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.

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.