An Early Christmas Goose!

My sis invited me up to her home in the upstate region of SC, the foothills of the Blue Ridge, the Appalachians, and the Saluda Mountains! You may have never heard of that range before..so I linked it up with Wikipedia if you're curious.  

Friday I left home pretty early for the 3 hr drive.    

I've had my eye on the ebird state rarities list for over a week as 2 Ross Goose have been hanging out on this cattle farm.   I was about to just make the jump and drive the 3 hrs and hope they were still hanging around when sis called and asked if I was interested in coming up..Perfect!! She lives about 40 miles from the cattle farm! 

The cows!

The geese had been seen near the watering ponds and a few reported them across the road in a big grassy field...so I scanned the pond area when I arrived.  

And there they were you can just barely see them in this shot here it is closer...

The fence doesn't allow me to get any closer and It's not a good idea to go tromping around on a guy's farm so I mostly stayed in my vehicle and checked through the open window...I did get out and try to get a closer shot...

The Ross Goose is much like the snow goose  one other birder later recorded 4 Snow Geese up high on the hill, I didn't see any I had hoped for a State sighting but didn't get it. In comparison the Ross are smaller, they have a shorter beak, they don't have the black toothed "grin" look of the snow goose.  So a good ID marker is to look at the beak, and the smaller size.  

HOW awesome is it that they decided to come within a 40 minute drive of sis's house?  They breed in the central Arctic...and normally winter in California! Don't you love it when the birds come to YOU instead of you having to go where they live?  That's #413! I'm on my way to 500 by the end of 2018! It could happen...87 to go? Anything is possible. 

Here is my list if you're interested in what else I saw at the farm...

Later we headed downtown it was so mild we had a nice dinner then walked around town enjoying the Holiday Lights and meeting some really friendly people who were out doing the same.  Greenville, SC is in the top 10 list of small city downtowns.  Since it was dark it was hard to get any photos of the waterfalls in town...so here is a photo from one of my previous visits to the Reedy River Park,,,,it is super lovely at night since they have Holiday lighting up now...so very nice with reflections in the water...something you just have to see with your own eyes. 

                                                          2006 Reedy River Falls 

We had Italian for dinner, then visited some of the shops...one of the Landmark stores is the Old General Store, c-1883.  All sorts of cool stuff! 

                                                                   We got there early 

the Dark Corner Distillery...you can sample Moonshine and other spirits...

The Nutcracker Ballet was going on in the Peace Center.

The General Store 

I forgot my camera so these photos are from my sis's phone.   

We walked till our feet had enough and then headed home..after a Fancy Coffee Treat and even the Grinch was in a good mood...lots of plans for our second day.

CHEESE...only we yelled  Merry Christmas. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Travels Upstate-

Indy and I ran into this goose checking out his reflection in the water...when we went to Paris Mt. State Park for our walk today. Im upstate in Greenville, SC house/dog sitting for my sis again..she is in Sedona getting her batteries recharged for 6 days...so Im in a new location close to the mountains for a week...

Indy is a big mix of Lab and Chow. She is a sweetheart...but she weights in at 106 lbs...I didnt realize that her size makes most people afraid! Nearly everyone we passed I heard them mumble "what a big dog" as we went past...I never thought of Indy as anything but a sweetheart..but I can see how if you are not around dogs one her size could be scary...She never hurt a fly tho...

she likes to take a dip too...here she is checking out the kayaks

The she got a drink of water....

The spillway is pretty cool over the old damn that keeps Lake Placid in its banks,..

There is a beaver at work here too...he has moved his lodge farther up in the stream now and we didnt see him today...

This little girl was having a blast riding on the back of the paddle boat...and let me tell you that water is COLD..but people were swimming today---personally to me the water is not warm enough till labor day!

Indy disagrees with me...she was in and out of the water--and lay down in it, and just had a blast...Tomorrow I hope to drive up into the mountains and visit some waterfalls!!