My Five Miles!

So it's my first post of 2019...wish it could be more exciting...but it is what it is till it ain't anymore...lol That's a line from a song I heard.  Still many ups n downs going on Ill try to share the ups.
Im participating in Jen's of I Used to Hate Birds (check my right side bar) 5 Mile Radius Challenge. (5MR) it's a year long challenge! SO  a short description...Jen is the superstar who came up with this whole idea and I hope soon it will be a part of ebird and she will get the credit for it!  So you figure out an area and using map tools you draw out a 5 mile radius and you bird the hell outta it! LoL...Join in the fun if you like!

Hope I can follow through.  I'm not good at following directions.  But I think this month's challenge is to fill in the gaps on hotspots within my 5MR.  There is only one in my radius.  So I need to go over at least once a week to fill in January!   So here is my circle. 

Sorry it's blurry I took it with my phone  my laptop won't do a screen shot...As you can see it's void of pretty much everything! Down at 8 o'clock is my hotspot, Goodale State Park.  

It's notorious for NOT having many birds!! My check list was 14 species and included one immature Bald Eagle.  He was wayyy across the lake...and at first I thought "Osprey" 

But those big orange feet gave him away...once I put my binoculars up to my eyes.

So that was fun to see.  I have seen mature ones here from time to time.  

It was a misty day but heavy rain held off while I birded.  

The wooded path around the lake...

One of 4 Ruby Crowned Kinglets I spotted...

Checked on the pitcher plants that grow by the water's edge...

Another lake view...

A double crested cormorant in silhouette

 

The most popular bird by far was the yellow rumped warblers..I think my count ended up at 8. 

of the Myrtle variety..

So I plan to go once a week this month..and fill in some gaps, at first I thought it was to fill in the gaps of my own bar graph but it is the bar graph for the Hotspot it'self.  There is def some gaps in the 2nd and 3rd weeks of Jan...but I don't think I will fill in many different species for Jan...

but we'll see.  It's popular with Warblers in Fall n Spring.   

This is something I have to avoid while birding here and not just here but across the southern USA.   If you should fall in one of these imagine how quickly they would be on you, BITING...or step on this with flip flops on, which happens to me many time per year. The bite is very painful and sometimes causes an allergic reaction and almost always an itchy red pimple.  They will swarm up onto your feet and begin to climb your body!   You must immediately begin to do the Dixxe Doodle Dance! Looks similar to a Rain Dance!

Fire Ants

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

3 Stop Challenge

I'm getting ready for a simpleThanksgiving by cutting some of my herbs, drying it, then chopping it up in a coffee bean grinder....nothing is better than fresh herbs. This is sage..I'll be putting that in my cornbread dressing...it's called dressing when it's served on the side, not stuffing. So I learned on a cooking show I watched. It's going to be a small affair this year my family is in Colorado! BUT my son will be here with me. :o)

ebird has a monthly challenge each month...you can win stuff normally it's a Zeiss Scope which I would LOVE to win --this month enter 3 checklists all from one day and you are in the drawing to win a Cornell Labs Ducks ID workshop...so I checked out all the birds at my place first, got 16 species, in the  yard, woods, and the field.  Here is some of what was around.

This bird was here a few days back he is not on my checklist for this challenge...but I wanted to add him to this post so here he is...the

 Hermit Thrush.  

    hermit thrush

Also not on this checklist was this:  I've been hearing a Screech Owl...I love the way they make those little soft trills...not the whiney but the little trill... to me I visualize little circles going up into the twilight as they trill away...One wintered in a tree cavity around here a couple years ago and when I sat outside at dusk I could hear him/her.  So I've been doing Cavity Searches!! 

                                   

                                                     UGH no owl here ....

Or here either!! GRRRRR these fuzz balls are taking over all the cavities in the yard!  So I'll have to keep looking...other birds in the yard were busy making a living...like  a pair of House Finch in the poplar trees out back

Still having major problems with the zoom on my camera so trying to deal with it, was hoping for some big Black Friday Deal but so far, nope.  

But things are looking up as I continue to be able to keep using my old camera, it's just not as awesome as it was when it was new!  Speaking of looking up and new...my wintering Pine Warbler is here to hang out right in the same area where he is every single fall/winter, in the exact same trees.  He is outstanding! Welcome home my friend.

                                                        pine warbler

It's nice to be outstanding in your field...that's what I was doing, out standing in my field, when I saw this little guy flitting around up there...and then this next shot I  thought I'd missed the bird, but he is there do you see him?



