Weeks Highlights...

The weather has been very fall like this week...in fact it's down right chilled to bone!  I visited a few of my favorite haunts, just in time for a sit round the campfire with friends...

Lee State Park

LOL, here is some other things that caught my eye...

The Canoe Trail at Goodale is pretty Orange right now..

The Fall Yellow Bellied Sapsucker is busy

And under the tree is a Brown Headed Cowbird, looking a little bit lost..

Hope she wasn't raised by a Sapsucker! 

Back at Lee State Park, 

I bumped into an Eastern  Comma, he was up a little high but I was able to get this shot.

This is the Loop road goes through the swampy area of Lee State Park, we have a dry spell and things quickly dried up so I took the drive which is sometimes flooded and not passable. and closed...it was lined with White Heath Aster (tiny flowers) and a lot of bees and some butterflies were very interested in that..

Here's a Checker Spot..on the Asters

And a Silver Skipper was on the Blue Ageratum 

The Drive loosely follows the Lynches River and is a the flood plain

This little Eastern Phoebe with his belly a nice shade of lemon, hung out over the water for a shot..

The trees along the river seem to already have dropped their leaves...must be colder by the river..

I stopped at his Artesian Well to fill my water bottle..

Very cool and clean...the sign says the well is 100 ft down..This park has 5 still in use wells dug by the CCC in the 1930's.  

After the loop road, I went to the HQTRS area and made use of another CCC addition, this cool picnic shelter, I had a quick snack..

Then a stroll on the Boardwalk...

Yellow Rumped Warblers are back in the trees now...

Homestead Happenings this week Tulip came to visit, 

And brought her first Beau with her...

Thru the window so a little wavy....but isn't he a beauty?  I think they make a great couple...

And then the Sun went down and the Moon was huge ..

Hope your week had some highlights...

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Back to Lee State Park...

At Lee State Park, on May 15th....

I always enjoy going to this park, it's situated alongside the Lynches River but the river is down a fairly rough dirt tract and most of the time they have that tract closed...Up by the visitors center huge trees draw the attention of the migrants like this Northern Parula.  

A very inquisitive bird...This park has several artesian wells and they flow constantly...I see people bring jugs and fill them with the right out of the Earth water.  I have never tried it..but know it's cold

PLAY by clicking in the center

Near the boardwalk I found a Wood Thrush, sometimes you hear them and never see them this time I saw one for a change...

The Hermit Thrush has the rusty color on his tail the Wood Thrush has it on the head, neck and upper back.  The melodious song is such a treasure to listen to.  On the ground was this Broadhead Skink and this is the female, they are sometimes confused with a 5 line skink. 

Once I got on the forest drive,  I started to hear different birds the ones who like it damp..this is the

Acadian Flycatcher...they make a loud WHIT,  -WHIT WHEW sound...is how I describe it...

As mentioned the River Loop Trail (road) was open so I took it, it's about a 4 mile drive, it's open to horses, foot traffic, and when the gates are open vehicles.  It's still wet and muddy from recent rains but manageable...once closer to the river I encountered many Prothonotary Warblers, they like to be near water's edges.  I would park get out walk a while then return and move up the road and got a good feel for how the birds were staging.  The flycatchers were near the road so they could see and swoop out to get moths and flying insects...the warblers were a layer back gleening the leaves and stems of the trees...and farther back the deep forest birds like the Thrushes and the Towhees.  

Prothonotary warbler

the water was muddy and murky due to all the heavy rains  in May...

the trunk of this Holly Tree has so many pretty colors! 

natural camo 

The river bends here by the road and this is a good spot to pull over and enjoy a picnic 

I had to help this Snapping Turtle across the road, he got into a deep puddle that was right in the road so with some not so gentle encouragement I moved  him to the edge of the road, these guys are heavy and they bite!  This one didn't try to bite like the last time I tried to help one...I know it's not very nice but I picked him  up by the tail and lopped him off to the road edge on top of these branches then I used a fork shaped stick to push him into the deeper water...good thing too asa I got him over a truck came and he would have been squashed where he had been originally!  Here he is walking across the road, but then he settled into that puddle, 

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He was none the worse for wear but he did not appreciate my help

nostrils above water 

This water snake was seeking better cover also..

Press the center to play in this window...

I  watched a lady pull over and move a turtle off the road last week, and I've moved 2 since then myself...and one even came home with me, I will  explain in later posts...

The problem Im having with the new Blogger is it jumps all over the place...I move the photo or text where I want it, then it jumps by itself to where it wants to be so spacing is going to be difficult...I am assuming.  I am not using the new format yet, but I can tell by the way the old one is reacting it's gonna be tricky.  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

WoW Great Week!

