My Five Miles!

So it's my first post of 2019...wish it could be more exciting...but it is what it is till it ain't anymore...lol That's a line from a song I heard.  Still many ups n downs going on Ill try to share the ups.
Im participating in Jen's of I Used to Hate Birds (check my right side bar) 5 Mile Radius Challenge. (5MR) it's a year long challenge! SO  a short description...Jen is the superstar who came up with this whole idea and I hope soon it will be a part of ebird and she will get the credit for it!  So you figure out an area and using map tools you draw out a 5 mile radius and you bird the hell outta it! LoL...Join in the fun if you like!

Hope I can follow through.  I'm not good at following directions.  But I think this month's challenge is to fill in the gaps on hotspots within my 5MR.  There is only one in my radius.  So I need to go over at least once a week to fill in January!   So here is my circle. 

Sorry it's blurry I took it with my phone  my laptop won't do a screen shot...As you can see it's void of pretty much everything! Down at 8 o'clock is my hotspot, Goodale State Park.  

It's notorious for NOT having many birds!! My check list was 14 species and included one immature Bald Eagle.  He was wayyy across the lake...and at first I thought "Osprey" 

But those big orange feet gave him away...once I put my binoculars up to my eyes.

So that was fun to see.  I have seen mature ones here from time to time.  

It was a misty day but heavy rain held off while I birded.  

The wooded path around the lake...

One of 4 Ruby Crowned Kinglets I spotted...

Checked on the pitcher plants that grow by the water's edge...

Another lake view...

A double crested cormorant in silhouette

 

The most popular bird by far was the yellow rumped warblers..I think my count ended up at 8. 

of the Myrtle variety..

So I plan to go once a week this month..and fill in some gaps, at first I thought it was to fill in the gaps of my own bar graph but it is the bar graph for the Hotspot it'self.  There is def some gaps in the 2nd and 3rd weeks of Jan...but I don't think I will fill in many different species for Jan...

but we'll see.  It's popular with Warblers in Fall n Spring.   

This is something I have to avoid while birding here and not just here but across the southern USA.   If you should fall in one of these imagine how quickly they would be on you, BITING...or step on this with flip flops on, which happens to me many time per year. The bite is very painful and sometimes causes an allergic reaction and almost always an itchy red pimple.  They will swarm up onto your feet and begin to climb your body!   You must immediately begin to do the Dixxe Doodle Dance! Looks similar to a Rain Dance!

Fire Ants

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Clemson Experimental Station

So far February has been cloudy and rainy.  Some days complete wash outs...like buckets of water...so on the sunny breaks I'm ready to get out and go someplace! I took a short ride over to this spot called the Clemson Sandhills Experimental Station.  It's a pretty cool spot to hike, dog walk, and bird! I packed a sack lunch and drove over, its not too far away like 18 miles. There's 2 ponds and a lake.  I hiked the lake trail it's about 2.1 miles, outlined in blue... 

The trail meanders over the dam, over an eagle scout project boardwalk and 

through the woods....

Lots of American Robins up high picking berries I ran into them throughout my hike....maybe 50 in total

They did have some competition the cedar waxwings...saw about 10 darting in and out of this tangle of brier. 

In the woods area I saw 2 pair of Northern Cardinal, and they appeared to be searching for a nest spot...just the way they called to each other and the way they behaved made me think of Amor'e.

Near one of the smaller ponds this Eastern Bluebird was hunting in the Sycamore trees...

In the water I spotted 4 Pied Billed Grebes,  and 8 Double Crested Cormorants...all pretty far from the edge, 

 I found a bench to sit down and eat my sandwich this Carolina Wren started to have a fit...

carolina wren

I enjoyed his antics, and he stirred up a few more birds in the woods.  A Hermit Thrush  in the edge gave me a quick peek and higher up the Red Bellied Woodpecker squealed his displeasure too!  

Hope this one gets put back right before nest building gets  underway

Love the white bark on the tall Sycamore Trees. 

The bark...

After the lunch break I finished the lake hike and stirred up the interest of this Myrtle Yellow Rump Warbler.  

