On this post Im sharing a day when I went to Marion County to fill in the blank county where my bird listing is concerned. Marion is a small county and when I looked at the map to see maybe where I could go to spend a little time, I really saw nothing! No parks, no wildlife areas, no preserves...So I decided to just do some roadside birding. I mapped out a route that would take me on a loop and I could stop and visit the Egret Rookery which is in Marlboro county...I showed you a while back all the Egrets sitting on nests with their beautiful blue eggs...
I could hear the chatter asa I exited the van. A whole bunch of chicks begging to be fed is quite a roar! Not only Great Egrets are nesting here but also Anhinga, Green Heron, Cattle Egret, and more. Since it is private land owned by a hunt club, no one is in residence, but it's marked private keep out...so under the chain I dodged only for 15 mins total. If I had permission to walk down the road or put a small boat in the pond I could see much more.
I knew some of the adults would freak out so I tried to stay low and behind cover, some flushed but some just gave me the weary eye and continued on with tending their nestlings...
They settled nearby to keep an eye on things,
Most nests had more than one chick....this one had 3,
The insistent calling must be exhausting for these little fellows...
But it works! Here comes Dad with a meal! The female stands aside and gives her mate room to feed the chicks...(I don't really know who is dad and who is mom, I'm just guessing)
The chicks grab his face to encourage him to regurge the food he is carrying in his stomach...
This could be a dangerous experience for dad, those little beaks look sharp!
Nesting Spots seemed pretty tight this Cattle Egret is either stealing a nest or building right next door! Reminds me of my van in an empty parking lot...lol
And I had a pretty good look at this nest with 3 Anhinga youngsters, how stunning they look...
Then my 15 mins were up and so I took off...headed to Lake Wallace and had lunch with some more young birds..
Then I drove a few miles to Marion County, I was told by the nosy man who stopped to inquire what was I doing, this was God's Country...but it looked like every other place I see every day to me...
I got a list of about 13 birds, then headed back to Horse Country, where I live! And while I drove I thought about the little chicks just beginning life on this planet and all the challenges they will face, the uncaring person who tosses plastic in the rivers and oceans, the oil spills, the chemical's sprayed by farmers, the uncaring fishermen who leave line all over the place, developers that take away the wetlands these birds need to survive, all the beaches with high rise hotels and luxury homes, surrounded by man made landscapes, and even the Wildlife Preserves are being overseen by a government whose interest is in Oil and Gas and off shore drilling...then I question.humanity..I can't repeat to you how many times I've heard someone say, "Yes there is a God, just look around you..." and my answer to that is...
"I am looking, are they?"
"I am looking, are they?"
PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.
