From Snow to the Sand

Sorry I'm being such a busy poster, while I have internet and time in the evenings it's convenient for me, my time here is short so if I'm unable to post the next couple weeks as my travels continue maybe I won't fall far behind with my chronicles, so in continuance of the 3 day and 2 night camp trip here we go.   

Stunning scenery along the way...

Saturday Apr 19th.  Since the Southern side of the road off the Grand Mesa travels right through Orchard City I wanted to see if any new birds were at the Fruitgrower's Reservoir.  The big lake had a few Western Grebes, Canada Geese, and a couple of Bullock's Orioles.

Up on the north causeway there was a bit more to see.  

The shorebirds I had hoped for were not there but still some good things to see.  Most of the Ducks and Geese hung across the lake on the far bank....but this pair of Western Grebes were so busy adoring each other they forgot to move away from me...

Keep hoping for a Clark's to be in one of these flocks....only one Long Billed Dowitcher was poking around...

...along with 3 Spotted Sandpipers was this young Ring Billed Gull...

And a California Gull

Check out the size difference between these White Pelicans and the tiny Pied Billed Grebe...just to the left of the pair. 

I took a walk closer to the marsh where the Yellow Headed Blackbirds stood out so brilliantly!

  A short video. 

LOST THIS VIDEO?

And Western Meadowlarks  my favorite Country & Western Singer. 

The plan was to return to my sis's house by evening and I had one more stop planned and it was a bit of a drive so I made my way toward & then about 11 miles west of Grand Junction.  Since I was pretty close I wanted to revisit
2 and 8/10 road near the settlement of Mack...where I was about a week ago near the McInnis Canyon area.  I arrived there about 3 pm.  

I know this does NOT look like much, but it was my destination!  

Just a fence in the desert right? But look closer!!  Count from right to left 11 fence posts down...

Finally!!! I get to add the Burrowing Owl to my life list! 

AND he is a real beauty...what a treat. Look at those eyes!

SCORE!

He flew off the post and back a couple times, and then eventually to a prairie dog mound, and he got out of camera range.  I was able to watch him for about 20 minutes and then I left him to do his thing.   Been trying to see this bird for a long time! My Owl list has been hurting for a while because I was not trying...now my goal is to add more by working harder at finding them. 

 I've seen only 7 of the 19 possible in North America.  I had high hopes of the Boreal Owl up on the Mesa, also the Northern Pygmy, and the Northern Saw Whet  and of course the Western Screech.  They are there but I was not able to spot one.  It just means I have to try again and try harder.  

I had a great camping trip and this was the perfect end I added 3 new birds to my life list...and an unlimited amount of wonderful experiences. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Failure and Success

There is a saying here in the south...If you don't like the weather just wait a minute... notice the difference! ON that day we had the same system that caused the landslides hit here and made everything wet! It poured for about 12 hrs and then the cold front came along and now it's more normal for Jan.  Last night 24 and today will be high in 50's that's more our normal for this time of yr...that heat wave lasted one day but it was warm in the house, 70! In fact it got so humid I had to put the AC on for about an hr.  And this afternoon, Wednesday as I'm writing this blog to post in 2 days, it is snowing!  My house is creaking from all the contraction and expansion!

With the weather being so crazy all my outside projects are in a holding pattern, (i took my dryer apart and it needs to be put back together SOON before I forget what goes where) so I went in search of another bird last Saturday at Parr Reservoir, meeting up with my sis for an afternoon of catching up and scanning a very cold lake...We dipped on the Long Tailed Duck...but we were not the only ones dipping, this guy's boat got away from him and he had to take a dip in the icy water!  Really felt sorry for him. Tip: do not launch your boat without a very long tow rope on it!

We had Pied-Billed Grebe, Bufflehead, Double Crested Cormorant, lots of Bonaparte's Gulls...and over on the other side at  Lake Monticello 3 Horned Grebes, and lots of American Coots  but all pretty distant views so I'll spare you the fuzzy photos...And this.   

