A place to call home

What a difference...with the lower temps of the approaching fall I have been outside doing chores, walking, birding, and  relaxing some too!  

The change is already in the air.  I see birds chasing each other...hmmm this means Get out of the Nest! I'm done feeding you, go find your own worms and your own home...lol. 

 

This looks like 2 dragons meshed into one.

Annie was raising a ruckus in the yard a couple days ago a snake was coiled up under one of the shrubs and she had cornered it! My son to the rescue he was for a while into herps so he grabbed it..(don't do this if you don't know snakes the way my son does, he is sort of an expert)

Even tho this snake looks  menacing he is a big faker.  The hog nosed snake has many defenses..one is to hiss and flatten his head to look like a Cobra...if that doesn't work he will lay on his back and open his mouth and play dead...If that doesn't work, he has a musk gland and he will let loose an odor...he will open his mouth wide like he is going to swallow you whole...he did all that but he never offered to bite even when my son tossed a towel on him and got a hold of him to get him out of the yard!

When I checked these photos is when I saw the scar in his scales this is the same Hog Nosed Snake I had untangled a week ago. See right there is his mid section that is where the garden mesh had  tightened around him and held him in place they get caught they struggle and that makes it tighter and if they don't get rescued you will find a skeleton eventually.  So happy we were able to save this wonderful creature!  I got rid of all the Garden Mesh!

So even tho we keep taking him off the premises he returns, this is his home too!

Lots of Pine Warblers are back home agian in the trees this week.   I watched an episode of Expeditions with Patrick McMillan.  He is sort of a local hero here in our state with his own nature show on PBS.  In this episode he answered my question as if I had asked him directly..."why did we have so many Prairie Warbler, and Yellow Breasted Chats this year?"  I was on the right track of the "re- growth" from the clear cutting.  This is what these birds need....disturbance...in order to breed and raise their young.  Unfortunately the way man disturbs is not the way nature intended so these birds are having a hard time...

Its hard to tell the Imm Pine Warbler from the Imm Prairie Warbler, only way for me is to hear them. 

summer tanager

The Summer Tanager has always come to my place to live and the surrounding area I think they are happy to have the little open area of my field and the surrounding woods to provide them with the food and protection they need to raise their young...see the dead leaves?  That's why I got so upset when they sprayed the clearcut with some sort of herbicide.  It kills the plants the insects need, that in turn destroys habitat and food the birds need. 

a secret pond I found home to many frogs

 I know the clearcut will regrow and the birds will use it at least another year or two then it will become a "fake forest" again...Like McMillan  explained how the Oven Bird, that I never hear anymore around here, needs old growth forest to survive...at least 8 acres of it per bird.  Since they planted the surrounding area in yellow pine there is never any old growth forest, and the Oven Bird wants dry not wetland habitat...Keep these things in mind if you are managing a piece of land...maybe one day the wooded part of our lands will be mature enough to host Oven Birds. My trees are now 42 yrs and older.

We took a short drive to the Carolina Sandhills NWR to go birding and have a picnic.

Sis, this does not count as a picture of you...so my promise is not broken. :o)

And for my sis this lifer we found in the old growth Longleaf pines that the refuge has worked hard to conserve....these Red Cockaded Woodpeckers cavity nest in live mature LLPine. We saw 3 this day. Thanks to all us Liberal Tree Huggers and a pre Trump era Department of the Interior!

Red Cockaded Woodpecker

...still makes the rare sighting list on ebird...considered endangered since it was almost eradicated by the planting of the much faster growing yellow pine, a cash crop...

                                       3 in this shot they live in small family groups  

 We found at least 2 species of Pitcher Plant growing there...here is one growing low to the ground..see the water inside?  And note the flower...

And the taller variety...click to enlarge!

These plants need a "bog" situation to survive...we didn't see many around, only a few remaining as funding to manage habitat is not happening! The water level of the pond nearby has fallen to such a level the bog has dried up...if there is no Money in it what good is it...(the current political attitude toward the Natural World).   Understanding how and why nature works is one of the most important pieces of life's puzzle that we need in order to continue to survive...The burning of the Amazon Rain Forest is a huge tragedy...yet no million dollar homes are in the way so what's the big deal?   

Female Blue Grosbeak

No hurry cause now there is more room to grow Palm Oil...that nasty mess that is in everything we consume these days....This is a big deal...habitat loss is the biggest threat to the birds and animals we love; without them what would our lives be like? I just can't imagine.  Use your voice to scream out
I'M NOT OKAY WITH THAT!  

But Im okay with this.....fall color is springing up all over the place...love it!

 the Plant that announces fall the Goldenrod! 

This plant is called "Rattlebox" due to when the seed pod dries it  can be shaken like a rattle.  It is poisonous to livestock...

Who knew a Disco Spider lived on my place? Wow what a work of art..

Oecobiidae Spider Web

So when our birds go to South America this winter will they have a home to go to?  The Yellow Billed Cuckoo goes all the way to Northern Argentina What a shame some will face a dire situation.  Is there anyway we can tell these American Corporations we don't want PALM OIL in our food?? Maybe write letters! I stopped buying mircrowave popcorn, due to palm oil...but it's in almost every product that is processed...like the coffee creamer I love.  

There is no place like home...

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.