Enchanting October...

Lately I have been very busy with homestead chores and spent little time with my camera...So this post has only a few enchanting bits...to share.
I visited the cemetery to  photo some new graves that need to be added to Find a Grave, it's good to have decent weather to do that in.  When Im there I normally do run into Killdeer...it's hard to find shade in an open landscape. 

But they are very enterprising, some non descript weeds give life to a Wooly Bugger or better know as a Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar. 

In the yard a Brown Thrasher stopped to do some feather dusting on this limb...

One female Hummingbird is hanging here...so the feeder is still up...and this well worn Red Spotted Purple  took advantage...

Im harvesting the Cilantro now a pinch at a time to spice up my meals Great window ledge herb.

I cooked a  birthday eve meal for one, homemade potato salad and vegan cornbread! I used coconut milk and veggie oil as the binder, with yellow corn meal and some flour...and I enjoy  savor seasoning...a few cilantro leaves on top of the salad...

And in the background is a Cake topped with some chocolate chips, and it is pretty darn tasty!  The cast iron adds a delicious crust to the bottom.

On my birthday I had a wonderful Skype chat with  my lovely sisters, that was the Best time I've had in months...and that afternoon my Son shared  pizza and beer with me, so I was a happy Birthday Girl...

And this answered a puzzle I had seen a large "scat" in the road filled with permission seeds, and I thought coyote, possibly, last evening I went out with the girls I have to make sure Floss doesn't go out and just lay down and not take care of her bathroom chores, since she has really grown weak in her back legs, So we heard some wild cackling calls...and today we had this visitor to our field..

A Gray Fox

She ate some persimmons and then went on her way...I don't know how she is getting in the field?  I must walk the fence...

Sure is a beauty

I waited all summer for this Zinna to bloom... and it opened on my birthday....well worth the wait..

HeLLO pretty orange just right for Halloween--- I will enjoy it till frost.  Time has accelerated. 

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.
*   *   *

From October, Robert Frost

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

FALL Equinox

3.2 Billion birds have been lost since 1970, 30% of the bird population in North America gone! Sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, hit the hardest.  Cats kill 2.6 billion a year!! Habitat loss and development is the main problem according to the study.  How depressing...we can each do our best to keep our lands/yards as wild and bird friendly as possible. We are their only hope.  Ordinary citizens making good choices and spending their money with companies that are environmentally friendly is the best solution we have to do what our leaders won't...Green spaces MUST be encouraged, and more citizen ownership of special lands needs to happen! Our Government can't be trusted.

                                   early morning in Mother Nature

I can't recall a more trying week...you ever get the feeling every rock you turn over has an ogre under it? That's been my experience lately.  All I can hear in my head is NO NO NO...I must turn this around to YES YES YES.

                                                      

This is an American Chestnut tree!  The only ones I know of around here!  And the nut is inside this very spiny hull.

I think this is a yellow bellied pond slider....he was one of the few that didn't dive for cover as we drove by him at the refuge on Friday!  

The mist was back at the lake when I checked it this morning...very eerie looking, this photo although it's kind of a cool photo alarmed me a bit that piece of fishing line in the tree was out of my reach I do have a plan to try and get it down tho...because this is a man made hazard for birds!

Notice how a spider used parts of it to support his web.  I couldn't reach it without falling in the water.  But I will bring a long pole with me and get it down.  

the early morning mist really adds some drama 

And the golds of the wildflowers add drama to the ordinary roadside...

And what would we do without Goldenrod?  

I got another stamp in my State Parks book when we visited Little Pee Dee State park in Dillon County.  I really enjoyed this park and want to go back.  In 2016 there was a lot of flooding in our state, And the dam of this lake broke...and this year they reopened the lake after rebuilding the dam...

There is a campground and I forgot to take photos of the campground!  Some nice sites right by the lake, looked awesome i can see myself enjoying that.  We had a refreshing picnic break, it was humid the day we were there that has changed since then we think the humidity is gone, it will be back on Thanksgiving day always is hot and muggy on Thanksgiving.  

looks like a rebuild of the fishing pier too... we had a Solitary Sandpiper down by the spillway area with some Killdeer.  A lifer for Sis...

It threw me because it seemed so much smaller than I normally see them!  

 

And the Green Heron was also playing on the rocks...

The Immature Little Blue Heron with his greenish legs

we added up 7 Little Blue Herons around the lake...

We had Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and Kingfisher on the lake too...

A really curious Summer Tanager female in the trees came to see what all the fuss was about when we phished at a Black n White Warbler.  The Warbler was not still for a photo,,,,so we kept trying to phish him into submission and we also drew the attention of the Yellow-Throated Vireo a lifer for my sis!  And the first time I got a photo of one! 

What an awesome bird!

 

There is even petrified wood here!  

And at least one woodsy rental cabin, pretty cute looking too...

There's trails to hike, the lake to enjoy, a campground, picnic areas, and they will resume boat rentals when some of the vegetation dies off that crowded into the lake when the dam was broken...

im Little Blue Heron

Cloudless Sulphurs

We do want to visit this park again!  It's about 80 miles Northeast of us, and worth the trip! Summer is Over!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

DO-OVER

If you recall our kayak paddle on the nearby Goodale State Park lake a couple weeks back was interrupted with a deluge...so we had to get outta there fast or be swamped with water in our crafts...so we got an opportunity to go back last weekend. 

                                                                  calm waters no rain

Wouldn't you know it was the same time Hurricane Dorian was hitting the Bahamas and predicted to come to our area so the State Park officials decided to lower the levels of the park lakes including ours!  So on That Friday the lake level had already been lowered by 2 and 1/2 feet! See the water level mark here on these Cyprus trees

But notice all the white dots in the trees!! Great Egrets, immature Little Blues, Wood Stork,  all dotting the trees as the lake grew smaller.  

white ibis 

A drained pond leaves MUD and lots of it, so we dragged our kayaks in this manner to the pond...this is not us but some other strong women who would not take mud for an answer...

immature little blue heron 

great egrets and wood storks 

imm. little blue herons 

anhinga 

Other wildlife was puzzled and on the move as the water level continued to drop...this American Alligator was seeking deeper water...

great egret 

This combo includes 2 Great Egret, one Wood Stork, and the tiny guy just barely in the shot lower left of center, a Spotted Sandpiper!

....and this Least Sandpiper hangs with a flock of Killdeer..

killdeer 

We continued to see the lake bottom, and so we made the decision to get out of the lake before the shoreline receded more...

SO it was a challenge getting our boats of the water and back on the boat racks, this is as Sis noted a self service place! They unlock it for you and that's it, you have to get it off the rack, launch it, bring it in put it back on the rack and lock it up...We would love to go again, hopefully under ideal paddling conditions! 3rd times a charm right?

Our Summer birding season is officially over, now the hope is to catch some migrating birds....I'm up to a count of 119 In my radius as of Aug 31, and added one more since then... our September challenge is "how many shorebirds can you find in your radius."  This mud helped me with that 3 so far!  AND I moved this park to a tie for #1 hotspot in my county!  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.