It's Life

The weather has been extortionary this week however it's the week gas went to $4.10 a gallon.  Nothing by European standards, but to us here it's a hard blow, especially when you drive a gas hog like my van! So I kept my little adventure trips to a minimum. I think I may need to take in a little burro for future transport plans! 

So here's some photos of one out and about and some things I saw....and I will adlib some commentary about my week.  

 

This Red Tailed Hawk has half a tail...the Grackle was in hot pursuit Life is not always peaches n cream

Monday morning at 1:32 AM awoke to an Earth Shaking  sound of a train swiftly approaching faster than the speed of sound and the windows rattling...Earthquake 3.3 on the scale! Yes this area about 15 miles to my west has been the epicenter for many tremors and quakes since December, this one was the largest, followed the next night by a 2.9 after shock.

Imagine being a Cliff Swallow and your home is made out of mud...there is only one way to pick up that mud if you're a bird and that is in your MOUTH! Yuk...and all. 

When gathering mud to reinforce their gourd shaped homes the Cliff Swallow keeps his wings high out of the muck, pretty good idea!  Below  a group of Double Crested Cormorants stand atop the old Dam built in 1920...Just a few miles north of the epicenter of the Quake

This is from the water holding side of the dam...it's 3 ft below full and the lake is 64 feet deep....and covers 13,700 acres. How strong would the Quake need to be to destroy this dam? Its pretty thick at the bottom...but you can see it has cracks!

I have been  sawing up a big limb that fell out of a large dead Pine at my place...it also came down with lots of small twigs, and branches...I had it neatly stacked into a pile of large pieces and the rest I picked up and put into four large bins that took a half day to do...I used the lawn tractor with the trailer behind, put all the bins and the wood into the trailer, moved that to the van and onto the cargo rack that I put on back,  it holds 500 lbs of cargo. Tied it all on,  Spent the entire morning doing that...then unloaded  it at the solid waste center and put it in the Yard Waste bin...got back about 1 pm sat down to relax and I hear a huge crash outside...Look out wondering....

 Another Large limb fell  even bigger than the one I just removed...it will take me 10 yrs at this rate to eventually remove the 100 foot, 3.5ft diameter dead Pine!

This common Grackle has caught a lizard for his lunch...
Lizard is saying "and  you thought you had it hard."

The Squirrels destroyed my new hummingbird feeder, they chewed off all the perches, pulled out the bee stoppers and chewed holes in them...so I have been relocating squirrels to the forest where they can live a truly wild life without human interference.  So far six Seven gone, all males.  If I catch a nursing female she is not relocated...but so far it's all  males.  

This goes to show how critters learn to use what man or woman has put in their neck of the woods to their best advantage...with all this manmade stuff in the way an Osprey still builds a nest and raised young. 

A Grackle finds a bi-valve and eats the small clam inside...

Then the Great Blue Heron chases after the Grackle...

A fish is given a very amazing view of the world as he is flown around right before becoming a meal....I hope he was amazed by the sight...pretty good send off I guess..

 you can tell I am in a sarcastic mood...Sometimes you really have to see the sarcasm in life in order for it to make any sense at all...

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Action!

This post contains a few short videos, hope you will enjoy them, and Im trying to keep the post length short I may add a mid-week post with other news of my week.

ON Sunday last we were finally able to line everything up just right to rent a kayak and paddle around at my hotspot on Goodale Lake, or better known as Adams Mill Pond.  We rented...the price is right! $7 for half a day basically you rent at 11 am and come back when you want because the office is only open from 11-12 noon.  When you come in you lock up your boat and leave your paddles and vest by the door. 

We've been talking about doing this all summer! My son did Nanny sitting duties so we (my sis and I) could both take off.  

We pushed off and headed for the paddling trail.  It's been several years since either of us paddled, but it's kind of like riding a bike?

sis leads the way...

We had planned to paddle the canoe trail, which is the lake channel...it is marked & located to the rear of the lake...  

this ARROW on the tree marks the entrance, the trail is one mile in length and it's a one way trail...so total of 2 miles. 

        the trail is lovely and quiet except for some distant thunder :(

So we did not paddle far and decided it's better to be close to the kayak landing area jic and that ended up being the best idea...we paddled around a couple turns in the channel and turned around...and back towards the lily pad area where we had seen Killdeer and the Little Blue Heron had flushed


...we found 2 (# 115 in my 5 mile radius) Least Sandpipers...the calls in the background of the video are the killdeer while the Least are not bothered by our presence...

The Anhinga dries... up in the flat top Cyprus that is a favorite spot of many of the birds...



 I got a new camera!!  I'm glad I decided to take the old one on this paddle, in case it got wet this is how the old camera can continue to earn it's place in my life...it can do the dirty work..lol so that's why this shot is blurred, is what I'm leading up to...the bird below makes #116 in my 5 mile radius...the White Ibis




             thanks sis for spotting this one...



