Goals, an investment in time

• 

I like to set little goals to make MY simple life more interesting...like hiking to as many of the SC waterfalls as I could, one of my more recent goals,,,,well I didn't finish because all were not public but I did 43 so far! It takes a lot of dedication to complete a goal..even a small one but one like hiking to every waterfall in a state is a pretty big goal...Im not done and if I never do them all it was so much fun to try!

Other Goals Im working on

• Visit all 50 States, I still need Hawaii
• Get from 400 to 500 Life List birds in NA, Im at 457
• Visit all of SC State Parks, and get my Passport Book Stamps I have visited many and will need to revisit to get the Stamp. 
• Get a Bird List for each of the 47 counties in my State 9 to go..
• So here is an interesting goal...there is this vernal pond not far from my home, it's about 7 or 8 miles away and I've been watching it for a couple years...It became visible when the land was clear cut much like the parcel right here on the same road I live on.  SO anyways this one has grown and with all the rain we have had over the past 24 months it has become quite established.  So every time I drive by I was always looking then one day I saw a Great Blue Heron fly up..

And before I could pull over and get off the road a Little Blue flew off..no photo...so I've been birding this I call it Old Stagecoach Pool, cause that's the name of the road, I cant really make it a hot spot it's private land, no one lives there but still...that is the Heron.  And even better  Google earth shows the Little Lynches River is only a short mile of so as the crow flies, north of this spot...the map shows a second pool...one is farther back and I really don't want to trespass that much so I stick to the one closest to the highway.

This really shows the importance of vernal pools, and ponds.  I have spotted many other birds there and a mallard pair must have a nest they have been there...more than a month now. 

 A Loggerhead Shrike pair are always there as well as Northern Mockingbirds, Eastern Kingbird, Prairie Warbler, Killdeer, and now three Green Herons along with several Common Grackle....

the Green Heron

An immature Loggerhead Shrike...

Recently I saw 3 Bald Eagles, one adult and two Immature ones...

immature Bald Eagle

I was worried for the ducks but they were hiding...I hope one day I will be this way when it's sunny! Always seem to be there on a dreary day...the last time I stopped I had 18 species of bird here! Not bad for basically a big mud puddle.  There is grasshopper, frog, and berries, along with all sorts of insects  to feed these birds,,,,check out the Green Heron grabbing up a frog, and just listen to all the birds living here...

Play by pressing in the middle of the picture/video

So this goal is to continue to watch this wetland progress and see how it grows, see how many species of bird I can log there for an entire season, just hope it's not destroyed by a landowner who knows nothing about the natural world around them of which there are many in this area!

Also on another note there is a Rookery not so far away normally you can't even get close but  one day the gate was open, no sign saying stay out so I took a chance and drove in.  Glad I did it was exciting to see and hear the chaos of the rookery!

The road is really sketchy...altho it's a very short distance. 

Another goal was realized here for I had not seen a Black Crowned Night Heron this year, and BAM there was one! 

And more Great Egrets and Cattle Egret nesting colonies, I didn't have a good view of the huge amount of birds there as the view is best if you are ON the lake say in a boat...

they are very haphazardly placed I don't know how they manage to  keep it together during storms..

More precious young ones..and no "warbler neck" this is why sometimes I seek out birds that are not going to be 100 ft up. 

"If you read the plaque it tells you all about those 2 photos! 1808

I agree with moving any Confederate Statues to a museum or where ever they can figure out a place where they would be appropriate, but I do hope they don't remove the historic markers. 

Boykin's Mill is where the Rookery is located...

We can not erase the past, but it seems we have not completely learned from it!  Hopefully if signs need to be remade they will still tell the story but in a more inclusive way...

Then I went off to do more County Birding...this time Calhoun County..

I found the perfect road it was a dead end..Perfect because......
NO one would be passing by saying "what'cha looking at"? Yahoo!! 

There was a large fallow field and some pine trees, I do think this land is part of a hunting club, but I saw NO signs saying keep out...Found several painted Buntings...

Eastern Wood Pewee

Yellow-Throated Warbler

Blue Grosbeak (female or immature)

the Great Crested Flycatcher

Just to name a few.  I had a great time fulfilling this chunk in my county goal. 

What are some of your personal goals??

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Chronicles of the Week

Still summer here...hope for a sudden change!  

Aug 18

Another hot one...

...enjoyed this fresh looking dragon, I guess it's a Halloween Pennant dragonfly He looks perfect!  We rode over to Lake Paul Wallace, It's been a while since we visited we didn't see a lot but we enjoyed what we saw...

Duck Potato Plant

These Mallards wanted a hand out we had a few crumbs so we tossed a bit out of the window..they are completely spoiled as you can tell 

The Geese were not as friendly!  

Aug 21

Midweek I ventured up to the local racetrack...it is also a hotspot for my town, it's not in my radius and I helped push the county count up by 4 for the year, I know in a way I'm cutting my own throat for my radius percentage %.

 

This little pond is on the racetrack grounds and it's pretty popular...I uploaded some of these straight to Blogger see if you can click it and make it bigger, if you don't mind?  A little test. 

So last week Aug 14th I went over and found the immature Tri Color Heron, and this week he was still there along with the 2 immature White Ibis I shared last post... 

Tri-Color Heron

Then I found a Yellow Legs, I think lesser, so that's how I reported it..he stayed behind the reeds making it hard to pull out a decent shot of him..

and all of sudden he had company...lower left of the photo

A spotted sandpiper!  Fun to find both of these...

 So 2 more added to my county list for the year 

When I stand very still for a long period of time my spine fuses up! So I was glad to sit on one of these logs and watch the birds milling around in the pond...

