Yesterday and today...

I used to love to sing...I was never particularly good at it, but it sure did make me feel good to try.  So tonight I sang acapella, Memory, from the Broadway musical, CATS,  to my dogs...Im happy they didn't begin to howl...lol  I Love Barbara Streisand's version ...I just don't hear her music much anymore.  

If you're familiar with the play, Grizabella has been ostracized by the fellow cats, And she is lonely and in much sadness.  The play is actually very moving and the costumes are amazing.   I watched a DVD version of the play...If you have never seen it I recommend it.  

Lately I have been going way back in time digging up memories...one line in the song says... "When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too, and a new day will begin." Each day we are creating the past the future is only alive in our thoughts...Actually when you think about it there is only Then and now.  There is NO future!! Wow. 

We definitely had winter this year.  By northern standards it was a cake walk but nothing is colder than a damp cold, the type we had.  So I feel like I've been curled up in a blanket for nearly a month.  Time to uncurl!

First of the year Ring Necked Ducks seen on Monday in a pond by the highway...

Soon enough Im sure I will be complaining about the heat, such is life eh? 

This little White Throated Sparrow will soon be heading back to breeding grounds up north and the birds in the tropics will be moving in here to take their  place...I hope

"It's so easy to leave me all alone with my memories of my days in the sun."

Today it was nice and warm so I took a walk around I haven't been going very far these days, seems Im completely content to just be at home with my simple life.  There was a beautiful crow on the ground this morning..

Then later in the day I had to go out and so I stopped at the Sewage Ponds, one part has been restored to a natural area...So I walked one of the trails around, found this Swamp Sparrow..

Moving  by the cattails lots of Song Sparrow skittered around they don't fly far and sometimes one would perch up to see what all the disturbance is about...

These two birds look  very similar but if you look closely one has streaks and a strong dot on the chest and the other does not.  

When the Sparrows leave and the Summer Tanager and the Flycatchers arrive the heat comes with them...up from the tropics..

 I left the ponds and went by the river to see what was out, a Bald Eagle flew over headed North but too far for a photo so I concentrated on the Double Crested Cormorants swimming and diving in the water.

I'm keeping this short since I posted on Wednesday give you guys a break, and thank you all for your visits.
Have a Happy Valentine's day...eat chocolate, stop and smell the flowers, and feed the birds!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Everything comes in 3's

One thing I'm learning is we must keep our minds and bodies busy to move past tragedy.  I've had 3 straight years of loss, I will say I'm a little bitter about it, but it is something I have to come to terms with somehow....This blog was scheduled to post the day Casey's life ended, so It's getting to be really old news by now.  I am trying to come to grips with not having my little friend, I hear him snoring, and I hear  his nails clicking on the floor, and yet he is not there...he is in my psyche and it's just gonna take time to adjust I still say, "come on you three." That's how I addressed my canine family, not its back to just the two...

 
                                                          My little family of 3

So 3 weeks ago....
GO HOME.....

 That's what the Text I got last Tuesday at 5 PM said! It was sent as an Emergency Alert, like an Amber Alert...it was from the State of SC it said GO HOME, AND STAY THERE, THE STATE IS UNDER A MANDATORY ORDER TO STAY AT HOME.  Can you believe that??   And half the people are walking around with bandanna's covering their lower face...so it looks like Dodge City. (auto fill tried to type banana's covering their lower face)...I think that would be way cooler what say you?

Before we went on lock down....I went here:

That Sunday we were not under any orders so I drove down to Santee NWR the Pine Island Unit, which I had not visited before.   It's a big place and a great place.  It was sort of crowded so I had to cross to the other side of the trail a couple times, and once a dog got after me, it was a Chihuahua so I wasn't scared, but the owner informed me that he thinks (the dog) that I am carrying a stolen backpack...OKAY some human traits do cross to other species.  The thing was the ankle biter made me miss a good Swamp Sparrow shot and honestly should they allow that small dog to run off leash?

this guy is at least 8 maybe 9 ft long he could take out a normal human  a small dog would be no contest...

 There was good birds and lots of walking I put in about 7+ miles mainly because I got on the wrong trail on the way back to the parking area...DUH...I think some signage would be helpful..the handout had a not to scale and completely useless diagram of the trail.

Santee Lake

This could be an Osprey feather...

I took the woods trail in, and got my FOY Prothonotary Warbler along the way...

And before the day was done I had spotted or heard 3 more...

I got very few birds in my viewfinder that day but I had a wonderful hike

 and ended up with 50 species of bird.  There was a large colony of nesting Tree Swallow...so since I have all this time on my hands I put together a quick piece of Media of the Tree Swallows...

