Friday, November 19, 2021

State Line Fields

 I took a drive to a neighboring area to visit, some  large FIELDS.


When I go anywhere it's never to a mall, a restaurant, a movie, or a grand opening, 
its either a cemetery, a sewage pond,  a corn field,  a rocky shore line, a salt marsh,  or a swamp...


On This day It was a huge wide open field, where people had been reporting the American Golden Plover.  I had not seen an A. Golden since the late 90's on a sod farm Southwest of me, so I figured it was time to see them again.    The fields were huge,  I had my scope if I needed it,  but they ended up being about 90 ft from the road so I saw them with my binoculars and I counted 18 birds but could only get a group shot of 14 so I went with a count of 14 to be safe,  a Northern Harrier scattered them after I had about 20 minutes to try for photos.  





This is a heavy crop of  4 of them grouped together, you want to look for wingtips that extend well beyond the tail, and a broad white line above the eye and in breeding plumage  that line in the male becomes almost a large backwards S down the neck and onto the chest. This is non breeding plumage birds.  This is the closest shot I got, the wind just wouldn't allow me to get a sharp focus...


You can see the big dark eyes,  I enjoyed being out in the open without trees blocking my view....



It's only a 44 minute drive, and the dirt road passes over into North Carolina...here is where I crossed the State Line..


  
Some others saw lots of Horned Lark also, I didn't see a single one! These fields were huge...I did see Some White Throated Sparrow, 


Eastern Towhee, 



And the Savannah Sparrow, 



Several  Song Sparrow 


And about 21 species all together It was a good day for a drive in the country. 


that was earlier in the week....

Today I took the painted rock up to Mary's Hill...the rock I chose is one I brought with me from Colorado, it's a very 3 dimensional rock...


This is the south end of the rock 

The view today was very nice as the last of the fall color is still hanging on the trees down the slope...


On the upper part of the rock I painted in a rainbow, 


A little hard to see I sprayed it with some gloss Finish to protect the paint so hopefully it won't fade off too fast....there's some trees, a pond, and some flowers on the rock, it's a landscape of what we always enjoyed about  the trips we made to Sandhills thru the years...

I placed it at the foot of this tall pine that over looks the hill..on the upper side of the dirt road...


See the one in  center with a long limb pointing down to the right...


And here it is....

The really special thing is as I started out this morning to drive over, a dark cloud came up fast and it began to sprinkle and I had to turn on the wipers for a few minutes then this came out...


That is the one and only rainbow I've seen all year long...
I took it as a HUG....


Hope you all have a fine Thanksgiving if you're celebrating.  

PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.

8 comments:

  1. Hello,
    Great sight of the Golden Plovers, they are cute. What a wonderful outing and great birds sighted. The painted rock is pretty, a lovely tribute. The rainbow is like a hug, timing was perfect. Have a great day!

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    1. Hi Eileen, thank you much, I hadn't seen Am. Golden since 1994 so I was time to see them again. I wish I could have gotten better photos but the wind was blowing pretty hard. I really enjoyed placing the rock, Mom's passed 2 yrs ago on the 12th.

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  2. I'm happy you found your Golden. Seems you had another nice week of exploring and I love that you still have fall colors going on. Leaving that lovely painted rock in memory of your mom was a beautiful way to remember your trips together to her favorite place.

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    1. Hi Jo, I was happy the Plovers were within range so I found them right away...its good to know they are still around as they are listed by the ABA as declining. I hope the rock has a long life up on the hill...of course I will check it each time Im up there the FS people close that area certain times of the year so I won't always be able to go up. When the gates is closed the area is generally closed to public entrance. But they always reopen it. Have a great weekend.

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  3. At first glance the painted rock looks like the Globe. Do you think it will get picked up by someone. If so it would be interesting to follow its travels.

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    1. I wanted a smoother, flater rock but just didn't have one like that i n my collection. I hope no one removes it, not many people go into that area on foot maybe the FS people when they do the prescribed burns, most people drive thru...I hope you are doing well Dave, enjoy the weekend.

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  4. What a perfect post!! You found so many wonderful birds on that one day! And your art is so fun but I am not sure I would have been able to release that painted rock into the wild! And of course the rainbow was a perfect ending to the post as ilt was for your day!!! Havea happy non-traditional Thanksgiving (which is what we're doing do).

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    1. HI Sallie, thank you lots!! I will be keeping my eye on the rock, its part of my healing to set free the spirit Im trying so hard to hold onto...I always have the love in my heart for sure. Its been a tough fall for finding birds around here so glad I found some there. TC.

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