Unwound

The weather remains mostly cold, but no snow lately and the sun is out so I really should not complain eh?  It's been a long time since I drove out to Carolina Sandhills NWR, it's about a 20 mi drive for me.  I finally went into the new Headquarters building and got a passport stamp from them! I was the first one of the year to ask for their stamp! The lady who helped me told me their stamp year only went to 2017 so she had to write in the year for me.  So it may end up being one of a kind as she is checking for a new Year wheel for the ink stamper so if she gets it before anyone asks for a stamp I have a Rare Stamping!

I didn't see a whole lot on this day but I had a great day! I did find about 120 in total Canada Geese in 3 different bodies of water. Most of the geese were in Martin's Lake, at the very back where the water is shallow. 

There was room for more, 

...a few Mallards (about 30 in total) were in the mix along with way in back at least one pair of Wood Duck.  I really need a scope! The birds were way OUT there...I drove up alongside that narrow spot where the shore comes in.  There is a photo blind, but I didn't think I had enough daylight left to hike to the blind...and back!  Usually Mom is with me and with her handicap pass we can drive right up the blind.  

A lot of Song Sparrows on the ground this was through the windshield.

Also had some Swamp, and Savannah Sparrow, Eastern Bluebird, American Kestrel, Turkey Vulture, Hermit Thrush, Brown Thrasher, and one Northern Harrier.  Back at HQ they told me they had a Golden Eagle here this past summer,  why didn't I hear about that...OH yeah I was in Colorado! Duh. 

I had the whole place to myself, I love that, when I can stop in the middle of the road and just walk away from my van and not even close the door! This is what I call unwinding!
I got a late start and the light vanished pretty fast..

I was far off the main refuge road so I headed out to get back home before dark thirty I had to bring wood in for the nightly fire...and feed my dogs of course.
And even tho my sightings list was small I really enjoyed the easy slow pace of this visit to the refuge. 

I want to make another trip soon and get there early and try for some better sparrow looking...there is a Le Conte's on the rare bird list not far away but it's on Private Land...Some sort of a sand and gravel place, the submitter's had permission to trespass to see the bird.  I got something cool in my little piece of the world...Recall me telling y'all I had been hearing an Eastern Screech Owl...in the yard and I did a cavity search....well today the other birds in the yard alerted me to his location!  

Well hellooooo there.  Owls have used this tree before for roosting, the camo is excellent!  My Camera is getting so funky now it doesn't want to focus on digital zooms, so these are not up close...you see him/her?

Those eyes are so intense and yellow!

I see red and grey...but I think there is enough red to call it a red phase...unless I see the rest of the body and it is all grey.  I knew I wasn't hearing things so I'm glad to get this confirmation! And I hope he hangs around...the feeder birds were very upset so they may not allow him to be this close to them and the feeder area.  He is literally 10 ft from the house, in the front yard. 

Totally thrilled about it!  

I went in search of a new thermostat for my dryer in town...the repair guy said it's $40! WHAT? It's a tiny little thing about the size of a man's watch dial...I found one on ebay for $13.00 free shipping.  Maybe I can reassemble the dryer soon! If you need to take your's apart just look it up on You Tube, was easy to take apart!

I am painting it too....so hopefully I will do a blog about this soon...another thing I finally finished is putting up the remaining rails on the deck!  I just need to trim off those 3 ends. 

Can you believe Casey jumped off this deck? OMG And Flossy nearly rolled off...so now hopefully it will be safe for dog use. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

No Clics here....

My passport arrived last week, I'm happy the State Department didn't find any reason to deny me, I did get a little worried as the application asks for your past spouse's birth date and I realized I put the wrong year down for my X--anyways it doesn't matter,,,it's good for 10 years! I will definitely renew it next time and not let it expire...we won't discuss what my age will be then~

We have had some wonderful weather--on at least one occasion.... mixed in with some not so wonderful weather!  OH so perfect what we call a Blue Bird Day! But not every day has been that way.... the other day when I went out I stopped at the Wateree River to check the cliff swallow nests, and there was not one bird there!! All the nests were empty.  They raised em up fast! A few were flying around picking bugs out of thin air but no body in the nests.  The sky sure was threatening..and the river was full almost flood stage.

Soon after I snapped this the sky opened up with a deluge!! So I'm at Lowe's again typing in my van in the pouring rain!! It has rained at least 4 inches while I've been sitting here....wondering if I will actually get to go inside or not!!  Imagine a pipeline of this rain going to Africa or CA...I just don't get it...

So far it's rained every day since Saturday the last nice day and the day I had intended hiking on the Palmetto Trail ....but didn't happen, maybe more on that topic in another post..  On one of the "going to rain any minute" days I went up to Lake Wateree, it's upstream of this river location not much was happening but a few things caught my eye...like this Eastern Kingbird he followed me around for a while.

I could barely see an Osprey nest on this island....pretty far away with my binoculars...

this is a zoom of the nest, it's a bit grainy...

see osprey on nest and the other on the left side of photo

I wished for a kayak to paddle out of course they would have flown away...A couple of geese had their youngsters up near the volley ball court 

I didnt even notice the young in the water till I saw this photo on my comp screen, 3 of them.

There is this really old and really big prickly pear cactus near the boat parking area and it was blooming I've been wanting to break a piece off and get one of these giants started in my yard...

and next to a mail box for comparison 

This northern mockingbird had a meal waiting...bird version of take out I guess..

Some Mallard on the dock...

A killdeer was showing me her tail feathers, very impressed!

she may have eggs in the grass so I didn't bother her...

back at the homestead after 10 yrs waiting...my old fashioned pear has 5 pears on it...they are up so high will I be able to pick them?  At least it finally got tall enough so the deer can not eat them! 

and since we're on the subject of homesteading..


I finally got around to that window! Okay here is the result...I like it all the light comes in but you don't look right out and see the ceiling fan of the porch!

a closer look at the window film....

Originally I purchased one that is like a stained glass with dogwood flowers etc...but that was way too busy 

I got my 33 LP's back in the old record stand this one was purchased by us way back in 1964! It came in a box and at age 11 I put it together!!  It's still standing strong..

Other areas where I'm working are in the master bedroom...trying to arrange all the furniture to see if I can keep everything I want to keep...remember this big oversized "coffee table", it was way too big for the living room so it will become a window seat!  One of these fabrics will be the cover!

My battery is running low and the rain has slacked so off I go inside to get a can of white spray paint! Hope you are having a good day with rain if you need it and without if you don't!!

PEACE

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