He saw his shadow so 6 more weeks of winter....On sunny days so I try to get out there and enjoy it...went to the Environmental Park, better known to me as Bramblewood, and the river is out of it's banks again...
On the way out I stopped at the Sports Complex and something was enticing these Black Vultures in...
One day the weather man got it wrong, and I headed out thinking it would clear off it didn't saw some Turkey in a field...haven't been seeing any so this was good.
On Wednesday it was very windy and cold but I went to my favorite spot to check for sparrows. Found a few too,,,
Sweet Chipping Sparrows, saw at least 100 they really challenged me to check thru them looking for the Tree Sparrow...didn't see any but the chippy's are just so cute,
NO disappointment there, and one of my favs is the Field Sparrow with his perfect white eye ring.
Still a lot of Song Sparrow around too,,,
Sparrows used to drive me crazy, now I consider it a welcome challenge to look for those subtle differences, it's like trying to figure out Identical twins sort of,,,
And this is the Pine Warbler who was fantastic out in the sun,
Im using Facebook to host my photos, it is working; so far so good..
Then on our last partly sunny turning cloudy day I went to a spot by the Wateree Lake Dam.. This place is so abused by bank fishermen leaving trash it's horrible.
I picked up this and 3 times more of it, discarded fishing line, nets, it's such a killer of wildlife,
LOTS of Common Grackle and RedWinged Blackbird around,,
Couldn't get any closer, so I concentrated on what I could see...the Eastern Towhee, also a Sparrow
And this lovely little White Throated Sparrow,,,
Perfect in every way,,,and the female Cardinal with her beautiful orangey blush
Some Sandhill Crane were spotted not far away I double dipped on them,..and now the field is being plowed so that's that.
I decided to give the Riverside Park a visit, it's dried out some there but the water level is high there too. This place is upstream of Bramblewood...
They replaced the bridge that moved off it's foundation during a flood in 2019.
There was a small landslide due to all the rain and parts of the riverside walking trail was lost but some parts they have been opened up again...
Got my FOY Redheaded Woodpecker, brings to mind the song..."raspberry beret"
A large flock of Killdeer swooshed overhead me a couple times, they eventually landed in the farm field on the other side of the river.
On the way home I stopped at the Racetrack to check the pond, it has a lot of water, but the landscape crew has cut most of the bird cover away so that affects things...did see a Redtail taking a look around...
And that's it for me this week...hope you had an interesting week,..
Happy Birthday to my son, now 40 yrs old.
PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.
