Weekend Getaway II

I starred up at the stars till my neck began to feel stiff and then I tried to pull up anything to entertain me on my phone, nothing doing!! One bar of service. 

Anyways I wanted to watch Chrome of Vancity Vanlife,  but nope it would not load.  So I tucked myself under my quilt, sleeping bag, and wool blanket...since I brought no heat source with me.  I was plenty warm overnight.  And in the morning, I watched the sun rise with a hot cup of coffee.  

I had packed up camp the night before so I only had to restash my cooking gear, I had some oatmeal with banana and toast for breakfast.  Just had to boil water!

After a quick clean up I drove the long road out of the Preserve and headed North up highway 17  for Huntington Beach State Park, about 30 miles up the road.  

I arrived at 9 am...paid my $5 day use fee and parked in the visitors parking and headed for the Mullet Ponds to check for whatever birds were out and about. 

The expected waders, were out but not in huge numbers, and some fishing birds like the Anhinga

Caught one, 

Get it in position...

GULP....

the Gr blue Heron

The great Egret

The Snowy Egret

On the other side of the road is the pond and a flock of Lesser Scaup about half way out
50-ish 

And farther out by the bank is a flock of Gadwall.  

And a small count of 8 or so Green winged Teal too far out for a decent photo...meanwhile this Gr Blue Heron nearly landed on top of me...

Not long after that a flock of Hooded Merganser sailed out of the reeds...

Im totally digging the hair...

Mallards at the Sandpiper Pond

The Heron moved back to a safer place...I didn't see any shorebirds and that was my hope so I moved the van to the North Beach parking lot and headed up the beach toward the North Jetty normally a good spot for shorebirds, but I got here a little early a front had just passed and birds had not moved to the beach...  Even the Sanderlings were holding still...

My legs were tired  from all the walking I did the day before at Santee Coastal, but I had about a two mile hike in the sand to get to that Jetty..so no use whinning just go!!  Next time I go I want to take my bike, to make this walk a quick ride instead...especially on the two mile walk back after walking all day on and around the jetty. 

it's up there somewhere

It was still to early and chilly for sunbathers but there was plenty of action in the water...

and above the Beach...

Brown Pelican 

and on the sand...

It's like a garage sale you never know what you're gonna find...

Horned Grebes were fishing in the surf...

When I finally got on the Jetty there was a lot of people and boat action in the cove and no shorebirds.. 

These people had fun on their own island for a few minutes...

Common Loon was out in force...

And a few Red Throated Loons as well...

And I found one Long Tailed Duck diving out in the cove...So I reported the rare bird!! YEAH. 

I didn't see everything I had hoped for but there is no such thing as a bad day at the beach...

Ringed Bill Gull

It was a fun trip and I look forward to the next visit.  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Huntington Beach COLD last day!

Huntington Beach State Park, SC

This was the last day of my winter road trip, so like I said, depressing--One of my facebook friends said, "If travel was free Sondra would never come back" she is right!!   If only, but who knows what our futures hold I AM thankful for what I have every tangible and non tangible bit of life-experience home and away from home. 

The weather was bitter cold, and yukky grey.  Without the wind chill I would venture a guess of about 30ish-F with more like teens. Hardly the kind of day I would find much in the way of bird-life as they hunkered down pretty good.  I had on 2 coats, gloves, 2 hats, could barely move!!

This group of Snowy Egrets were having a hard time keeping those feather in shape!

 ...The ponds on each side of the causeway at Huntington Beach State Park were not filled with ducks as I had hoped.  The fog also made photos pretty blurry, auto focus loves to focus on water droplets.  The birds were hanging close to the Far Away Side I assume to get out of the wind more...I saw a small number of northern shovelers males and females, didn't get a decent shot of any thing I saw. 

and a large raft of Gadwalls Males n females too..

Normally I would hear rails, and see large numbers of wood storks poking around in the mud flats, and the marsh...a couple great egrets flew over low but landed closer to the trees also in Far Away range.  I did see Lesser Scaup male n female, 

And this Immature RedHead? The thin blue line is how I came to this conclusion...the one about 1/2" up from the tip of the beak.

Bufflehead 2 pairs, and Ruddy Ducks were present. 

