stand there for a long period and getting your line tangled up so I'm hopeful that they will give up...3 showed up while I was there but they left without fishing! :o)  

Today it was kinda of birdy! A few Early Migrants were around fattening up for the trip.  I got the worst photos I've gotten in longggg time of a Lifer there today!  At least I turned it into one.... a Northern Waterthrush not rare so I doubt it will be reviewed  I see the streaking  all the way up the throat...and the beak is not big...hope it sticks at first I thought I had a Louisiana but when comparing the two I called it Northern. I had other bad photos of it too and those helped me with my conclusion. 

I know fuzzy...

An American Redstart (f) very busy around the mud along the bank...quick as lightening and so acrobatic!  

  

Also had Gray Catbird, Northern Parula, Hairy Woodpecker, and this
warbler sp?

Pink legs, long stout beak, olive/greenish coloring with darker fine streaks on the lower wing , I think I see an eye ring but not sure and the tail seems long for a Connecticut. Ideas?

 

This Eastern Wood Pewee was still for a photo...I think this will be a good spot for Warblers, not in my radius tho.

Tons of Pine Warblers are around..and do you know how many warbler females look a lot like Pine Warblers?  Way more than you can imagine!

check out this cool V formation, you know Geese are not the only species that use this method of travel insurance...

47 Double Crested Cormorants.  

at my hotspot Goodale Park

So I got my 2nd September 5 mile Radius bird complements of an ebird reviewer...I saw what I thought was a Hermit Thrush...I've seen many of them at my Hotspot Goodale Park,  and had one already this year in late spring...and I didn't even give it a thought when I put it in as rare figured it arrived early...But the reviewer said "the eye ring looks buffy more like Swainson's Thrush..Fine by me, caChing! #121

October already?? Wow. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

FALL Equinox

3.2 Billion birds have been lost since 1970, 30% of the bird population in North America gone! Sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, hit the hardest.  Cats kill 2.6 billion a year!! Habitat loss and development is the main problem according to the study.  How depressing...we can each do our best to keep our lands/yards as wild and bird friendly as possible. We are their only hope.  Ordinary citizens making good choices and spending their money with companies that are environmentally friendly is the best solution we have to do what our leaders won't...Green spaces MUST be encouraged, and more citizen ownership of special lands needs to happen! Our Government can't be trusted.

                                   early morning in Mother Nature

I can't recall a more trying week...you ever get the feeling every rock you turn over has an ogre under it? That's been my experience lately.  All I can hear in my head is NO NO NO...I must turn this around to YES YES YES.

                                                      

This is an American Chestnut tree!  The only ones I know of around here!  And the nut is inside this very spiny hull.

I think this is a yellow bellied pond slider....he was one of the few that didn't dive for cover as we drove by him at the refuge on Friday!  

The mist was back at the lake when I checked it this morning...very eerie looking, this photo although it's kind of a cool photo alarmed me a bit that piece of fishing line in the tree was out of my reach I do have a plan to try and get it down tho...because this is a man made hazard for birds!

Notice how a spider used parts of it to support his web.  I couldn't reach it without falling in the water.  But I will bring a long pole with me and get it down.  

the early morning mist really adds some drama 

And the golds of the wildflowers add drama to the ordinary roadside...

And what would we do without Goldenrod?  

I got another stamp in my State Parks book when we visited Little Pee Dee State park in Dillon County.  I really enjoyed this park and want to go back.  In 2016 there was a lot of flooding in our state, And the dam of this lake broke...and this year they reopened the lake after rebuilding the dam...

There is a campground and I forgot to take photos of the campground!  Some nice sites right by the lake, looked awesome i can see myself enjoying that.  We had a refreshing picnic break, it was humid the day we were there that has changed since then we think the humidity is gone, it will be back on Thanksgiving day always is hot and muggy on Thanksgiving.  

looks like a rebuild of the fishing pier too... we had a Solitary Sandpiper down by the spillway area with some Killdeer.  A lifer for Sis...

It threw me because it seemed so much smaller than I normally see them!  

