Bear Island Life...

I wanted to get to Bear Island before all the waterfowl left but I almost got there too late.  

I remember a few picnics shared at this table with Mom...:o)

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I did not see the large rafts of shovelers and teals that I normally see there I think the cold front that crippled TX and was not too pleasant here either sent them farther NORTH for a couple days but I had a great day trip last Saturday, puffy white clouds all over the place and the wind was not a factor, it was good!!

There was a huge flock of shorebirds, too far out to even use the scope to see. a few came closer, this batch mostly Lesser and a Greater yellowlegs...

I made out Dunlin, Avocet, more Yellowlegs, Black Bellied Plover, but the little ones, not sure some other birders turned in Stilt Sandpiper, and Least Sandpiper, Long and Short-billed Dowitcher and Im sure all of that and more was in this mix. 

wayyyy out there...

can you see the cloud of shorebirds flying in the background on this shot?  They look like some white specks on my photo just at the line of the marsh grass.  

There was a flock of about 65 Tundra Swan...

and a Pied Billed Grebe for scale.

This is the typical habitat here....lots of marsh, ecologically it is an estuary 

Forester's Terns all over the sky...

And Bonaparte's Gulls standing by to take flight...

Saw a pair of American Black Duck...they still make the rare list although I see them regularly here just not in large numbers. 

Hard to distinguish from Mottled duck...but the dark body is what I look for and the bill is more greenish/yellow instead of Orange.  This is the male in the foreground  and I assume that is the female with him. I can't tell them apart. 

the trails here were muddy and some of the roads were closed so we had to walk where normally you could drive....

This is not one of the driving trails tho you always have to walk this its' a dyke between 2 ponds, these are old Rice Trunk fields...I saw a lot of White Ibis out there plunging their whole head below water, the level is a bit  higher than they like I imagine...

Some of the younger ones still in immature plumage, 

Along with this group was one really energetic Tri-Colored Heron.  He was dancing all over the place reminded of the Reddish Egret I never see anymore...

This Snowy Egret kept getting his feet entangled in stuff so he would hold it up and shake it free...

Check this out...lol 

I can't think of a bird whose call I enjoy more than the Boat Tailed Grackle...maybe the Great Tailed Grackle is greater but it's such a story to hear!

https://ebird.org/profile/MzA2Njg4/world
 
I recorded it's call...so take a listen, most of you are probably familiar with it...

Other forest dwelling birds were around like this Eastern Towhee...he looked at me like he had just seen the creature from the black lagoon or a Martian,  imagine being a bird spending your whole life back in a forest an then there it is....This "thing" standing upright and moving along the ground, then suddenly it "spoke" its like hell rained down upon this little bird look at the shock in those eyes. 

There is both red and yellow eyed variety of this bird...and I must of put my binoculars up to my eyes a million times to view all the Yellow-Rumped Warblers of the Myrtle variety.

Haha  Made you Look!!

count=X--- beyond my skill set

And the ground was covered in American Robins, pulling juicy worms out of the saturated ground...

I am seeing more butterflies lately...the sun brings me out and apparently them also...

Red Admiral 


One pond had a lot of Ruddy Duck present with a few Blue Winged Teal mixed in...

1,2,3,4.....Pretty far out but I came up with 50ish

The Highlight of the day came at Lunch Time...

I decided to eat  lunch in the van and at the same time hold a stake out to keep watch over   this man made marvel of a nesting box...kinda like Elliott and Oliva in Law n Order.  Only I didn't have one of those fake cups of coffee, I had a Vegan cheese sandwich and a one of those new fizzy drinks you know full of Carbon Dioxide!! Good grief. So on stake out I talk to myself, and I sing, and I make sounds to pass the time...

Its on an  iron post about 15-20 ft off the ground...I didnt get a wide shot of the thing, realized that would have made sense, but I got this shot...of my stake out residence...

tic-tok tic-tok-tic-tok 

I ate my sandwich and waited, and then ate my apple, and waited, I ate my salty nut and caramel bar,  and  I chatted with a few people who stopped by to have a look, but they gave up...I began to hoot like an OWL....and 45 Minutes later this appeared....

HELLO THERE,,,

Bingo MY lifer Barn OWL...finally.  And he/she took several peeky looks at me, and I was stoked to say the least.  It had been reported so I was happy to see it still in this box.   My mom used to say "you mean you drove me miles here to see a bird somebody said was in this spot a week ago?"  She never understood why I was so naive....lol

What a face eh?? I downloaded some plans for a nest box, these owls will also use them as a nightly roosting box year round.  

So that was my adventure on Saturday Feb 20th.  Hope the end of Feb will mark the end of winter, its Friday and almost another week has passed, we had several good days but the rain is returning  today Feb 26th.  Ive got a couple more adventures up my sleeve to report on so stay tuned..one more Owl Peek....

Ciao!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

DO-OVER

If you recall our kayak paddle on the nearby Goodale State Park lake a couple weeks back was interrupted with a deluge...so we had to get outta there fast or be swamped with water in our crafts...so we got an opportunity to go back last weekend. 

                                                                  calm waters no rain

Wouldn't you know it was the same time Hurricane Dorian was hitting the Bahamas and predicted to come to our area so the State Park officials decided to lower the levels of the park lakes including ours!  So on That Friday the lake level had already been lowered by 2 and 1/2 feet! See the water level mark here on these Cyprus trees

But notice all the white dots in the trees!! Great Egrets, immature Little Blues, Wood Stork,  all dotting the trees as the lake grew smaller.  

white ibis 

A drained pond leaves MUD and lots of it, so we dragged our kayaks in this manner to the pond...this is not us but some other strong women who would not take mud for an answer...

immature little blue heron 

great egrets and wood storks 

imm. little blue herons 

anhinga 

Other wildlife was puzzled and on the move as the water level continued to drop...this American Alligator was seeking deeper water...

great egret 

This combo includes 2 Great Egret, one Wood Stork, and the tiny guy just barely in the shot lower left of center, a Spotted Sandpiper!

....and this Least Sandpiper hangs with a flock of Killdeer..

killdeer 

We continued to see the lake bottom, and so we made the decision to get out of the lake before the shoreline receded more...

SO it was a challenge getting our boats of the water and back on the boat racks, this is as Sis noted a self service place! They unlock it for you and that's it, you have to get it off the rack, launch it, bring it in put it back on the rack and lock it up...We would love to go again, hopefully under ideal paddling conditions! 3rd times a charm right?

Our Summer birding season is officially over, now the hope is to catch some migrating birds....I'm up to a count of 119 In my radius as of Aug 31, and added one more since then... our September challenge is "how many shorebirds can you find in your radius."  This mud helped me with that 3 so far!  AND I moved this park to a tie for #1 hotspot in my county!  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.