                                                 chipping sparrow 

We had a cold snap so the Eastern Bluebirds come to roost back in the bird houses where they nested in summer...caught this one out catching some sun rays...these bluebirds live in family groups so there was males, females, and some first winter young. 
                                                                           

                                                                   Ruby Crowned Kinglet 

I felt I had seen all I was going to see in the yard so I left to look for a horned grebe that had been reported at the Wateree Dam.  I didn't find the grebe it would have been a good  one for my county, but not a lifer.

Along the way I pulled off the road when I spotted this Logger Headed Shrike hanging out in a young pine tree tract...this one didn't count toward the challenge cause the deal is you start a new checklist when you get out of your car...like you stop bird, get in the car get out bird, etc...so this one I took from the car it was just sitting there!

I was on my way to the Dam, but I decided to stop and photograph a cemetery!  A small one but it needed to be done, It was on the way so I stopped...and low and behold the area behind the cemetery was birdy so I found..

More Ruby Crowned Kinglet, 

A few Carolina Wrens, an Eastern Towhee, a Northern Cardinal, a White Throated Sparrow, Blue Jays and before you know it I had 6 species for my second checklist!

Once I finished up the cemetery it was past 2 pm so I continued on to the Lugoff River Access just below the dam of the Wateree River.   Here is the dam and the Duke Energy Power Station attached.  

And I got 19 species there!  Which was fun.  Nothing new and like I said no grebe but I did enjoy poking around.  

The Wateree River:

Lots of Great Blue Heron's fishing and this one swallowed like an 8 inch sunfish! See the huge bump in his upper neck area...he just flipped it up and down it went...

Flickr Ate my Photo

This Great Egret found a honey hole and he stood there just gorging on minnows...one right after the other like eating Nacho Chips!

Flickr Ate My Photo

Watched this Osprey watch out for the wires!

Duke Energy has declared war against this bird...

                                                                  The Black Vulture...

I saw these horrible things...and I just don't see how they honestly think this will help?? It's just plain stupid!! 

Embrace the bird, encourage more birds of prey to the sight or just leave it be!

 That's the effigy...a dead Black Vulture hung up to rot in the sun...The USDA...in the bird eradicating business?  

This made me sad and mad I'm in a constant state of FLUX'd these days...

I try to stop yelling and move forward...

to the good stuff I found...I was happy to see all these GB Herons against the fall colors..

Flickr Ate My Photo

And other birds I was able to photo the Northern Cardinal 

And the River Cane was hiding great numbers of White Throated Sparrows just arrived for the Winter here in the SC Midlands scratching around in the leaves. I caught this one just barely.  Center just below that white leaf.

And a cute little Tufted Titmouse all fluffed up to the oncoming evening, as it now neared 4:30 and it gets dark at 5 so away I went...

Flickr Ate my Photo

That's it for now Hope you all have a great visit with your family...if you celebrate the holiday. We will not be having a bird on our table but we will walk away from it stuffed!! 

LoL, it's not working...in fact they seem to be sitting there enjoying the antics of this inflatable as it twists and turns in the air. A place to roost with entertainment too!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Belser Arboretum

I've been trying to get in a number of day trips before Mom returns and when she does our focus will be trips that don't involve hiking! One of my FB friends released a book of poetry and her drawings based on her life long battle with CP.  We are actually related through marriage her husband is a distant cousin in my Walling Family Tree.  So A visit to pick up her book and to give her a copy of my book...was yesterday.  Since I would be driving to Columbia I figured I'd go to the Arboretum that is nearby her location and see what was out and about..

Its only a small place but the trees are mature and it even has a cypress bog! 

the little creek was red! I guess red clay is on the bottom...lots of ferns growing on the banks 

there was a loop trail and a midline trail most of which is well marked but I managed to get off the trail a few times...

American Robins were around as they seem to be the most plentiful bird going right now...

this is a favorite of mine Clematis I don't know the variety but what a huge flower saucer sized!!

and even tho this white throated sparrow hid behind a twig he was so handsome I kept this shot...

his lores were such a brilliant yellow--another not helpful bird was the American Redstart, he wanted to follow me but he wanted to change his position constantly I had a hell-ofa time just getting this not hot shot! He just kept teasing me but I finally walked away! 

I know!! SO far these photos are hardly worth sharing...and it gets worse--Brown Thrasher

Even the normally gregarious Carolina Wren wanted to only peek from the safety of a high branch

Having little luck with the bird photography I turned to the leaves on the trees...at least they can't fly away...