The VC Summer Nuclear Plant and right next to it the Failed $9 Billion expansion project!  Hard working people have been overcharged on their electric bills to help pay for a project that has been ditched after the company went through $9 billion and the project was expected to need an additional $20 BILLION to complete it so the work stopped!! Yet the electric customers are still paying higher rates to the tune of $20 per month for the next 60 yrs!  So customers are being charged to pay for something they never received and probably never will.  The SC Congress has stepped in and they are trying to help fix this mess but I think they had a lot to do with why it failed in the first place.  Electric customers have been promised a $1,000 rebate, but the reason for this failure is just pure greed and mismanagement of the project!  It may be up to 8 years before they get those rebates, but 3 execs of the company were paid over $2 million each salary in 2016, as the project was failing they still got bonuses, and stock options!! The management turned in millions of dollars in expense reports that the SCANA refused to accept....like a $14,000 plane ride to pick up papers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that could have been delivered by courier for a few bucks! This is what is wrong in America...one guy walked away with a retirement bundle of over $800,000 a yr plus a $2 million + dollar 401(k)...Okay I don't get it and I never will.  

So back to the birds, a report came in for Greater Scaup at the Catawba River dam spillway...(thank you Steve Patterson)

So Tuesday I drove up Hwy 97 N from Camden, SC to Hwy 200 West and the bridge and dam are right there...so I found a spot to park on the other end behind the guard rail and hiked down under the bridge to the water's edge to scan for the birds. 

The reflections under the bridge, the coolest thing!!

Right away I saw lots of Double Crested Cormorants and Ring Billed Bulls on the rocks sunning.  No that is not white paint! And yet ebird said my count of 200 Cormorant was high....they have never seen these rocks...a couple of birds don't make this much staining. It's heavily used. 

Lots of Cormorants periscoping on the surface..

And right out in front of everybody is the small flock of Greater Scaup...Yippie!

Males and females.  The book says, look for a rounded head, with a green sheen to the face, a black tip on the bill end, a stocky neck, a cross hatched back, white sides extending to the primaries, and the female has a wide white band above the bill! I'd say this fits that description.  

A shaky closeup they are pretty far away...

A lifer and one that has eluded me since my Florida trip in Feb of 2016, so I am really happy to be adding this sighting to my memory, and not just my list!

Back at the van, this Yellow-Rumped Warbler was all over me. Take my picture!! There was 3 others egging him on too. 

yellow rumped (myrtle) warbler

Another fun day searching for the jewels in life, and I made a  new friend he bellowed out a greeting!

                                                 

                                                                              HOWDY!

This post is a little shorter than my normal run off at the keyboard, so I wanted to add this little blurb to point y'all in the direction of this artist...you may already know all about him...Robert Wyland.  I like his style, it's big, bold, bright and he has an environmental message of protecting our cherished oceans and ecosystems.  His prices are way out of my league, but you can catch him painting on PBS they are now running Wyland's Art Studio series.  I can't support him financially but I can spread the word...that there is another message out there coming from better messengers! 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

A-Birding I did Go...

...in continuance of the trip to see the waterfalls I thought I'd share the birds I enjoyed seeing. 

First in my sisters back yard she gets birds on her feeders I never get even tho those species are in my yard...Like Blue Birds!

a small family of them are always eating at my sis's feeders! I've tried buying the same seed, but still I don't get bluebirds show up to eat it...then an American Robin jumped on for snacks...

a red-bellied woodpecker waited in the wings for a turn at the feeder...

and I saw several yellow rump warblers at the feeders too!

Then over at Oak Grove and the lake there from Oak Creek...I saw the usual fare of ducks this one gave me a decent bath sequence...which was fun 

Then he glided off with a friend...

then.......The Race WAS ON....

The Geese are nesting so any intrusion was not tolerated and a chase ensued....only the fastest would escape without a honking big bite on the rear!!
I've been bitten by a goose it does hurt...

...and this red tail was making sure everyone stayed on their toes!!

The large flock of ring billed gulls that was around on my last visit has dwindled down to only one or two...I like gulls because they tolerate humans pretty well...

Brown headed cowbirds were around as well as Carolina Wrens..

More Eastern Bluebirds....

                  These guys were so back-lit I couldn't tell if they're barn, bank, or other! Either way they're swallows!

I wanted this to be a Eastern Wood Peewee but I think its an Eastern Phoebe..

...and its just not birding without a northern cardinal to brighten things up

Spring arrival....

and this killdeer wad very leery of my intentions...

and several hundred people flew over the lake....

and one totally aggravating Belted Kingfisher who wouldn't be still long enough for any kind of shot... so ended up with this extreme crop job...

How annoying is that? All in all it was a good day of birding for me!!

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.