Low Country

It was Tuesday Morning when I got up early and tossed my already prepared lunchables into the cooler for a ride to Bear Island.  It closes on Nov 1st till Feb 8th. Encompassing the entire migrant duck season...so annoying, especially since they hold HUNTS during this time but birders are not allowed in.  Im wondering why haven't we lobbied the DNR to get Special Birding Days?? Birders are so passive sometimes.  Hunters buy a license they buy these tags...so I guess we need to put our money where our mouth is?  We need to form our own lobby I guess?? ABA listen up we need more access!

Sun rising above the cotton fields

Anyways I drove the 3 hrs to find the WMA closed to a special 3 day hunt..they never close on week days but this time they did! Damn. So I flagged down one of the workers, he said yes they don't normally but after this week it goes back to weekends...Some of the arriving ducks will end up dead in the back of a pick up truck.  ANGER

I was only able to scan Mary's Pond which is roadside...a few mostly Mottled Duck some possible Blue winged Teal female in there...I could not get good light on them...and I saw two female Gadwall among them. A few Yellowlegs waded in the shallows...

Same worker told me Donnelley was open it's the sister site which is much more forest they hunt there too and soon both areas will be closed but open to special hunts.   There is a fishing canal on the way to Bear's Island and I always stop there to see what's hanging around, lots of Common Gallinule, or Moorhen as I still call them.   They were weaving in and out of this this Marsh Grass. 

Also present was Snowy Egret, Tri Colored Heron, and Little Blue Heron...

Up in the trees the awesome sounds of the boat tailed grackles brightened my mood as who can't enjoy that?  The ruckus will make you smile no matter if you did get turned away at the gate. 

 the fishing canals

they have  a way of sounding like a train wreck...

After this I drove back about 11 miles to Donnelley...and spent the rest of the afternoon there...

 I was ready to find a spot to eat  lunch so I found a table on the grounds of the "lodge" 

Potato salad under a moss covered live  oak tree...

This Carolina Wren was not happy about me being there....invader alert. 

After that I started my tour by locking the van and walking the road by the rice trunks..me and my shadow (for Eileen) with all the gators, this is why there's not as much birdlife in Donnelley, in the water at least...

each one of those little things in the water is a gator 6 in this shot

This SAFE tree gets a lot of use...

Tri colored Heron, 2 Gr Egrets, a Rosette Spoonbill, 

Farther back on one of the little islands I spotted an immature Black Crowned Night Heron...

And overhead some Wood Stork checking for a good spot to land...

The Great Blue didn't seem bothered he waded out in spite of the flotilla of gators

In the back where it was safer a few American Coots, Common Gallinule, Pied Billed Grebe and two Northern Shovelers were feeding....one male

lone male...

Maybe if I stand really still she won't see me..,

Gr Blue Heron

Great Egret

After leaving this area I was more in the forest and came upon a few fields...and this stand of Wild Canna Lily, or Indian Shot   Do you know where the name came from?  The seeds look like the pellets of shotgun.  

Butterflies enjoyed these I never knew butterfly liked Canna...and so do frogs!

Green Tree Frog

I took one short hike the skeeters were really bad...but I found this Zebra Longwing so happy I did endure the onslaught of bites to see this..he looks like he is worse for wear also...

Saw Palmetto 

Nurse log

Canna under the Live Oak..

Spanish Moss

One of the many canals 

The new Blogger takes twice as long to make a post and it's all over the place, my little icon normally here at the end disappeared and Im not even going to try to get it back in this post....so just pretend it's here with it's points going on the 4 directions of My Life, My Art, My Journey!! 

Hope you enjoyed this peek at some of the Low Country of SC.

PEACE..

Every day is a new Adventure.

3rd Week Apr update

When you're writing a post do you write the whole thing in one sitting, or do what I do and work on it little by little?  I come back and add to it as the story develops unless I'm traveling and I know I will only have internet for a limited amount of time.  So this post has been building since the end of week 2 and here it is the 3rd week of April, our migrant arrivals are moving along quickly! So the 5 mile radius numbers continue to grow!!

A bluebird pair seem to be settled on this plastic gourd in the yard for a nest spot...

they took turns going in with very small bits of nest material...almost one small blade of grass so I will check later to see if this was a false start or a practice run or the real McCoy!

The very next morning I went to check out the Sorghum field area and found my FOY (88) Eastern Kingbird up on a wire...

Checked out my hotspot on the following day and BAM..got that Prothonotary Warbler to show himself..(89) Now no longer "rare" as I know he was here earlier than his normal arrive by date, but I don't need any unwanted attention preferring to remain in the background of life rather than be paving the way for others. 

"Finally got you on pixels!"  I made a recording of his call too...

Also while I was trying to pick this warbler out, the Northern Parula and the White Eyed Vireo were all over the canopy again...gleaning little tiny gnats and caterpillars off the leaves and branches. 

northern parula male

and the female!

she had me with going nutz for a while trying to figure out wtheck she was... finally it hit me!

                                                                          white eyed vireo

ALSO look who else is in Adams Mill Pond at my hotspot...

I've heard for years there are gators in that pond but this is my first sighting! Most of his body is hanging below the water I'd say he was a 4-6 ft specimen..I thought of sharing my find with the ranger but then I had this image of the gator being harassed so I kept it on the QT i have never heard of any issues with people and alligators here.  

We took a ride over to Lee county to do some cemetery survey work and we stopped to check out my new found wetland where the beaver pond is



...the eagle nest had 2 juveniles in it...happy to report, I had seen the one but there is two!! I don't know if they have fledged and still hanging in the nest I have not seen them flight testing or out of the nest...they will continue to use the nest and depend on the parents for help for a while yet. 

My priority this week was to find those cattle egret in my radius and that I did pretty easily! First I found 3 with cattle then a field where cows had been moved recently and there was at least 25 Cattle Egrets (#90) in there along with 4 PIGEONS! I was almost as happy to find the pigeons as the egrets.  

here's 2 of the 4 rock dove.  (feral pigeons) (#91) 

that same field had a flock of geese coming in...

This is a stretch of road where I pull over and look for warblers in the swamp I bird from the road...I had a red eyed calling but he would not come out for a photo opt yet! I'm trying to get his call to share but he stayed so far back it was not a good recording. 

Back at home that night I got up for a bathroom visit about 4 am and through the open window heard a Chuck Will's Widow!! (#92) And then last night I took a walk and recorded his sound...I couldn't figure out how to upload it to blogger. 

At home in the afternoon the wonderful sound of the Summer Tanager (#93) came floating in and soon I spotted him..

Then Sunday Morning whilst most were putting on Easter Bonnets, I was grabbing my binoculars and heading to one of my fav spots...it's only 1 mile away and it's more roadside birding but it's not a busy road...I got out and phished a little bit and got the attention of 2 Orchard Oriole, (94) one a first year male and one mature male..

They came in flying like Luke Skywalker in that scene of Star Wars, Return of the Jedi....when they flew at incredible speeds and taking runs down those narrow channels of the Death Star!  So I snapped a couple fast ones missed the immature male altogether. 

It is now going to get tough...Hope I can pull it up to 100 but most of my expected arrivals with a few exceptions are accounted for...

7 new additions this past week!  Total 94.  Im hoping for the Blue Grosbeak soon saw him on Sunday but not in the radius! 

Heard in the yard additions this week:

35. Chuck Wills Widow

36. Summer Tanager
37 Northern Parula

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.