Bear Island Life...

I wanted to get to Bear Island before all the waterfowl left but I almost got there too late.  

I remember a few picnics shared at this table with Mom...:o)

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I did not see the large rafts of shovelers and teals that I normally see there I think the cold front that crippled TX and was not too pleasant here either sent them farther NORTH for a couple days but I had a great day trip last Saturday, puffy white clouds all over the place and the wind was not a factor, it was good!!

There was a huge flock of shorebirds, too far out to even use the scope to see. a few came closer, this batch mostly Lesser and a Greater yellowlegs...

I made out Dunlin, Avocet, more Yellowlegs, Black Bellied Plover, but the little ones, not sure some other birders turned in Stilt Sandpiper, and Least Sandpiper, Long and Short-billed Dowitcher and Im sure all of that and more was in this mix. 

wayyyy out there...

can you see the cloud of shorebirds flying in the background on this shot?  They look like some white specks on my photo just at the line of the marsh grass.  

There was a flock of about 65 Tundra Swan...

and a Pied Billed Grebe for scale.

This is the typical habitat here....lots of marsh, ecologically it is an estuary 

Forester's Terns all over the sky...

And Bonaparte's Gulls standing by to take flight...

Saw a pair of American Black Duck...they still make the rare list although I see them regularly here just not in large numbers. 

Hard to distinguish from Mottled duck...but the dark body is what I look for and the bill is more greenish/yellow instead of Orange.  This is the male in the foreground  and I assume that is the female with him. I can't tell them apart. 

the trails here were muddy and some of the roads were closed so we had to walk where normally you could drive....

This is not one of the driving trails tho you always have to walk this its' a dyke between 2 ponds, these are old Rice Trunk fields...I saw a lot of White Ibis out there plunging their whole head below water, the level is a bit  higher than they like I imagine...

Some of the younger ones still in immature plumage, 

Along with this group was one really energetic Tri-Colored Heron.  He was dancing all over the place reminded of the Reddish Egret I never see anymore...

This Snowy Egret kept getting his feet entangled in stuff so he would hold it up and shake it free...

Check this out...lol 

I can't think of a bird whose call I enjoy more than the Boat Tailed Grackle...maybe the Great Tailed Grackle is greater but it's such a story to hear!

https://ebird.org/profile/MzA2Njg4/world
 
I recorded it's call...so take a listen, most of you are probably familiar with it...

Other forest dwelling birds were around like this Eastern Towhee...he looked at me like he had just seen the creature from the black lagoon or a Martian,  imagine being a bird spending your whole life back in a forest an then there it is....This "thing" standing upright and moving along the ground, then suddenly it "spoke" its like hell rained down upon this little bird look at the shock in those eyes. 

There is both red and yellow eyed variety of this bird...and I must of put my binoculars up to my eyes a million times to view all the Yellow-Rumped Warblers of the Myrtle variety.

Haha  Made you Look!!

count=X--- beyond my skill set

And the ground was covered in American Robins, pulling juicy worms out of the saturated ground...

I am seeing more butterflies lately...the sun brings me out and apparently them also...

Red Admiral 


One pond had a lot of Ruddy Duck present with a few Blue Winged Teal mixed in...

1,2,3,4.....Pretty far out but I came up with 50ish

The Highlight of the day came at Lunch Time...

I decided to eat  lunch in the van and at the same time hold a stake out to keep watch over   this man made marvel of a nesting box...kinda like Elliott and Oliva in Law n Order.  Only I didn't have one of those fake cups of coffee, I had a Vegan cheese sandwich and a one of those new fizzy drinks you know full of Carbon Dioxide!! Good grief. So on stake out I talk to myself, and I sing, and I make sounds to pass the time...

Its on an  iron post about 15-20 ft off the ground...I didnt get a wide shot of the thing, realized that would have made sense, but I got this shot...of my stake out residence...

tic-tok tic-tok-tic-tok 

I ate my sandwich and waited, and then ate my apple, and waited, I ate my salty nut and caramel bar,  and  I chatted with a few people who stopped by to have a look, but they gave up...I began to hoot like an OWL....and 45 Minutes later this appeared....

