Offensive Day!

Do you ever have days where everything goes wrong?? Today Thursday the 4th of June...was one of those days for me...I have not been 100% present lately...so when things like this come along it shakes me awake...with a shudder. 

The photos in this post do not match the narrative so I will caption each

the Heron nest tree Santee Bluff had 3 successful nests.

I got up early and I knew a steamy humid day was on tap so I thought may as well head out early and get in some birding and my walk (which I do together) over with while it's cool...And I figured to go someplace nearby  where I could stop and pick up a few items I need on the way back.   I don't enjoy walking on the dirt road here like I used to for some odd reason, I want to go where there are no cars and no other people to annoy me!
(the whatcha' looking for people--grrr) 

Evening Primrose?

So I thought of the county park by the river I have not been there in a while...left home at 8:15 and was at the closed and locked gate of the park by 8:40...1st offense why is it closed???? WHO KNOWS!
dang... so what's plan B? I had no Plan B...

the guy who tromped into the field and flushed the Bobolink I came to see

there they go....

so I pulled back onto the highway and made a quick stop at the Food Lion grabbed a few fruit and nut items, for my on the go lunches, and then did a U turn back towards town and to Big Lots they have the coffee and chocolate bars  I like there pretty cheap.  I turned in and there was this tiny kitten standing crying in the entrance road...omg

2nd offense

female Bobolink

OH NO...he was heading toward the busy highway..I stopped jumped out and he hightailed and ran into the deep thick shrubbery surrounding the new car wash, they are a prickly holly of some kind with thorns on the end of each leaf...I called and called he was hiding and not coming out...then cars were pulling in and around me in an aggressive way so I moved my car into a parking space and went into Petsense.  There was a Animal Welfare lady in there they do adoptions there she had brought in 2 cats for adoption...and so I told her about the kitty...I don't think she cared she didn't promise to go look for the kitten :o((

3rd  offense

closest I got to some male Bobolinks

 I checked twice more and he never reappeared.  Poor kitty...I am not a cat person but I have rescued cats many times...Ok got my goods at Big Lots, check one more time, no kitten...and leave...so then I mentally form a new plan.  I think maybe since it's June now the racehorses are normally gone north by now, I can bird and walk at the Racetrack...so I drive over there...
Stables still full of horses!! And some on the way toward the track for their morning workout...
4th offense!
It's way too hot here for training racehorses this time of year are they nutz?

there they go again

So I make another U turn sit there and try to think what is close by....I decide to drive to visit Mom at the cemetery its about 6 miles north...it's a weekly thing I do and I normally bird there too so here we go...Mom's flowers still look good and the little wind chime I hung for her tinkles a sweet tune...but today they have mowers, weed eaters, and guys all over kicking up clouds of dust and noise...so no birding.  Even the normal 5 Northern Mockingbirds are hiding, I do make a mental bird by ear list. As I head out of Forest Lawn giving the maintenance crew a disgusted look and scowl.
5th offense And it's only 10 AM...

Bobolink hike lunch break

Not far away from the cemetery is the Revolutionary Battlefield where British General Cornwallis whipped General Gates and killed our Patriot hero Baron DeKalb.  Shot him dead!!  Did I tell y'all my sister did all the hard and arduous work of getting inclusion for US into the DAR? She sure did!! Thank you sis for all that hard work!! So our family was here long before that they lived in Plymouth Colony...AND in the Civil War we had ancestors who fought on BOTH sides shows how undecided and divided we really can be!! Im just happy the South lost the war! Can you imagine it the other way around?  

A male Bobolink with his back toward me

Anyways on the WAY to this bloodstained battlefield to go birding I was pretty far, but not far enough, behind a log truck who was barrel-assing, (that is a Patriot word of old) without a load, up Flat Rock Rd, and one of his many huge wheels spun a ga-zillion miles per hour flat rock right into my windshield...immediately made like a  quarter sized bulls eye !! Holy Guacamole!
 6th Offense!! 10:05 am.

Ring Neck Duck near the edge of the Bobolink field.

Not to be deterred from my morning BIRD TRIP AND WALK (Hell or high water type scenario) I park in the shade  shake my head curse like nutz about it, and take to the trail...NOW it's no longer cool like it would have been at 08:30 when I was turned back at the gates of the county park...it's actually rather steamy and hot...sweat rolls down my back and puddles in my eyeglasses...But I go anyways.  Using my cell phone to track me on ebird this is kind of a poor man's fit bit.  I walk 1.2 miles on various trails they have laid out in the site. 

Eastern Meadowlark...at Dobbins Farm Townville SC

I ran into a group of State Archaeologists who are out with some sort of metal detectors, looks similar to the kind they carry while trying to refind a bull moose with a huge life changing collar on his neck up in the Yukon...it's beeping so I guess they are finding artifacts.  No telling what all is out there...

NO offense in this part...unless you count running into other people.  

Male Dickcissel at Dobbins Farm

I see and hear some good birds...Ovenbirds, Wood Thrush, Yellow-Throated Vireo, and lots more! 28 species all toll and I enjoyed it. All my bad karma of the morning forgotten... I am completely soaked with sweat and so on the way back to the van Im plotting my next move which is go home and shower thinking,"okay tomorrow I will take the van into town and see about the windshield see what they suggest, maybe it can just have that chip stuff put on it..even tho it's the size of a quarter...and then when I arrive back the windshield is NOW completely cracked from top to bottom...I can almost hear it cracking from where I'm standing...like I'm standing over Crater Lake with a thin crust of ice under my feet...

