March Madness?

I have a lot of  clean winter up I need to be doing but I just keep going out and checking the trees for birds instead.  Tomorrow I may try to get a start on it.

Saturday of last week I finally made it to Sandhills.  I spent the majority of my time at Lake Bee Picnic Area where the lake has just been refilled a few months back and the little wetland  the water flows through on it's way out of the lake is open to the public again. 

OUT of all the habitat types I love wetlands the most! Because the diversity is unmatched!

The other end  has a highway running thru it so that is a huge negative, but it still has great potential.   I ran into several Swamp Sparrow...

You can just see the road that crosses this wetland...Once the trees green up the critters will have more cover and privacy.  Fortunately after the water passes under the highway it goes into the Wildlife Refuge where it flows into another small pond.,,and then it goes on and flows into what they call Pool D, 

Up by the picnic area are very tall Long Leaf Pine, and I found three of the rare Red Cockaded Woodpeckers,  pecking away and getting bugs out from under the bark. The males do have a little red spot on the top of the head which is rarely seen...

Glad to know the numbers are increasing all over our state...Thanks to some proper forestry management.   They nest in mature long leaf pine. 

On the way out of the Park I stopped at Pool D another of my favorite spots, and glad I stopped there I found a River Otter.  

He hissed at me....

Sunday it rained all day...so I did some window birding...A couple of the large Pileated Woodpeckers burrowed into the bark in the big pine in the frontyard...

Cousin to the Ivory Billed Woodpecker that is thought to be extinct now...there is some controversary about that.  If you ever see one of these with BIG white Wing patches, and a white bill, you have seen a bird thought to be extinct.  

And a Golden Crowned Kinglet was  soaked by the rain...but still managed to throw up his golden crown..

Monday was blue and pretty again and a flock of Cedar Waxwing came into the yard...they are amazing to watch..

These are the first I've seen in a long time!

 later I checked a couple of nearby Hotspots...Bluebirds are ready to get their families started...they make good use of the picnic tables At Goodale State Park,  to perch on while looking for insects.  

And the Yellow Rump Warbler (Myrtle variety) is a bird I will  see many times this breeding season...they are such great insect hunters! Here he tries very hard to blend in with this fading piece of mistletoe..

After that stop I headed to Bramblewood with some take out! I don't normal partake but I was starved so I got some junk food...sat n my van out of the wind and gobbled it up then checked out what was going on...The Geese are staking out good spots...

Tuesday I stayed home....got busy picking up lots of  sticks and such in the back which is a  wooded area, sort of the dogs play area,  I try to keep it picked up of all the big stuff...I don't mind the cones on the ground but sticks they can get tangled up in I try to keep picked up...So while I was in the yard I spotted the first Purple Finch of the year on the feeder.   

She had me wondering for a while if she could be a Rose Breasted Grosbeak, which sometimes do stop by but I couldn't pin it down and went with the safe bet, the reason I questioned  it at all was in one shot I got she had a yellow tinge to her throat.  I cropped this so the yellow can be seen...she has a sunflower seed in her beak...so looks a little weird, 

 either way she is a stunning bird. 

Wednesday I combined some chores with some birding...I had to empty my trailer of the sticks and such so I stopped at the recycle center to do that...

I decided to take up a challenge given by a Youtube channel I follow called Badgerland Birding.   Its a March Madness challenge and they tossed out 3 species for us to find...each participant is entered to win a prize, we don't know nor do we care what the prize is, we just love the challenge...SO in my region the 3 birds I have to find are the Song Sparrow, an Eastern Meadowlark, and a Northern Shoveler.  

I found my Song Sparrow right away...at Bramblewood ponds,..I have had better shots of a Song Sparrow but this is THE one I found for the challenge...

I had only just heard a Meadowlark on March 1st.  The challenge is to see or hear each bird beginning March 1st at 12 am to March 31st Midnight...so technically I got the Meadowlark...but I really want to SEE it as well.   I didn't hear about the challenge till that night of the 1st when I watched the video...so I just heard an Eastern Meadowlark singing and  marked it down on an accidental birding list when I dropped off the first load of trailer limbs on Tuesday...morning.  So according to the rules I did get it...BUT Im trying to see and photo one if possible and I have plenty o time to get it done.  

While looking I found a bird I don't see too often An English House Sparrow..

Seems they are nest building up in this piece of electrical equipment

I hope this was a good choice for them...

Also found another European bird, the Starling.  They are nest building up in the belly of this F- 4C Phantom Fighter Jet from the Vietnam era on display at our small air field..

Rocket bird!

On the day I was looking for the Meadowlarks, I didn't see one...I checked another spot where I normally find them but didn't see any there either-- saw a ton of Brown Headed Cowbird instead...