 

And the Green Heron was also playing on the rocks...

The Immature Little Blue Heron with his greenish legs

we added up 7 Little Blue Herons around the lake...

We had Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and Kingfisher on the lake too...

A really curious Summer Tanager female in the trees came to see what all the fuss was about when we phished at a Black n White Warbler.  The Warbler was not still for a photo,,,,so we kept trying to phish him into submission and we also drew the attention of the Yellow-Throated Vireo a lifer for my sis!  And the first time I got a photo of one! 

What an awesome bird!

 

There is even petrified wood here!  

And at least one woodsy rental cabin, pretty cute looking too...

There's trails to hike, the lake to enjoy, a campground, picnic areas, and they will resume boat rentals when some of the vegetation dies off that crowded into the lake when the dam was broken...

im Little Blue Heron

Cloudless Sulphurs

We do want to visit this park again!  It's about 80 miles Northeast of us, and worth the trip! Summer is Over!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

The (Good) Life...

I was aiming the remote at the TV trying to UNMUTE, most of the time I have the sound on mute but if something catches my eye I may want to hear it...pushed and pushed the button, "what's wrong with this thing" I'm asking myself...that's when I noticed I had the remote backwards DUH!! These duh moments seem to come more and more often, and it's unsettling...Life is short.  The good life, even shorter.  With that said...let's get out into reality, the great outdoors, the real good life!

At the lake, I was the only person there, the only car in the lot....the parking area is big enough for about 20 cars maybe more, and yet....when someone else arrived

 

SO close they park?...I like to have space by my side doors, and people crowd up to them...its a pet peeve of mine. I mean we are not worms following a scent trail left by the worm in front of us..are we?  

 

These are Contracted Datana Moth caterpillars and they were in the yard.  Once I looked this up and saw the moth OH YEAH I've seen those moths around.    

The lake is back to full again, I wish they had left the level down a bit cause the birds were closer in for my viewing purposes when it was low...

great egret

I've been going up early because I've been waking up early...like this Great Crested Flycatcher.  

And then sometimes the Early Birder bites off more than she can chew!  Especially when she's wading into the edges of the lake grass for a better view...

OH Awesome: a Pit Viper! Cotton Mouth aka Water Moccasin 

Me: "do not move"
Him: "do not move lady if you want to live,"
he moved first so I went the other way...whew that was close! I'd rather turn around and find a gator than this guy...he slithered off no video of that slither as I made hay the other way! 

Had an Osprey checking things out for a couple days...check those talons!

Woodstorks are around...

Then onto the fields...

Grasshopper time!  I go looking to find some sparrows...nothing new yet on that front. 

Monarch Time, and then....

WOW and on the way home just  4 blocks away BAM...got a photo opt with the Barred Owl, whose feather I found and who flew across my path a couple weeks ago...We introduced ourselves,   

Me: "HI there, I'm into birds"....
Him: "WHO, WHO Cares."  

Well dang! 

Had a Hairy (of the Eastern flavor) Woodpecker up in this pine tree..

I guess these will  be split up at some point, the Rocky Mtn, the Pacific etc...the Eastern has spots on the wings, and wider facial bands and of course the long beak.  This was the species tie breaker that put my hotspot into first place!! Meaning I put my Hotspot into top ranking in my county with my birding effort this year.

Stood under this Brown Thrasher  for an hour as I was hiding to check out the little pond at the Racetrack...

Watched this Northern Harrier swoop over the Killdeer and scare them he wasn't after them tho he actually tried to scoop a frog out of the water with his talons!  

We have had some really high humidity since Dorian came close by...

And then overnight as it cools down we get heavy FOG! Could barely see a thing...at my midweek lake check

Not exactly good birding weather...

this is the sun reflecting on the water but you can barely see the sun up in the sky...

Let there be Grasshoppers!   And then there is the Kestrel on the wire making sure there is not too many grasshoppers.  

I hope the yellow billed cuckoo has a place to land when he migrates to South America...

So I've found a little bits of the good life in my little corner of the globe...Hope you have some good life moments in yours!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.