Preppers Part II

I am certainly not making light of this pandemic.  I hope all the measures taken by our officials will help stop the spread! So this was our last day as sis called it the Big Push to see how many birds we could see while she is here.  New flight is leaving Wednesday at 2 pm so we have the rest of Monday and Tuesday to spend together...

inside the Visitors Center

I left us at Congaree National Park.  We had a great day.  Went home tired! We reviewed our photos and spruced up our ebird list, and stayed up late to see all the news on closings due to the Virus.  Now our town has issued a curfew!  Tuesday on the way out we saw a Goose in the vernal pool in the clear cut!

  

That was fun!  It is one of my goals to have birded every county in my State of SC.  There's 46 counties, and I need to bird 19 of those counties...and one of them is a neighboring county! I have seen many birds in Lexington county but never kept a list or turned it in...so we chose to go to Saluda Shoals Park.  It's a family styled park with lots of picnic areas, and walk/bike paths and the River is good for paddlers.  

We had our picnic first since it was lunchtime when we arrived...

It's hard to know if you have a virus or not with all this Pollen around! Notice it on the surface of the little turtle pond.  Even the turtle's back is covered.  

The Red Shouldered Hawk...landed near us to see what we were up to...

Then he followed us to  the river..

Sis spotted this Osprey across the river snacking on a fish he caught...

And a State Bird for both of us kept us scratching our heads at first, the Orange Crowned Warbler...

I've never seen the orange that it's named for...I guess it's like a Kinglet and raises it whenever he feels threatened...

And this Black and White Warbler was so obliging...I feel instantly under his spell.  

We had an eastern Bluebird waiting on us to return...We had one more stop for the day...we had seen on the Rare bird list a Pacific Loon had been seen and the photos proved it.  Since I needed it for my life list we headed to the Rusty Anchor Marina on Lake Murray, a huge lake in Lexington and Richland County.   

 

Where we scanned loon after loon.  All were Common Loons.  I tried like heck to make this one into a Pacific...but it's so obviously not one...

no chin strap!

But it was close! These are however beautiful birds so we enjoyed looking at each one they were FAR away except a few came close...

We had a long string of Red Breasted Mergansers on the opposite side...

So we gave up and headed home.

I looked at every shot I took not once but twice, just didn't see it...and Wednesday after taking Sis to the airport I went for a second look since I was withing 9 miles of the spot..

More gorgeous Common Loons, and no new reports of a Pacific...I drove back a few miles to the Dam area of Lake Murray, where a Horned Grebe was seen yesterday and he was still there and what a beauty...he is coming into breeding plumage or molting...

White tip on end of beak...ruby red eyes...

I wish Sis had been there to see it with me!  I'm keeping an eye out on the rare report to see if that Pacific Loon pops up again.  So I finally created a bird list for Lexington County and now I need only 18 more counties!  I had such a wonderful time with my Sis...we did exactly what we wanted to do nothing more and nothing less.  While the world went bonkers around us, we BIRDED!  I hope we can all just go out and do what we love to do until this thing blows over.  I am semi-sequestered at home now.  I will however visit my favorite birding spots when the mood strikes me.  

Tomorrow it is going to be 85 degrees...and it's Spring!
I know 3 dogs that need baths!  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.