Such a lovely bird! So here it is Friday and I have more yard work to do it's supposed to be windy today so a good day to tackle more stick pick ups...and we'll see what the weekend holds for me, come my next post...HOPE all of you are happy n healthy and ready to enjoy the Month of March...madness and all..


Russia PLEASE  just stop!!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

2022 What Kind of Year will it be?

Monday there was an 3.3 Earthquake in our area...and that is the 10th quake we have had since Nov of this year...this epicenter was about 18 miles away from my house....In 1886 in the month of August a Quake destroyed Charleston, SC and killed 60 people.  They estimate it was a 6.9-7.3 in strength....the shock wave was felt as far away as Boston, Mass. 

I want to do a time lapse something I haven't tried yet, so soon I want to make one.

Tonight we have a red sky...and it seems peaceful.  I have felt quakes before and it normally sounds and feels like a big truck going by and vibrating the house...I did not feel the one today as I had just arrived at home from a day out and about but I had been much closer to the epi center earlier in the day by the river...

Anyways...one never knows what Mother nature has in store for us.  

Here's our State Bird, the Carolina Wren. My New Yrs Resolution is to use less plastic packaging in the future...starting NOW...I use as little as possible but there is a lot of room for improvement..

Like buying my vegs in bulk that is not prepackaged...BUT don't reach for that thin film...some stores recycle it but most don't bring your own paper "lunch" bag to put your fresh produce in...and if it's gonna be something heavy get some Paper grocery bags at the entrance to the store or bring your own to reuse from home.  AND do reuse your shopping bags or bring your own..

The bulk laundry det. in plastic jugs,...or those pops in plastic wrap just don't buy it you can still buy detergent in a cardboard box...that is bio-degradable, and sustainable,  and most of the time recyclable. You can premix in water to be sure its dissolved prior to adding it to the tub of your washer....AND there's other alternatives online the little sheet that you simply toss in very little packaging involved but it's pricey.  

...a young Buck was hanging out behind the fence on Christmas Day...

This  really fine White Throated Sparrow paused from his work of seed picking...

 ...and a Golden Crowned Kinglet showed off his gold crest but moved...

I have enjoyed the ease of the steam in the bag, but Im not doing that anymore...I will buy fresh and steam it the old fashioned way....
Some products I eat like Veggie Sausage comes  in those NOT recyclable zip top bags, I plan to phase that out and find my own recipe for making my own veggie sausage veggie burgers, etc.  

the Kinglet liked the sound of my camera as it tried to focus on him...

Lake Bee has been closed for over a year so they finally opened it back up and put in a brand new deck. They put in a new dam overflow, made repairs to the earthen dam, repaired the shoreline, and tore down the old deck.   The old deck was made of that composite stuff it did NOT hold up....and they closed it for a year before giving up on it....

I was glad to see the area open again I was able to walk back to the wetland where there is/was a small beaver dam...I want to stop in the HQ one day and ask about their policy on Beaver, because I see signs of beaver, 
 then I see signs of disturbance of their dams also....

Are they welcomed or not is my question? 

We had a wide variety of weather events this week and today it's raining, I saw this Red Shouldered Hawk in one of the trees so snapped this window shot...he didn't sit long, by the time I jockeyed for a better look he was gone...

I hope everyone has a peaceful New Years Eve and Day.

2022,  sounds like it came out of a Sci-Fi story but it's for real.  Sometimes it feels like we are living in a sci-fi story, if only we could see into the future.

We can plan, we can prepare, we can try, and we can do our very best and at the end of the day we have to accept the reality of the choices we make across the board. 

Happy New Year and may we each have Many More!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Slow week...

I don't have much this week as it turned really cold! 

I did finish getting my belonging back in the van...I had the brakes and bearings done but I still hear the sound...so looks like more repairs are in my future...

It's good to have brakes not grinding...

I did not get out much for birding or hiking, I stopped at the  park nearby to do a sweep of the lake for ducks...saw none tho...

No one was around, this photo doesn't tell you just how cold it was that's why I was the only one there...several Golden Crowned Kinglets greeted me.

And an American Crow...

As well as some Chipping Sparrows...a flock of about 50 scattered as I drove by....this is the time of year we have more sparrows around...

And an Eastern Bluebird....

I always thought this was a result of pollution..,but it's actually the surface of the water  has a lot of air, 

This water flows over the spillway of the lake, I guess the air is introduced at that point and the foam develops and it collects up against this log...

I am now already busy on another project..it involves this large tube..

 

That's all I have this week, we had some rain, then the cold and I spent one entire day dealing with the garage visit, and then another one getting my wood box replenished and another running errands, and before I knew what was happening an entire week was over. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.