There is a saying here in the south...If you don't like the weather just wait a minute... notice the difference! ON that day we had the same system that caused the landslides hit here and made everything wet! It poured for about 12 hrs and then the cold front came along and now it's more normal for Jan. Last night 24 and today will be high in 50's that's more our normal for this time of yr...that heat wave lasted one day but it was warm in the house, 70! In fact it got so humid I had to put the AC on for about an hr. And this afternoon, Wednesday as I'm writing this blog to post in 2 days, it is snowing! My house is creaking from all the contraction and expansion!
With the weather being so crazy all my outside projects are in a holding pattern, (i took my dryer apart and it needs to be put back together SOON before I forget what goes where) so I went in search of another bird last Saturday at Parr Reservoir, meeting up with my sis for an afternoon of catching up and scanning a very cold lake...We dipped on the Long Tailed Duck...but we were not the only ones dipping, this guy's boat got away from him and he had to take a dip in the icy water! Really felt sorry for him. Tip: do not launch your boat without a very long tow rope on it!
We had Pied-Billed Grebe, Bufflehead, Double Crested Cormorant, lots of Bonaparte's Gulls...and over on the other side at Lake Monticello 3 Horned Grebes, and lots of American Coots but all pretty distant views so I'll spare you the fuzzy photos...And this.
The VC Summer Nuclear Plant and right next to it the Failed $9 Billion expansion project! Hard working people have been overcharged on their electric bills to help pay for a project that has been ditched after the company went through $9 billion and the project was expected to need an additional $20 BILLION to complete it so the work stopped!! Yet the electric customers are still paying higher rates to the tune of $20 per month for the next 60 yrs! So customers are being charged to pay for something they never received and probably never will. The SC Congress has stepped in and they are trying to help fix this mess but I think they had a lot to do with why it failed in the first place. Electric customers have been promised a $1,000 rebate, but the reason for this failure is just pure greed and mismanagement of the project! It may be up to 8 years before they get those rebates, but 3 execs of the company were paid over $2 million each salary in 2016, as the project was failing they still got bonuses, and stock options!! The management turned in millions of dollars in expense reports that the SCANA refused to accept....like a $14,000 plane ride to pick up papers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that could have been delivered by courier for a few bucks! This is what is wrong in America...one guy walked away with a retirement bundle of over $800,000 a yr plus a $2 million + dollar 401(k)...Okay I don't get it and I never will.
So back to the birds, a report came in for Greater Scaup at the Catawba River dam spillway...(thank you Steve Patterson)
So Tuesday I drove up Hwy 97 N from Camden, SC to Hwy 200 West and the bridge and dam are right there...so I found a spot to park on the other end behind the guard rail and hiked down under the bridge to the water's edge to scan for the birds.
The reflections under the bridge, the coolest thing!!
Right away I saw lots of Double Crested Cormorants and Ring Billed Bulls on the rocks sunning. No that is not white paint! And yet ebird said my count of 200 Cormorant was high....they have never seen these rocks...a couple of birds don't make this much staining. It's heavily used.
Lots of Cormorants periscoping on the surface..
And right out in front of everybody is the small flock of Greater Scaup...Yippie!
Males and females. The book says, look for a rounded head, with a green sheen to the face, a black tip on the bill end, a stocky neck, a cross hatched back, white sides extending to the primaries, and the female has a wide white band above the bill! I'd say this fits that description.
A shaky closeup they are pretty far away...
A lifer and one that has eluded me since my Florida trip in Feb of 2016, so I am really happy to be adding this sighting to my memory, and not just my list!
Back at the van, this Yellow-Rumped Warbler was all over me. Take my picture!! There was 3 others egging him on too.
yellow rumped (myrtle) warbler
Another fun day searching for the jewels in life, and I made a new friend he bellowed out a greeting!
HOWDY!
This post is a little shorter than my normal run off at the keyboard, so I wanted to add this little blurb to point y'all in the direction of this artist...you may already know all about him...Robert Wyland. I like his style, it's big, bold, bright and he has an environmental message of protecting our cherished oceans and ecosystems. His prices are way out of my league, but you can catch him painting on PBS they are now running Wyland's Art Studio series. I can't support him financially but I can spread the word...that there is another message out there coming from better messengers!
PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.
