my life my art my journey: loggerhead

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

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...