There is a young Pecan Orchard on the grounds and a few Northern Mockingbirds were patrolling the branches... 

There is an open area where they experiment with sod of various kinds, about the time I got over there an Eagle flew over way up high...and down on the fence line another Eastern Bluebird...

a heavy crop to pull this one out of this shot...

I would def go around here again...there is enough hardwood to make some pretty fall color behind the lake, so I must make a mental note! 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Meeker

This is the last of my scheduled posts...I don't know where I will be on the 18th I may be HOME....when this posts, today in RT is 9/13..but I wanted to share my ride up to Meeker, on 9/11.   I stayed up late to get this done while I have internet access.  

This day I took Hwy 13 north to Meeker.

roadside views 

Moon peeks over the ridge

A rock window.

  I stopped at the mostly famous City Park.  BOY if you've been here before you will hardly recognize the place as they are in the middle of refurbishing it.  They allow camping in the this park, mostly it's tent spaces but they have one full hook ups spot...it's pretty popular so don't count on it being available. 

They have paved the parking lot, and put in this nice River Walk sidewalk with a diagram of the Flat Top Scenic Byway on it. Pretty cool!  

The river is the White River.  Elk hunting and trout fishing is really a big deal here so they sort of cater to the "sportsman".  

Had my picnic lunch here...

I saw lots of Barn Swallows in the picnic area...

And one Eastern Kingbird! More grey in color than the ones back home..

I took a walk up the hill by the river...

I drove out Hwy 8 towards Buford, my intended destination Avery Lakes but I turned around in Sleepy Cat...

By these 2 ponds...when I heard the thunder and saw the lightening in the distance where I had been heading, I decided to stop...because the road was a dirt road and if it rains, MY van will not cut it...
It can pour down in one area and the other stay dry as a bone...

I had these 2 beautiful ponds all to myself to explore so that is what I did...

At the end of this pond is an old Beaver's Lodge....


you can just see it in the distance on the right upper of this photo...I saw movement pretty far off on the other side of the ponds in these trees...if you look really close you see 2 white dots on tree tops! 

With a lot of trying finally got the zoom to move and got the following shots...

Tree number one, and farther down the line tree number two...was a little closer to me so a little better shot.  I imagine this is a  mated pair.  

a little preening...

So that was awesome to see..

I continued to back track and stopped at the information kiosk I had missed on the way up...they have some nice informative plaques of the history of this Valley here...but I got the story firsthand...  

I had passed this Shepherd's wagon in town...and snapped a photo of it on the street.  

and when I pulled into the Information pull off there was the same truck with wagon on back so I struck up a conversation with the couple, a rancher and wife last name Livingston.  They have been in Colorado all their lives.  He told me about how John C Fremont was the cause of the Ute Indian uprising that is memorialized not far out of town
(my post on the Yellow Jacket Pass and the Memorial here) 

You see the Ute had horses and they had a race track, Fremont was a religious man and felt the racing was not a good use of time they should be farmers, so he had the track plowed up to be used for farms and that started the whole dang thing!! 

Mr Livingston's father was a sheep rancher and this old shepherd's wagon has been in the family a long time they had it refurbished and it was used in the Meeker Trails a yearly sheep herding competition they had this past weekend...so they were picking it up to take back home...A very interesting couple.  AND what did I hear?? MY hunch was right----> Sandhill Cranes in the fields, they call this the Meeker Pastures..

Already on the migratory route probably will end up at Bosque del Apache NWR down in New Mexico. I counted about 40 birds here pretty far away...and they may have come from the Platte River in Nebraska where they breed, and the plains of other states to the North of Colorado.  I spotted Cranes west of this spot 2 years ago when I was on my way to Oregon..so that was my hunch, that they would be in this area. 

...and wouldn't you know that rain circled around and got me on the way home, 

But it was nearly finished when I hit it so no problems...

I stopped at the Bookcliffs Art Center in Rifle, saw this new mural has been put up I agree with this 100%

Never stop dreaming!

...and never stop believing in your dreams...

So where will I be next??

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.