This week started with a trip to the airport..

To pick up my sis who is visiting! Im so happy to have her here with me.  I have become quite the hermit and it's good for me to have to speak in entire sentences again! Not to mention she is just a  fantastic person to spend time with. 

Monday took sis to the sewage pond so she could get her lifer Surf Scoter...Score for her!  Since we were in the area we checked on the Eagle Chick at the Beaver Dam area...he has Fledged but remains in the nest..parents were still nearby so this is good news we saw him in flight.   

And later that same day we hit Lee State Park, we had sun there...

This beautiful Red-Bellied Woodpecker has such beautiful color..

More White Breasted Nuthatch sightings...and we really enjoyed finding this guy.  

A very still Hermit Thrush always great to see....and we had our FOY Blue Gray Gnatcatchers also...I was not able to photo them...

This is the kind of thing we do together.  Tuesday we hit the county park, and the Wateree River Access.  This is the area where all that flooding had occurred a couple weeks back. 

sis in the pines

the river is back into it's banks and the birds are enjoying the aftermath...

An Eagle snags a fish outta the lake, 

And this was Osprey day as we saw them everywhere we went...this one was not wasting any time eating his catch. 

If you ever wonder what a superman looks like here it is...I don't know this guy but I like him!  He picked up all this Fisherman Crap and he is challenging everyone on his facebook page to do the same! 

My kind of guy!!

And of course we always do the same thing...we both picked up huge bundles of this death trap for birds. 

Bonaparte Gulls enjoying the rivers feast...not much sun in this photo it looks almost like Black n White.

Wednesday we drove south on the dreaded I-95 to Santee NWR for the day and we took a sunny hike to the impound ponds. The nature trail leads to the ponds of the Bluff unit,  we ended up with a 4.7 mile hike, kinda kicked us cause it was nearly 80 and sunny!

...lots of duck out there too faraway  for any decent photos.   We met another birder, Julie she is the # 3 birder for this location (sis and I are tied at #7)They just reopened for the Season May 1.  She shared her scope with us....and I realized later that was not smart due to CV-19...Gee living in this day and age is a whole new ball game.  

sis and Julie way down the road...

We had Ring Neck, Northern Shoveler , American Wigeon,  Green and Blue Wing Teal, Northern Pintail, American Coot, and more. 

In the brushy edges dozens of Song Sparrow perched and teased us along with many other species...like Field Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Eastern Meadowlark, and in the canals that followed the path Wood Ducks and one Barred Owl called from the woods.  

Finally got my lifer Sedge Wren thanks to our new friend Juile, who told us this corner was good for them and she used a playback and bam, there it was, happened so suddenly I got an awful photo of him...Until I get a better shot this will have to do we did get good looks but only seconds long. 

FOY---Yellow-throated Warbler...been seeing these everywhere we go.

An immature Bald Eagle was stirring up the ducks...

Blue Wing Teal 

imm B. Eagle

Thursday we stopped by one of my favorite AG fields...had various field birds...and then to Goodale park for a walk around heard the Blue Headed Vireo and after we did our grocery run.

Later I didn't feel well...Pollen is here and I  think too much sun the day before.  We postponed a day trip we had planned for Friday and got a later start so I could re-evaluate how I felt..and then around 11 we went up to Liberty Hill WMA to check on that habitat. 

 Nice and easy stand or sit on the bridge and bird both sides...we had the entire place to ourselves, and found 33 species of bird. 

 Now this is the life!

 Nice to see Great Blue Herons Standing up tall on the nest.  Three nests in all...

Also nesting was a pair of Canadians....

 Red Headed Woodpecker coming out of a nest cavity..

We pulled out our picnic lunch on the bridge and enjoyed a sandwich and watched the wildlife go about their day. 

A Red-tailed Hawk, landed nearby...

And later we took a hike and found Wild Turkey and two FOY Black n White Warbler.  

And with a face only a mother could love the Turkey Vulture! 

The Yellow Rumped Warbler ^ and Another Yellow throated Warbler below. One flew down on the ground and I finally got a look at his back, it's just such an amazing bird, the back is grey with the black and white stripes...its gorgeous.

We have had so many great days of being out and about we birded till we dropped...and tomorrow the day trip of today is rescheduled.  Plan is to be out at 7:30 am when the sun is coming up because I can't see to drive in the dark!!  We had a really great week the weather was awesome, and we made the best of it. One thing is missing tho, that's our other sis...WE miss and Love you!!  Hope to see you soon. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.