Tuesday Aug 20,  I went to my 5 mile radius Hotspot early I arrived about 7:30 am and I found a new one for the radius, the Green Heron.  (#117) He was pretty far out there I got this for the record shot no mistaking this silhouette. 






And he returned again Aug 21....the Green Heron



This is hopeful thinking! Im glad to see some color coming to the landscape..

One of the Common Yellow Throats came out into the open  




Aug 21, Back at the Racetrack Pond, I found another Green Heron, he was really small so I assume a this years edition. 





The little Blue Heron continues to hang around even tho the pond is slowly drying up...I hope recent rains will help...




The Green Heron was having luck finding food I saw him come up with several wiggly things...mostly what this pond has in it is this:



Lots of small peepers! They scampered from the edge as I walked along making little bloopppp sounds as they hit the water.

So the cool thing is this...The Racetrack has been the number one Hotspot in our county. (per ebird) There are only about 10 birders, actually only 2 of us record active weekly counts, since one fellow moved away.  So I have moved my Hotspot, Goodale State Park, to within 3 birds of being tied with the Hotspot for species count for the current yr...it was 4th in past yrs.  So that's really cool.  I honestly believe I can take it to number 1. 


Red Eyed Vireo (taken with my old camera) at my hotspot Aug 23.



AND...
I decided not to keep the camera I just purchased, its on the way back...I decided I wanted better results and realized it was not coming... once I get refunded for that I will be looking again! I have my eye on a couple possibilities.


8/24 ...on the way to the post office this morning, and a Barred Owl (#118) glided across the road in front of my van...In the Radius! I stopped he had landed but he was in deep cover when I got out of the van and tried to relocate him he flew into even deeper cover, I've been finding feathers so I know one is active here. Then I stopped at my hotspot and finally; I've been waiting for these guys to arrive..




#119 the Wood Stork, 2 in total.   So this was a good day for me birdwise. 


SO that's a wrap up for my week.  Hope yours was a good one!

In honor of Judy a birding blogger who recently passed...

THE END:


the south end of the red eyed vireo

                                                                

                                                                         PEACE

McFaddin and Sabine Woods

My last day at Sea Rim was Saturday and I had 2 places to visit all lined up.  Just down the road was McFaddin WLR.   I took a drive down to see what I might find.  Its a nice drive around a lake and some channels, then you gotta turn around...Once again due to the road that was not replaced when Hurricane Ike destroyed it.  

There is some open grass, some canals and 

salt marsh too, its wet  I'm sure it dries later in the summer.  There were many Sea Side Sparrows out there hiding and singing in that grass...I got a few horrible photos but I'll share one anyways...the camera couldn't focus with all that grass waving around...

and just as crazy is the Marsh Wren they never sit still...

here's a little video of the wren so you can hear the call

           

Saw a few great blue herons, some great egrets, snowy egrets, and Green Herons...

...below is a Savannah Sparrow 

At the end of the drive where you have to run around there was a tug pushing a barge up the canal.

On the way to Sabine Woods from here you have to pass road 69, it is the area of Sea Rim Park where you can rent boats and there is a good sized parking lot there...I stopped to eat a lunch and found this guy sitting right in the middle of an empty parking lot! 

Also camping on the beach was a  fellow from MN for a couple nights and he had ABA stickers all over his Hyundai Fit and little bird statues glued to his dashboard.  A little bit eccentric but it's all good.  SO he and I viewed a similar bird in the grass at Sea Rim he told me they are lesser nighthawk, I wanted it to be the common paruaque but he said no, so I trust his knowledge.  Lesser was a lifer for me anyway!! 

And here is the one we viewed together...

I stood too close to his mate and he zoomed me... what a sound he made...very loud earth shattering almost. I guess different lighting is the reason for the difference in color this one was in later evening light.

In that same parking lot is this NOAA weather monitoring station, pretty cool to see. 

and a red winged blackbird perched on the tower...

After lunch I drove about 10 miles down the road to the Sabine Woods, I stopped by here on Friday but the bugs were so bad I left...so I wanted to return. 

Great big trees in the woodlot, and at the back an open field, they charge $5 for non members..its a self pay station..

There is one pond on the property and it attracts birds and mosquitoes. 

There's lots of plants, insects, trees, nice trails, and some benches here and there to rest, they put out some trickle water features to entice birds to land for you to get a photo...I didn't have much luck, I should have come here first...

lots of flowers to attract pollinators too...

Here is a skipper on a blanket flower as I call this plant....all these plants are native to this area.  like the Cherokee Rose. 

All the birders gathered at the water to wait for the warblers....

What we saw was this yellow crowned night heron try to swallow a turtle! He finally gave up but he whacked that turtle pretty hard...I had to leave I didn't want to see the turtle get hurt.

A grey catbird wanted a drink but he stayed hid in the thicket...

This Eastern Kingbird came right out in the open getting down to business gathering some nesting material.

I walked out of the woods to the field and back towards the entrance is a big mulberry tree, I saw a few orchard orioles fly in and out both males and females, and then one guy said there is a Cape May Warbler in the tree...took me forever to find him but finally I did...

Summer Tanager 

Not a new bird for me, as warblers are plentiful in the Carolina's but it was sweet to get this photo.

I was hot and sweaty and tired so I went back to Sea Rim to get my van settled in for the last time there...

another Neotropical Cormorant. 

Looking across the marsh to my spot for the night on the beach....so lovely. 

Sunday was a day of driving to get relocated...and I'll pick up there on the next blog. 

PEACE

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