A very Blustery Day...

Im continuing to unearth many of my old post photos and made a wee bit of progress...It's a way to deal with the combo rainy weather and cold air.  Texas is under a deep freeze we just dodged the bullet on that one, our temps hung at a balmy 39F while they got the icy cold temp drop and it sent them straight to hell no power, frozen water, slick treacherous roads. But for the grace, there go I...so I must not complain because you guessed it, could be WORSE. 

What it does mean is I have been housebound for 5 straight days!  I birded from the back porch trying to photograph rare birds, at least now they are rare; 8 days ago they were not...and even with clear photos no confirmation from ebird, yet lists with no photos confirmed.  Are US Senators now ebird reviewers? 

it was taken thru the screen wire and the pouring rain but you can clearly see what it is.  

Any reason for not confirming this as 2 Purple Finch has no merit.  So the Purple Finch and Pine Siskin, didn't get the memo to leave on time.  Probably due to the cold wet weather, they said no thank you to heading north and who can blame them?  On the 6th day I drove.  Finally this happened...

clouds lining up to get the heck outta here,,,

My favorite Vernal Pool took a beating when the owner decided to cut down and bush hog the edges...there used to be trees all along that far side, now gone....don't think the Green Herons that nested there last season will appreciate that but a couple of killdeer did...

 We are now promised 4 days of sunshine, if we don't get it well lets just say the local tv weather guy is gonna be getting a lot of hate mail...lol "do something" well the thing is we need to stop calling it global warming, and just call it weather change.  The birds don't leave, the sun don't shine, and the deep South freezes.  Is it possible we are in a cycle that is taking us to a new Ice Age?  It is highly possible, since in 2012 we finished up a 26,000 yr cycle.  We are clueless about what could be on the horizon.  

a farm field, full of water...

Then the wind blew HARD and it pushed those clouds outta here!! 

                                   share croppers cabin Lee Co, SC

The flashing yellow light town of Patrick, SC. along my route today...under a chilly blue sky. They have a cell tower!

Since the wind was not going to allow me to scan trees looking for birds, scanning water may be easier was my thinking so I went back to Paul Wallace Lake, 

A brisk wind continues...so I parked right here and opened up my lunch pak and had snack...I arrived just before noon, after the snack I went for a walk, before the chill drove me back to the van to warm up I found a few things to report...

One was a Yellow Rump pumping this tail?  NO It's a Palm Warbler, FOY on that one...

This Mallard Female, showed me  her pretty eye,

T his Ring Bill Gull was not flying he was riding a current in the air...

After this I moved the van to the other side of the lake, just in time to see a huge flock of Common Grackle fly over...

Hundreds of birds....

Then my attention went to the water Ring Necked Duck still around,  

I spotted an otter about that time one quick look and he was gone, I could not relocate him in this choppy water...got one really awful photo of him when he gulped down some air before diving...

The lake was also full of American Coots 

And more Bufflehead than my last trip...this one allowed me to get close...

On the way home I stopped at the site of Dizzy Gillespie's boyhood home...the house is gone so it's like a small park surrounded by small humble homes...he was born in this town of Cheraw, pronounced Sure-Raw. 

 Standing water so I didn't walk around and  get my feet wet. I will stop again on a dryer day. 

Back toward home I stopped to show you the Great Pee Dee river in flood stage...

for your viewing pleasure...

And a Kestrel on the wire is always fun the wind had his feathers in a ruffle. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

A soggy Day in November

This is a post I began prior to my Mom going into hospital, I never really finished it but I'm going to use it for this weeks post until I get myself back up to snuff

Nov 8th, 2019

I normally start writing a post on Monday and it's done for posting on Sunday...I've been covered up with projects and I have done very little birding this entire week in fact I turned in one list to ebird in 7 days.  Last weekend it rained on Sunday but my sis and I went out birding anyways! We did mostly car birding.

Next to some cotton fields we had lots of Palm Warblers!  We had some Song Sparrow at this location as well.  

Then we moved about 1 mile down the road to a sod farm my sis ran in and got permission for us to cruze around...it was raining pretty hard....we had about 7 horned larks on the ground...

Not a bird I see very often and a horrible photo thru car glass with drizzle.

Lots of Crow both Fish and American were about..

We had a couple Hawks hunting from atop the irrigation machine....here is the Red Shouldered we spotted against a really dull sky....

Two large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds moved away in the distance...

And we had a couple White Ibis out there in the fog also.  This sod farm is just barely out of our county.  We sighted other birds like American Kestrel, Turkey Vulture, and at least one Northern Harrier was there early on, but left after he saw us. This is a spot I want to return to on a sunny day. 

-----------------------------

...and my post just ended there....we had an enjoyable outing but by the next day mom was quite ill...

My Mom Memory for this post is a day trip we made to Swan Lake And Gardens in  

May of 2009, Swan Lake is in Sumter County southeast of us.  Mom was only having to use a cane at that time, 10 yrs ago!  This friendly Canada Goose decided to be Mom's pet for a while as we strolled around checking out the flowers, Swans, and other bird life of the garden... 

..what a great memory. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

April is Fooling me!

Well here it is the first week of April over! I Predict this year will go faster than last..what you say?  So in the way of new birds got the most distant look at a spattering of (78) northern rough winged swallows.. hoping for better looks soon, and as predicted the (79) Northern Parula showed up in my radius..