I could hear black and whites, vireos red and white eyed, pine warblers, red bellied woodpeckers, downy wp, above me and then a Ruby Crowned Kinglet only showed me his belly and backside, I'm only basing the ID on that big eye ring...

I had a good walk around the plants were nice, the weather was good but the birds misbehaved! No new ones just good to see some that have been missing since last summer!

  Another day of 

Time...well spent

PEACE

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

Still Off the Rez...

Home is a place to hang out between adventures right?

...when last I left you I was waking from a frigid night of camping in Sunburst campground in the Pisgah National Forest.  

 I was warm as toast in the van. 

The morning was cold but no wind! Yes!! And the birds were singing...after a fast pot of cowboy coffee & breakfast I put on every coat I had, hat, and gloves.  And went out to check them out.  I knew it would warm up but it sure took its own good time!  First off I heard this...

I've never heard a chipping sparrow sing so beautifully! I think he was saying, the wind is gone, the wind is gone, great God Almighty, the wind is gone!  Other birds were singing in the woods too...I phished between teeth chatters....a few came out and took time to pose for me, the robins were back waiting for the frost on the grass to burn off...so they flicked leaves near the forest edge looking for a meal...some perched to wait it out..then another great singer emerged...

the song sparrow

Peeking out from under the shrubs was a dark eyed Junco...

And  I know what a horrid photo this is but the Ruby Crowned Kinglet had his crown out for viewing and look how brilliant it is!!

On the ground white throated and fox sparrows were busy digging for worms...I didnt get any shots of them due to the cold mainly I kept having to put my hands back in my gloves and missed lots of good pics due to that...but I did get this good look at the

                                   Eastern Towhee, love that eye!

An 

Eastern Phoebe gave me the over the shoulder look...

But the star of this show was a bird I know as the Solitary Vireo, but his name got changed to the Blue Headed Vireo! He was so curious about me...in fact he was following me around...

He just kept posing for me! I was quite the curiosity. 

I could' of stayed  here all day, but I wanted to get in a few more stops on this good weather day...but

first I walked across the road to see what was happening at the Laurel Branch, only thing seen was the green hued water...

Then I left Sunburst Campground 

and headed south on hwy 215 back to the parkway, I made a right and headed west and turned south on Hwy 64.  I went to see the French Broad Falls, and Mill Shoals! 

Its on private land so I only got a couple photos and then hi-tailed it but they give permission for the public to view their falls.  I missed out on the 3rd falls (Bird Falls) which was down stream I missed that in the waterfall guide! Im kinda working on my NC waterfalls list..altho I havent finished SC yet.

don't know why I didn't think to make a pano so I could get both falls in same shot...duh....a couple of fly fishermen were busy trying their luck...This property is owned by Healing Waters Ministry...

I turned around here and headed back up to the parkway.  I stopped to view the Devil's Courthouse..Indian Legend has it the Devil lives in a cave under this rock! Who am I to say he doesn't? 

I needed some exercise so I headed up Black Balsam Trail Parking.  There's several hikes to take from that lot.  I peeled off at least 2 layers, the hat and gloves before visiting the stinkiest pit toilet ...

east of the Mississippi (it is a unisex so yes both men and women used it, no one had to show any credentials on their sex at birth, thank goodness!)  I chose the easy trail, I hoped for some birds got skunked on that but saw some lovely scenery! I chose the Ivestor Gap Trail if followed to the terminus 4.5 miles away it brings you around Black Balsam Knob to the Graveyard Fields Loop trail! It would be a fun backpack trip but camping has been suspended due to black bear activity..It's a rim trail which I prefer over a ridge trail or a summit trail! You can barely see the trail in this shot on the hill on the right....see it?  Its actually an old road a very ROCKY road!

Lots of water on the trail also...

...in fall this is a 4 x 4 road, could def bust up  your front end here!!  Found this mystery I tried to research it but came up with Zip! I hope its a spot where someone's ashes were released, and not where someone took their last hike! It wasn't that steep but a fall would def be life threatening, due to the rocky landing. 

Sgt M R N Penland SA

...and altho I don't suspect this to be the cause, I learned recently the 3rd cause of death in our Parks is suicide! Last year in our national Parks alone 93 people died by suicide in the parks, the other causes of death are heart attacks and falls!! I turned around at about 2 miles so my RT hike was an easy 4 mi. on this trail...

Back on the Parkway lots of ice still hanging on...

The Yellow Prong River 

I'll post the rest of this day in next post! I had a great day of birding in the morning and hiking in the afternoon...I'd say this was one heck of a day to be off the reservation!!

PEACE

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