Offense # 7

Grasshopper Sparrow Dobbins Farm 

So instead of going home, it's only a 12 minute drive from my location, I head back to town...in town I am told by the guy in the red shirt, after I tell him how this happened, that "You must have had your AC on, and that caused it to immediately crack"  Well yes on the ride here I did,  but I said "It cracked while it was parked for an hour when I took a walk, had not put on the ac at that point"

"OH, so it was sitting there all locked up, the heat  got it," he replied  

I think that was an Offense...#8. First it was too cold then it was too hot?? It can't be both can it?

Dickcissel male Dobbins Farm

SO he says to call my insurance company first and they will set it all up...but he warns me, "if there is any rust in there we can't do it, if  the previous installation was not properly done, that could create a problem".

Could this be #9???

So then I inform him that would be THEM 5 yrs ago! 

"SO if it's not right Y'all Did it"!  I think he scowled.  

OKAY...so that was my morning now past noon and heading to a steamy 1 pm...I call, insurance, good they set it up for Tuesday here at my home, hope it's not raining could be since there is a storm chugging in the gulf right now...So we'll see on that one.  Do you ever have those times in life when absolutely everything goes wrong due to one locked gate??? Open that gate and NONE of this would have happened!! And  you're wondering about the final Offense of this tragic morning??

MY CHOCOLATE BAR MELTED IN THE HOT CAR!!

this is like a 10 even if it's not really #10.. it's in the fridge chilling as I type.  

Yellow-Throated Vireo Battle of Camden Historic Site 

So these are photos of various bird trips I did back in May...Santee Bluffs is part of the Santee National Wildlife Refuge it's about 90 miles south of me, and then the Dobbins Farm is about 170 miles away in the northwestern part of the state in a place called Townville.  Quite a long drive, but it was a beautiful day and one tank of gas got me there and back. At  Dobbins farm I went there to see the White-rumped Sandpiper, and I did see it however I got no decent photos of the bird, due to the distance.  One lady was there with a scope and I got a look at 2 of them...we all got a look ,she was kind enough to use sterile wipes between lookers so that was nice.  SO a new lifer for me, and shared with  other 4 other interesting birders! 

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Tuesday windshield all new ... just got it in this morning...last time I had one put in I was hit by a rock in 3 days it left a small ice chip as I called it and it never offered to crack...so Im knocking on wood!!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

May Day

Another month gone? I can't believe it...My last report the 3rd week of April, was really a good week where I had 6 in one week...but wait!  

When I ended March had my 5 mile radius up to 77 species sighted since Jan 1st..and April really helped me push the count higher all the way up to 96 The last week of April,  I didn't get to bird every day so I got only 2 species by the 30th...the Blue Grosbeak...(#95) 

And on the                            same day in the exact same area almost in the                                       same tree the lovely  Indigo Bunting (#96)

And the beautiful turquoise back...

So I ended up with 96 for April.  Then MAY arrived and what a May Day I had.  I was in the field by 7:15 am since it is now getting hot by midday.  I had plans to go into town outside my radius to look for the Swainson's Warbler spotted by the 2 other birders who are listing in my county.  They live in the burbs but I had so much going on in my radius I never made it to town!  

I made a stop at one of my personal hotspots where I have seen quite a few of my FOY birds so far including the Blue's just mentioned...I can't make if official it's private property I bird from the road...
but I heard gunshots...probably a Turkey Hunter..it's still Turkey season.   So I moved on to a similar habitat.  Sure am glad I did... asa I got out of the van I heard this bird: (#97)

I haven't seen one of these in like 10 years was really thrilled to see 4 different individuals!  The Yellow Breasted Chat. 

these flowering shrubs are all around the area where the chat was 

Had more orchard oriole's males, immature males, and females..

Then more Prairie Warblers, more Indigo Buntings too...

All singing high up on tops of the trees.  

I pulled the van a little farther down the road and heard a somewhat familiar sound...how could I forget the call of all those yellow warblers that I saw in CO last yr so this is my FOY Yellow Warbler, (#98)

Then I moved the van to an area where I have an awesome spot to bird a swampy verge.  I found my FOY Gray Catbird, (#99)  no photo and then in the field area that is on the edge of the woods, I heard the Grasshopper Sparrow. (#100)  He /she would not pop up for a look but no mistaking that buzzy call.  

I found these tracks...I always enjoy trying to figure out tracks...so this one had me stumped for a moment...what's your guess? I'll post my guess once the commenting is done so stop back by or subscribe to comments to see if we are all in sync about what this was. 

Back at home I was hot and tired and rested on the screen porch and bam In flew this lady to make my #101 bird!  

The Female Rose Breasted Grosbeak!  

...the last week of April, we had a luncheon on the porch...I made a salad from my container grown  greens, and it was delicious served with fresh strawberries!  Mom and sis approved.

Life is not all about Birds ya know!

Here is one of my radius Eastern Towhee with the red eye..the yellow eye one that lives in the clear cut is very special...but lately I've had to venture out of the clear cut to find my latest arriving birds..

Even with this stick in the way that eye is just ....well eye catching! 

And  you can't go wrong with a posing Northern Mockingbird...

So I broke the 100 ceiling count...and now it's going to get even harder to rack up numbers...I will keep trying till it gets too hot! Once birds are in place raising young, not going to see many newbies come through.  

So ended up April with 96 and the entire county count was 146 so my % fell some; ended up with close to 66%.

Adding a Wild Turkey... the heard from the yard in April species was at 38!  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.