Then we had to paddle to shore in double time cause the bottom fell out!!

We def got wet running for shelter! But what a fun time we had in spite of the weather and we are already planning another paddle...I do think I would enjoy having my own kayak...there's lots of places to paddle at the parks we have visited, and at the Sandhills NW Refuge.  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Great Backyard Bird Count

The Great  Backyard Bird Count was this past weekend.  Birding for me was tough! We had a very gusty system come through, and it just made it hard to locate birds.  Most of the birds were hiding out of the wind.  As for my yard, the regulars showed up I got 15 species.  So I sent in that count.  I wish the Backyard count had been on Wednesday I had a better day of birding then..and I had a Fox Sparrow in the yard.  I watched him through the window for a while before trying for a better shot. This was taken through the glass...but he was gone when I got outside. 

I hit 2 locations on Friday but came away almost empty handed...Like I said, It was better on Wednesday.  I had some cemetery looking to do up in Marlboro county so I stopped at Lake Paul Wallace.  

Last time I was here it started to rain this time it was threatening...but just remained cloudy.

The walking trail is 1.3 miles one way and splits the lake into 2 sides...the ring billed gulls hung out about half way...

                             check the guy in the center..wa wa

Tons of Ruddy Duck were around,  hanging out in small groups of  10 to 15,  

I made a count of about 50 altogether.  They're getting into breeding plumage.   I spotted one female Bufflehead in the group. 

..and a couple of fish crows watched from the light post...

This heron was funny he waited while I got close to him he didn't move a muscle..so I gave him as wide a berth as I could, as you see the walking tail is not very wide.  He watched me as I went around behind him and once I actually got past him he started honking and screeching and make a huge leap and took off in a tiff!

             

      

Lots of Double Crested Cormorants hung out in the dead trees in the water...

Then on the stumps to dry off...

Up near the edge I saw a merganser fishing with a couple of the gulls..only she was doing all the work...I think they had a plan to steal something from her but they never got a chance she was so fast. 

She finally swam out a bit away from the edge and I took this shot of her before she swam out of range...

red breasted merganser 

That bit of white on the upper beak is a reflection... I haven't seen one of these in a long time so I was happy to watch this lady...Sure wish one of the gorgeous males would have been around.  I ran out of time I had intended to drive to the other side of the lake and see what was happening there, but is it just me or is a day way shorter than it used to be? 

Friday I had some good counts but no good photos...except this pair of Mallard...I felt his emerald green head was just beyond awesome!

This was at Sandhills NWR...many sparrows were around, but it was almost impossible to pull them out of the deep cover where they clung to branches to keep from being blown away! 

Savannah sparrow in deep cover

Saturday I was exhausted and stayed home to catch up on household chores..and then Sunday...showed such promise in the morning it was sunny and blue sky,,,so I made an impromptu decision to drive about 2 hours south to Dorchester County I had seen 2 reports of birds I need to see! Again I chased the long tailed duck and dipped and I dipped on the LeConte's Sparrow too! Before I even crossed the county line, the clouds came in the mist developed and the weather quickly deteriorated.  But I was committed so I carried on.  Trying to see through fogged lenses is no fun. 

I came away with very little to show for my time, but I still enjoyed myself. Quite a few floaters there... I came away with 11 species at this lake, Ruddy duck, Hooded merganser, Ring-necked duck, Greater scaup, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Red Winged Blackbird, Double Crested Cormorant, and American Robin to name a few.  

ring-necked duck

red-winged blackbirds

This pond is part of an estate that is for sale, so of course restricted access...(I found out this morning that a male and a female were spotted at 3:50 pm that was exactly 45 minutes after I left I rechecked the pond at 3:06 before heading back home...*SIGH* Maybe I'll try again....I'm rather frustrated at t his point)

Next I hit a new not yet fully open Audubon  Sanctuary and it had restricted access too.  I had to stay on the Sanctuary road and was not able to explore the habitat.  They had a sparrow workshop there the day before I should have gone... but had to be there at 8:30 am meaning I had to leave home at 6:00 am and I just wasn't feeling in on Saturday.  Wish now I had that's when they saw the 2 LeConte's Sparrow .  I heard one, they have a very distinct call so I listened to it to get familiar with it.  I wonder if they played the call on the sparrow walk?  Since it's a new bird for me, I only count sightings, once I've seen it then I count a heard only.  The drizzle continued and I ended up in the van for a while waiting it out.

red bellied woodpecker

Came away with very few photos...but ended up with 30 species here...mostly woodland birds...

Saw 4 red-headed woodpeckers, got this one yukky shot, up in the white sky.  Remember when I used to see so many  in my own neck of the woods, not so much anymore...I think it's the pine tree farming, the old dead trees were pushed down and that whole area, about 40 acres planted with yellow pine.  So no snags no red heads!

red headed woodpecker

All in all I had a good count 48 species with 688 individuals on 6 checklists.  for my weekend GBBC!  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.