HELLO THERE,,,

Bingo MY lifer Barn OWL...finally.  And he/she took several peeky looks at me, and I was stoked to say the least.  It had been reported so I was happy to see it still in this box.   My mom used to say "you mean you drove me miles here to see a bird somebody said was in this spot a week ago?"  She never understood why I was so naive....lol

What a face eh?? I downloaded some plans for a nest box, these owls will also use them as a nightly roosting box year round.  

So that was my adventure on Saturday Feb 20th.  Hope the end of Feb will mark the end of winter, its Friday and almost another week has passed, we had several good days but the rain is returning  today Feb 26th.  Ive got a couple more adventures up my sleeve to report on so stay tuned..one more Owl Peek....

Ciao!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

A very Blustery Day...

Im continuing to unearth many of my old post photos and made a wee bit of progress...It's a way to deal with the combo rainy weather and cold air.  Texas is under a deep freeze we just dodged the bullet on that one, our temps hung at a balmy 39F while they got the icy cold temp drop and it sent them straight to hell no power, frozen water, slick treacherous roads. But for the grace, there go I...so I must not complain because you guessed it, could be WORSE. 

What it does mean is I have been housebound for 5 straight days!  I birded from the back porch trying to photograph rare birds, at least now they are rare; 8 days ago they were not...and even with clear photos no confirmation from ebird, yet lists with no photos confirmed.  Are US Senators now ebird reviewers? 

it was taken thru the screen wire and the pouring rain but you can clearly see what it is.  

Any reason for not confirming this as 2 Purple Finch has no merit.  So the Purple Finch and Pine Siskin, didn't get the memo to leave on time.  Probably due to the cold wet weather, they said no thank you to heading north and who can blame them?  On the 6th day I drove.  Finally this happened...

clouds lining up to get the heck outta here,,,

My favorite Vernal Pool took a beating when the owner decided to cut down and bush hog the edges...there used to be trees all along that far side, now gone....don't think the Green Herons that nested there last season will appreciate that but a couple of killdeer did...

 We are now promised 4 days of sunshine, if we don't get it well lets just say the local tv weather guy is gonna be getting a lot of hate mail...lol "do something" well the thing is we need to stop calling it global warming, and just call it weather change.  The birds don't leave, the sun don't shine, and the deep South freezes.  Is it possible we are in a cycle that is taking us to a new Ice Age?  It is highly possible, since in 2012 we finished up a 26,000 yr cycle.  We are clueless about what could be on the horizon.  

a farm field, full of water...

Then the wind blew HARD and it pushed those clouds outta here!! 

                                   share croppers cabin Lee Co, SC

The flashing yellow light town of Patrick, SC. along my route today...under a chilly blue sky. They have a cell tower!

Since the wind was not going to allow me to scan trees looking for birds, scanning water may be easier was my thinking so I went back to Paul Wallace Lake, 

A brisk wind continues...so I parked right here and opened up my lunch pak and had snack...I arrived just before noon, after the snack I went for a walk, before the chill drove me back to the van to warm up I found a few things to report...

One was a Yellow Rump pumping this tail?  NO It's a Palm Warbler, FOY on that one...

This Mallard Female, showed me  her pretty eye,

T his Ring Bill Gull was not flying he was riding a current in the air...

After this I moved the van to the other side of the lake, just in time to see a huge flock of Common Grackle fly over...

Hundreds of birds....

Then my attention went to the water Ring Necked Duck still around,  

I spotted an otter about that time one quick look and he was gone, I could not relocate him in this choppy water...got one really awful photo of him when he gulped down some air before diving...

The lake was also full of American Coots 

And more Bufflehead than my last trip...this one allowed me to get close...

On the way home I stopped at the site of Dizzy Gillespie's boyhood home...the house is gone so it's like a small park surrounded by small humble homes...he was born in this town of Cheraw, pronounced Sure-Raw. 

 Standing water so I didn't walk around and  get my feet wet. I will stop again on a dryer day. 

Back toward home I stopped to show you the Great Pee Dee river in flood stage...

for your viewing pleasure...

And a Kestrel on the wire is always fun the wind had his feathers in a ruffle. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.