Many of them have leg bands Red and White and one other had an aluminum band on one leg...They put out many nest boxes and the Swallows are busy moving in.  I enjoyed a rest by this area where bull frogs were doing what they do and Wood Ducks were nesting one spooked out of a box when I approached she went into panic mode and her partner came to check on her...





There was 3  Common Gallinule in this one area...

This guy decided to drive his boat through a flock of 300 double Crested Cormorants...

Poor things had to fly for their lives...

All in All it was a good day, I ended up meeting a guy whose name I see almost every other day on our Rare Bird Lister...he is #1 in our State according to Species seen, I think I'm 69 At least in the top 100.  Harold is a really nice person, and I remember emailing him once to ask where exactly he found a bird he reported and he gave me exact good directions  and was just really helpful.  That was a long time back and as soon as I saw him on Sunday he right away started sharing what he had found and where on that day.  I really can't deal with snooty birders.  Thankfully he does not fall in that category. 

Anyways as I said I didn't get too many birds in photos this Turkey Vulture allowed a snapshot of his backside.   So you'll be glad to learn I found a short supply of single TP rolls at the IGA limit 4, so I  grabbed up 3 single  rolls.   I think in this time we all need to show some restraint! 

Whats Blooming in the yard??



The knock out roses are opening up...



I have 4 or 5 bearded  iris that will bloom this year, and each one will have 3 or 4 flowers on when they open I hope they will all open together...

These butterfly will enjoy visiting

Red Spotted Purple

Painted Lady

Aquilegia

Black Swallowtail 

Clematis Henryi 

What's blooming in your neck of the woods??
Happy Earth Day and Happy Birthday John. 💙


                                                                   

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Water Water

We just had a gully washer, like 4 inches of rain in 12 hrs.  I was in the middle of trying to do yet another repair to my van.  I had to quickly slam the hood and let it go for the day  but I used the opportunity to run to town and get some parts I need to make this repair.  Good thing my windshield wipers are working good! Did I tell you about the time I was driving in heavy rain and my wiper flew off the car and into the woods?  LoL..that was way back in the 80's but I will never forget that.  Just when you need them Wham gone!


I had to get waterproof boots...

SO the rain stopped and the wind started 40-60 miles per hr for an entire day! A tree nearly hit my mailbox, the trunk missed but the limbs were all around it so I spent the morning sawing it up.  Then the battery died in my chainsaw so I will try to finish it up tomorrow.  It will go to the wood pile.  

One day later this entire park is underwater from the rain upstream 

The new norm...puddles and mud everywhere.  This is the new County River Park.  I put it on the ebird as a hotspot...and now the two other regular county birders are listing from there!  I snagged up 31 species there the other day myself.  

Black berry bushes are already leafing out...briers ready to defend, I notice the Eastern Towhees love to hang out under black berry brambles.  

                                                                red headed woodpecker

And the park staff finally fixed up the new boat location over at the State Park!  NO more wading in mud to get to the boats. 

I plan to rent one and paddle that Canoe Trail this year.  Tried twice last yr and nothing doing as you recall...

So As mentioned above, a day after the rain flooding started...our river the Wateree was 4 ft over flood stage!  I went to one of the spots I like to go called Bucks Creek  Landing, there is a Spillway dam there and GUSH it did!

This structure is normally 8 feet from the bank 

There is an Electric Generating Station at his location...

Normally no water comes over this dam...but the day I was there it was thundering over..

This guard rail of the fishing pier is 4 ft off the ground normally today a Double Crested Cormorant is enjoying having no fishermen in the way...

ebird didn't like it when I said there was 100 Great Egrets but there was...I changed to an X just cause I could not photograph all 100 they were all over the place flying, perching, stabbing at the edge, competing with ring billed gulls for the little "shiners" that slide over the dam with that flood water.  

That was last Sunday ....So I went back on Valentine's Friday to see...

Compare this shot to the one of the Cormorant standing on the fishing pier...above  You can see just how much the water has gone down yet there is still a huge amount thundering over the dam..which normally has no water coming over. 

Still many Great Egrets around I counted 28 just standing around...

As well as many perching birds...like this Carolina Wren..

Ring Billed Gull continue to pick up lots of Shiners...

The other park that was under 4 ft of water is drying out and was reopened.  All the picnic tables and the trash cans are gone probably downstream somewhere...and new Porta Potty's were in place.  I should have taken a photo of the new potty...but I did take this, the trail is in pretty rough shape...big drifts of debris cover it up in some areas.

And the trail Bridge has shifted about 6 ft to the right...and is unsafe to use in it's current condition. 

I found a Wren, not a Carolina, nor a House, so Winter Wren was my best guess that didn't fall into the rare category so I went with that...

That's how I spent my week and then Valentine's Day
it was SUNNY and Beautiful what a Gift!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.