  Hooded mergansers were out and about.  

I trekked down the boardwalk ...there were no surprises here some Double Created Cormorants.  

Noticed the water level was higher than normal this may account for the low bird count also...Maybe If I had waited till low tide... 

the wind was so cold look how miserable this tri color heron is with his crest feathers flying  back over his face...LoL poor thing..

Casey and I took a walk on the nearby beach and I saw one willet and 2 ruddy turnstones and one sanderling...that was it!! no photos of those guys.  Even gulls were not to be found.  

Casey is so light he threatened to blow away....This shot really shows the dreary day going on...

There was this really cool poster with the names of shells...I really would have liked to have one of these...little note said available in VC, but it was closed when I drove past I was out rather early.  

...before leaving  the beach access parking lot I set up my cook stove in the protected space created by opening the 2 back doors of the van and heated up some roasted tomato & basil soup and it was the best thing ever on my cold nose and hands and it put my cold induced hunger to sleep.  After doing the dishes and putting everything away I drove the 138 miles to home.

(Other birds seen but not mentioned or pictured were:

Northern cardinal, pine siskin, tufted titmouse, carolina chickadee, white throated sparrow, yellow rump warbler, pied billed grebes, northern mockingbird, brown thrasher, and american crow!) 

I had a great trip added 5 birds to my life list, saw my first
American crocodile, (in the wilds) enjoyed all the wonderful bromeliads, alligators, and the miles of saw grass, all the marvelous birds, put 9 new stamps in my Passport to the Parks Book, saw the smallest post office in the country, and met all sorts of nice people from all over the world, and added a new friend to my facebook!! Also enjoyed some ridiculous pelican and skimmer action, and watched some freaky tourists do some really silly things too!!  I enjoyed good weather in FL, 2 overnight rain storms and some partly cloudy days, a few skeeters,  but all in all perfect choice to go South!!

Since back at home I had to do the usual pick up the sticks that fall every single day in the yard, and I've been clearing out the woods on my land a bit trying to get rid of so much of the wild grape vine that has choked everything out...then I started back to work on the House!! Now I'm spending my evenings plotting my next adventure.

PEACE

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

Winter Road Trip

I've been waiting on the weather window to open so I could take a winter road trip and finally it did! Last weekend we had ice this weekend I hit the road...Still not as sunny as I'd like it to be but hopefully it will change..so where in the world am I you ask? One guess...here I am parked under the cabbage palms the state tree of the State I'm in..

Im only just barely in the state of FL, I'm camped currently at Little Talbot Island SP. east of Jacksonville, FL.  Thanks to my sister for keeping my big dogs and looking out for Mom so I can have some free time to do some winter birding..

palm warbler

I saw a lot of birds today...yesterday was a lot of driving and getting settled for camping for the day and a walk on the beach...so today I concentrated on finding some birds...I wish I had better photos..and the clouds didnt help.

  

American Kestrel a bit far away...

Willet also far away playing in the surf..

Went to get my passport stamped at Kingsley Plantation and there was a tree full of Cedar Wax wings...

A river runs right in front of the plantation house I saw this man and his best friend out for a boat ride...

they made the slave quarters out of what they call Tabby...its oyster shells, sand, and water...

this one is sort of eroded, here is how it probably looked in the days when it was in use...

after visiting this spot the sun was still hiding so I went to the boardwalk on Big Talbot Island and it was full of stuff to see...

Casey waiting for me...

Hooded Mergansers and Shovelers

Pied Billed Grebes

blue winged teal

tri-colored Heron

Gr. Egret

 Redwinged Blackbird Females

Im going with Lesser Scaup it didnt appear that big to me, a new lifer and the female was there too...

later on in the day I head to Ft George just south of my campground and saw flocks of mixed gulls, terns, and skimmers.

black skimmers

little blue heron immature, 

wood stork

And lots of these guys around some already on nests..

Osprey

My campsite at Little Talbot is right on the marsh pretty good spot too..and the fastest Wifi

 I've ever had in my entire life!! At home Im happy to get 2 bars of a 4G signal here Im getting 4 bars!!

I only scratched the surface of all I saw yesterday and today...I hope to have more to share as the week progresses and I continue South!

More coming...

PEACE

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