Then n Now

Well this really made me say WHATTTT??? the beautiful Beaver Dam gone! At the hand of some fisherman who just decided HE didn't like it...

Before

NOW

The reason I know it was forced away and not washed away is the branches were dragged to the sides..not washed downstream.  SAD. And so upstream its drying up the wetland.  Don't people realize beaver create perfect habitat for fish, toads, turtles, aquatic plants? Anyway it was really a sad moment for me when I found it this way :o(  

This changes the entire dynamic of this place will wood ducks leave now? The vegetation will choke out the plants that like to have wet feet, and the Eagle nest nearby will have a hard time finding prey in a thicker swamp.  

I saw very few birds where I had been seeing and hearing many...I did find one owl pellet I forgot to take a shot of it before I began to sift thru it...

small rodent vole, mole? 

A common Yellow Throat took a look at me from the other side of the road...

back in the radius a black n white warbler gave me a serenade..

The Yellow eyed Eastern Towhee is still living in the clear cut Im happy to report. 

Some beautiful colorful Variegated Fritillary 

The Sticky Honeysuckle is in flower, bees love this..

and in the yard if you like Gardenia...these have a heavenly intoxicating fragrance...

I have 4 of these shrubs in my yard, they bloom very fast and fade quickly and I always enjoy them.  Other fun things in my container garden are the yellow squash that I ate yesterday! 

And these Green Peppers will make all sorts of good food at our table..

did I mention it was hot?....lol

northern mockingbird

We went to a small town nearby after memorial day and found this on display off main street...

We realized we knew the man James D Heriot we had found his grave here in Rembert Methodist Cemetery...and there is a short bio here of his military history including the medal of valor, I had taken a photo of his headstone.  And now he is forever memorialized in Bronze...and then another thing dawned on me...this is the sculpture's signature

M J Kirby-Smith 

I had forgotten about an artist I used to do upholstery for when I had my shop open back in the 1990's.  This artist had moved into the area... she was young and unknown and was budget conscious so we worked with her. on several of her decorating projects..and it dawned on me this is the same  Miss Kirby-Smith!  She has left quite a mark on our community and the surrounding area! And here is another of her work in our town...

Kinda dark and dreary on this day, this is the Catawba Chief, King Haigler, with Joseph Kershaw...and once I googled up her website, I realized she has become quite a successful artist since she arrived here in the 1990's.  I don't know if she still lives here but I suspect she does. 

We took a trip to town recently ...

and ended up at the farmers market...

That was fun...

And lastly a wonderful roadside find...

it rocks....soon to be a make over project for me...

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Sunny Sunday...

Im having more and more trouble making it around the net on my old Windows XP! Google has somehow made it impossible for me and many other unhappy Chrome users to work with our photos in Flickr.  That is my main photo storage.  So now I have to create my blog using Firefox and that's fine it's just I have all my bookmarks and favorites all set up on Chrome.  It's such a PIA.  Living in this capitalism is so suffocating!

Okay lets just get out in the woods and forget all that.  Sunday started out being the perfect spring day so I left the dogs sunning in the yard and I made my way over to my 3rd visit at my new patch.  

The wild plums are blooming and it's really nice to see flowers and honey bees!  

He has those pollen sacs on his legs full!  It was so nice to hear them buzzing around..The birds were out but harder to find in the scrubs and thickets...

Got a glimpse of the White Throated Sparrow...

It looks as if they recently mowed one of the trails it's a nice walk to the trees in the back...I still haven't followed the trail all the way into the woods only the verge of it maybe next time. 

I usually walk up to the woods and the trail splits into 2 up there...one to the left and one to the right...today I went to the right.  

Still plenty of song sparrows, Its hard to get exact counts cause they flush so quickly and only one or two will perch up enough for me to see them.  So my numbers are guesses based on what I felt I saw in a flash...I didn't see any Northern Bobwhite today 

He looked down just as I clicked the shutter

 Up high I heard the repeating song of the Brown Thrasher, they are similar to Mockingbirds in that they mock other species, yet with the Thrasher they normally repeat a tune only twice. Just about the time I thought to "make a video" he saw me and ducked down and got silent. 

 

They are big birds, I normally see them scratching around under the edge of shrubs looking for grub...but now it's Spring time to get up there and sing your hear out!  And speaking of the devil, here's one of my favs, the Northern Mockingbird...

The are so successful, you can see them everywhere. Even in a field of Broom Sedge...

I had 19 species on my new patch and it was given Hot Spot billing after I requested it, I hope other birders will now go there!  I had another stop planned for the day so after an hour and forty-five minutes of walking I was ready to sit in the van and drive to my next stop...Along the way I passed through the McLeod's Peach Farm...and the peach trees are blooming for as far as the eye can see! 

And the same scene was behind me too!  No wonder this area has so many bees!  The peaches are good but they are small compared to ones from Palisades in Colorado!! 

 This post is getting long but I want to keep going so  I'll split it, part 2 will follow in 24 hrs!

Remember when we went to the movies back in the days, and they had an Intermission???  Now they make you sit there for hours no intermission....

 They didn't run ads they just had a huge screen with the word INTERMISSION on it! You'd run out and get another coke or more popcorn and use the little girl's room...and we would always play in the wooden telephone booth!

        I'm going to keep typing and part two will post 24 hrs after this one...
 

Time for an intermission.

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Clemson Experimental Station

So far February has been cloudy and rainy.  Some days complete wash outs...like buckets of water...so on the sunny breaks I'm ready to get out and go someplace! I took a short ride over to this spot called the Clemson Sandhills Experimental Station.  It's a pretty cool spot to hike, dog walk, and bird! I packed a sack lunch and drove over, its not too far away like 18 miles. There's 2 ponds and a lake.  I hiked the lake trail it's about 2.1 miles, outlined in blue... 

The trail meanders over the dam, over an eagle scout project boardwalk and 

through the woods....

Lots of American Robins up high picking berries I ran into them throughout my hike....maybe 50 in total

They did have some competition the cedar waxwings...saw about 10 darting in and out of this tangle of brier. 

In the woods area I saw 2 pair of Northern Cardinal, and they appeared to be searching for a nest spot...just the way they called to each other and the way they behaved made me think of Amor'e.

Near one of the smaller ponds this Eastern Bluebird was hunting in the Sycamore trees...

In the water I spotted 4 Pied Billed Grebes,  and 8 Double Crested Cormorants...all pretty far from the edge, 

 I found a bench to sit down and eat my sandwich this Carolina Wren started to have a fit...

carolina wren

I enjoyed his antics, and he stirred up a few more birds in the woods.  A Hermit Thrush  in the edge gave me a quick peek and higher up the Red Bellied Woodpecker squealed his displeasure too!  

Hope this one gets put back right before nest building gets  underway

Love the white bark on the tall Sycamore Trees. 

The bark...

After the lunch break I finished the lake hike and stirred up the interest of this Myrtle Yellow Rump Warbler.  

There is a young Pecan Orchard on the grounds and a few Northern Mockingbirds were patrolling the branches... 

There is an open area where they experiment with sod of various kinds, about the time I got over there an Eagle flew over way up high...and down on the fence line another Eastern Bluebird...

a heavy crop to pull this one out of this shot...

I would def go around here again...there is enough hardwood to make some pretty fall color behind the lake, so I must make a mental note! 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.