Up pretty high in the tops of the newly leafing out hardwoods...in this case a sycamore tree.  Got a better look of a black n white warbler doing his thing...

The focus on my camera is getting worse by the day it will drive me batty!
 

I had an (80) Osprey at Goodale! So only 3 this week.  Got a really distant look he flew right over me, I just stood there with my mouth open and didn't bother with a photo because I thought it was another turkey vulture as the shadow came over me like they do...then he landed far to the back of the pond! I don't even know if you can see him here that black dot.  It didn't fly like an Eagle or Hawk, and the flat looking angle of the head and long wing span drew me to Osprey. I should go back today but it's Raining today!

Had another nice Palm warbler just a 1/2 mile down the road..

and a really good look at a blue headed vireo who finally poked his head out of the brambles for a quick look over the shoulder..not FOY but he is just so pretty.  Also not new but pretty the redheaded woodpecker.

hello gorgeous

The spring bud is on and the trees take on that soft awesome hue that doesn't last too long in these parts...

with a splash of lime?

and a splash of  curry?

Below: is something you rarely see anymore around here its a tobacco barn, the reason I know it's for tobacco is the height! They used to hang the tobacco in these tall barns to dry out before taking to market,

 they would hang it up high I tried to find an image to share here but they are all copyrighted so here is a link so you can go see for yourself..how they used to cure it up in the tall barns, 

I have not seen a field of tobacco in this area for years! I did see some when I traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia a couple years ago...just a small field.  When my cousin in TN decided to get married he built a house and he paid it off by growing one field of tobacco a year he had his house paid off in less than 10 yrs on one crop per year.  I remember very well seeing the leaves hanging up in the rafters of these tall barns.  The main crops here now are: cotton, corn, soy beans, sorghum, and sunflowers.  Mainly all for textile and oils, HEMP would grow awesome here it's only a matter of time...and it should be legal to grow!  

Our challenge this month is "birds heard in the yard, including fly overs" 

So here is my list of heard birds (most seen also) so far this week:

1. northern cardinal 
2. eastern bluebird 
3. brown headed nuthatch 
4. blue grey gnatcatcher 
5. black n white warbler 
6. yellow rumped warbler 
7. yellow throated warbler 
8. tufted titmouse 
9. Carolina chickadee 
10. Carolina wren 
11. A. crow 
12. fish crow
13. chipping sparrow 
14. pine warbler 
15. killdeer 
16. Canada goose 
17. hermit thrush 
18. pileated woodpecker 
19. downy woodpecker 
20. red-bellied woodpecker 
21. n. mockingbird 
22. a. goldfinch 
23. purple finch 
24. house finch 
25. Blue Jay
26. Eastern Phoebe
27. Eastern Towhee
28. Red shouldered hawk
29. brown headed cowbird

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

March---over.

Was unable to refind the Prothonotary warbler..can't win them all up to now at least.  So my Month end wrap up...First off Spring is in full swing here.  

The Fields are ablaze with color!

camellia 

camellia 

dogwood

yellow jasmine and trumpet honeysuckle

Then a cold front driven in by rain put the brakes on that for a while now it's nice again! Walking back to the first week of March my first bird for the month was FOY (1) Fish Crow.   No photo  I don't know why I don't photo crows more often they are fascinating.  

(2) Pine Siskin at my Mom's feeder...no photo didn't have my camera with me..

 and then the Anhinga at Goodale got a bad shot but its FTR! 

And then got that Yellow Throated Warbler again this time in my yard...all you can see of it is the yellow throat! 

And the Black and White Warbler he had his neck stretched out...

Then a large flock of Purple Martin soared pretty far away over the hotspot lake... I could not even get focus up in that sky 

Next was the Palm Warbler, just 3 blocks from home in the clear cut...

Back at the hotspot; I had been hearing the Blue Grey Gnatcatcher in the trees at home but hadn't put my eye on one...then when I took a quick spin around the hotspot saw one in dull light but again FTR! No mistaking that silhouette. 

A bit better look at the face at least here...

The shots below are not first of year in the radius but they are in the radius...just some cool birds to see anywhere and anytime! 

The Carolina Wren

A nice looking House Finch 

A Hermit Thrush 

Pine Warbler

Purple Finch Female 

An American Goldfinch Female and a Friend!

These were strewn all along a section of a dirt road I like to check in my radius...more clean up was done.

SO I'm adding 8 this month (didn't take the Prothonotary with no photo proof since it would be marked as rare) maybe Ill refind it when it gets a little warmer the weather has been unstable lately.  I had a Northern Parula at the new wetland I found over in Lee county soon hope to see one in the radius...

Checked on the Eagle nest while there and got a shot of the chick.  This nest is very far from the highway....but I was happy to see the chick up this time and he seemed to be eating.  I  see only one adult hanging around. 

and this was something I didn't notice when I was there last time...a Beaver is at work here!! Didn't see him/her but you can sure see their work.  

So far a total of 77 species since Jan 1, within 5 miles of my house!  77 of 106 species seen in my county my percentage is 81.62  Not bad for a mainly AG area with no public access, and hardly any water habitat...

wish the above wetland WAS In my radius there is one similar but on that busy highway I videoed a while back...I did see some good stuff there all repeats and one unknown!! That little devil I did not recognize the call or song, and I never got an eye on it...so I must return when I have time to wait him out. I must play the Indigo Bunting song to remind me of what they sound like.  

April has lots of promise and  great expectations!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.