February is half over?

My week has seemed slow but I've been busy every single day...The weather has been pretty good also....Spring has arrived here for sure.  

The grass has not greened up yet, and there is plenty of yard clean up left to do but.....it's not going anywhere my winter crops are growing...I hope to harvest some broccoli soon..

On Monday  I went to  Lake Paul Wallace, about an hrs drive away to see some ducks...

Some distant Bufflehead...

all in a line

On that particular day there was a cold wind in play and it made things a little uncomfortable for me and the ducks, most were off by the distant shores avoiding the open water to stay out of the wind.  A few sailed close by on their way to someplace else..

American Coot  

This Pied Billed Grebe is all puffed up to stay warm...

This Ruddy Duck (f) looks rather drab in winter colors, 

A Ring Billed Gull came out of the water to warm up in the sun...

There was lots of other ducks I got no good shots of but I sure enjoyed seeing them go about their life..

One day I ran into about 10,000 black birds..So fun to watch...




And a quick stop at the vernal pool I stake out sometimes, I found a Merlin, a small Raptor..(far away this is cropped heavy) so the vernal pool racked up another species...45 up to now.

 

FAR away...

And a  zoom...

The Red Bellied Woodpecker...was at the cemetery.

And a look at a Savannah Sparrow from the back...he was at the area I used to call the Beaverdam...since they killed the beaver most of the pond drained and now it's only a polluted mess SO SAD...

SAD!

A Blue Jay came out in the open,..

This little Pine Warbler was flipping hickory nut shells over to see what he could find to eat. 

On the Plastic front...

I am trying very hard to reduce the plastic packaging I bring into my life...IT has not been easy.  Even when you buy something in a cardboard box, many times it has a Plastic inner package!  What happened to just good old wax paper?  And some products you can NOT find an alternative.  I bought powdered laundry detergent in a cardboard box.  When I opened it up there was a Plastic Scoop inside!!!

I got so angry about that...BUT I have cut my plastic bring home in half!! NOW just to work on the other half.  I found in come cases if I buy a larger quantity I can at least cut down on how many containers I bring home but in this one case, like Bird Seed, for instance. I thought I will just buy the bigger size, but bigger size means bigger bag so I didn't really make the right choice.  Im going to start emailing the companies.  I mean they are responsible for the Complete product they put out...Why should their packaging become MY PROBLEM? 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

More from Huntington Beach...

I decided to do a mid week post I had some time in the evenings to put it together so I wanted to  share some more of the awesome birds we spotted on our camp trip as I type this my fam is on the way back to their western CO home, Sis thank you so much for arranging this trip!!  I sort of highlighted the wading birds and shore birds we spotted in the Mullet Pond and Boardwalk marsh  area of the park, so next is the beach.  This park has 3.6 miles of shoreline, so there is plenty of beach for walking, shelling, birding,
 and fishing if you're into it, 

This man is originally from DC, but now he is a local he gave us a good tip about Cherry Grove, next time I intended to check out his tips...

and in the summer lots of sunbathing, and for some  hardy snowbirds, swimming in November!

This park lays south of the more famous Myrtle Beach and in winter its more of a retired crowd you see here.   Normally we go up to the jetty but I could not leave the dogs alone for that length of time so we skipped that the only birds we missed out on was a White Winged Scoter I saw reported. 

Eastern Willet 

The ocean was being pushed pretty good we had some very high tide that night...

Sis bundled up on this one day it was cold and blustery.  But we still went out and we saw plenty and she got a lifer of the Piping Plover!

Ca-Ching 

 Ruddy Turnstone for our viewing pleasure...

A large flock of Black Skimmers flew over 

 Breakers!

Southwest flies to the Southeast!

We saw a lot of Laughing gull in various stages of maturity...

Winter Plumage

We took another walk later on another stretch of the beach  right by the campground accessible via some boardwalks...

The Fam, photographing birds on the shore 

Ring-Billed Gull 

Laughing Gull 

The Sanderlings were playing keep away with the tide, they would come right up to us, I think they are used to the fishermen feeding them bait fish pieces...

I wanted this to be a ground dove  but the tail is too long, and no scaling on the chest, an immature, the consensus was it's Mourning Dove, sure was a cute one. 

Lots of Brown Pelican 

Walking back we thought we saw a Kestrel, but it moved pretty fast and we lost it, then on the walk back we spotted this Merlin, he had others appreciating the good look he gave us too.  We met a really nice couple from MA, who ended up being one site away from us back in the campground...

Really nice Bird of Prey....and so speaking of that let me share some of the birds of prey we saw over the stay...

Bald Eagle, 

Lots of Osprey hunt in the Mullet Ponds and in the Ocean.   

A real treat was on day one when we came back for our lunch break and I heard the little forest birds making a ruckus...and then spotted this guy...right in my Site 128

Then he flew into heavier cover and turned to hiss at us, 

They don't have yellow eyes, like some owls do....

Lots of claws and beaks.....just waiting....

WE sure enjoyed the Shoreline although  one day it was pretty Brisk!  I had forgotten just how cold it can be here in the South when a stiff north wind comes along....

each evening we got together for some good food, a campfire and a review of the day...

And Friday  I will wrap up with some forest birds, and other fun things. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.