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.

Doomsday Prep part 1

Can you believe my town is the epi-center of the outbreak in our state...and no one can figure out the source of the contamination...an elderly lady who had not traveled tested positive and was hospitalized.  And now we have 16 cases in our town...(as of publishing that number has risen to 25 29 45)

So I know you're wondering where is the doomsday prep? Well we stopped at Dollar General and grabbed a 4 roll of Scott toilet paper...JIC.  Now I'm happy we did I went for supplies Wednesday afternoon, and no bread, and no TP on the shelf. 

We went about most other things as usual, but we are avoiding crowds for sure... we're outside and doing what we enjoy! A virus dies once it's outside and can't find a new host to infect so outside is the best place to be! I don't know the shelf life of this CV-19 but getting outside sure can't hurt. 

Saturday we got back on track after we took it a little easier on Friday.  And left right on time for the 3 hour drive to....

We had hopes of seeing something cool...and we did! The best way I could think of to spend a scary day on this Planet is by enjoying this planet. 

 

Wait, what duck is that just poking out of the grass on the left?? It just happens to be one of the ducks my sis wants for her life list the American Black Duck...

Yes! And we were the only ones who listed that one  on that day so I guess no one saw it but us! He was in a good spot to hide in this grass...Anyways it was CONFIRMED by ebird, which is more rare than the sighting.  

Got reptiles?

A Laughing Gull, American Avocets, and Black Bellied Plovers...

It is really beautiful here!  They just opened for the season.  

Bald Eagle

Blue Winged Teal 

tons of shorebirds

immature Little Blue Heron 

We had such fun!  She looks this way I  look that! lol

tons of Dunlin...

We found a Marbled Godwit! Haven't seen one in a long while so this was nice!  

We had rolling in and out clouds but mostly it was sunny!

American Avocet..mirror mirror on the ground... who's the prettiest Avocet around?

Shorebirds!! Galore!!

Greater Yellowlegs 

Blue Crabs!

Another Lunch view! We eat the same thing everyday this way it's simple to figure out what to take! 

 

Glossy Ibis in single file...

Boat Tailed Grackle...on a blue sky.

We had a full day of birding, and great sister conversation!  Sunday we took the day to stay home, took some new flowers to Mom's burial site, and had my son over for "linner".  Caught up on what he is up to...and Monday we were right back out there in Nature Doomsday Prepping!

Yes the Park was Open we were happy to know since everything seems to be coming to a halt all around us.  If you recall the last time we came here we brought Mom with us...*sigh* and she was not herself and asked to go home so we didn't get to do much of the boardwalk loop which is 3 miles.  We were not going to push her for 3 miles, but we took her for a short stroll on the boardwalk, this was her last outing in Nature besides sitting on the porch at home. 

Migration seems to be coming on strong and we had good numbers of the early arrivals...like Northern Parula...I was not lucky with a good photo of one they are normally curious enough to come right down...

But they stayed up against the dull sky we had on Monday.  

It was cold so I was bundled up in layers...no I'm not trying to be weird with my hat on backwards, it's easier to get my binoculars up to my eyes with the brim facing backwards..lol

Hey sis wait up!  The swamp was greener than normal from all the rain we've had...

Hermit Thrush were not scared to come eye to eye with us...Hi there. 

Yet another backpack lunch with sis and a view of Weston Lake from the boardwalk...

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

My feet were hurting by this point as we were on the homestretch of getting back to the Visitors Center.  Of course we stop every other minute so it takes us hours to go 3 miles.  The Carolina Wren enjoyed a frolic  on a mossy log. 

 

We had some beautiful warblers to swoon over like another Yellow-throated Warbler...

So I think I need to chop this post in two, part II will follow in an extra post tomorrow!  With the virus literally breathing down our necks sis made the decision to fly home early before they possibly shut down the airport! They already put in an 11-6 curfew in Columbia, so who knows what is next...stay tuned for part II of our type of Doomsday Prepping. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.