WoW Great Week!

This week started with a trip to the airport..

To pick up my sis who is visiting! Im so happy to have her here with me.  I have become quite the hermit and it's good for me to have to speak in entire sentences again! Not to mention she is just a  fantastic person to spend time with. 

Monday took sis to the sewage pond so she could get her lifer Surf Scoter...Score for her!  Since we were in the area we checked on the Eagle Chick at the Beaver Dam area...he has Fledged but remains in the nest..parents were still nearby so this is good news we saw him in flight.   

And later that same day we hit Lee State Park, we had sun there...

This beautiful Red-Bellied Woodpecker has such beautiful color..

More White Breasted Nuthatch sightings...and we really enjoyed finding this guy.  

A very still Hermit Thrush always great to see....and we had our FOY Blue Gray Gnatcatchers also...I was not able to photo them...

This is the kind of thing we do together.  Tuesday we hit the county park, and the Wateree River Access.  This is the area where all that flooding had occurred a couple weeks back. 

sis in the pines

the river is back into it's banks and the birds are enjoying the aftermath...

An Eagle snags a fish outta the lake, 

And this was Osprey day as we saw them everywhere we went...this one was not wasting any time eating his catch. 

If you ever wonder what a superman looks like here it is...I don't know this guy but I like him!  He picked up all this Fisherman Crap and he is challenging everyone on his facebook page to do the same! 

My kind of guy!!

And of course we always do the same thing...we both picked up huge bundles of this death trap for birds. 

Bonaparte Gulls enjoying the rivers feast...not much sun in this photo it looks almost like Black n White.

Wednesday we drove south on the dreaded I-95 to Santee NWR for the day and we took a sunny hike to the impound ponds. The nature trail leads to the ponds of the Bluff unit,  we ended up with a 4.7 mile hike, kinda kicked us cause it was nearly 80 and sunny!

...lots of duck out there too faraway  for any decent photos.   We met another birder, Julie she is the # 3 birder for this location (sis and I are tied at #7)They just reopened for the Season May 1.  She shared her scope with us....and I realized later that was not smart due to CV-19...Gee living in this day and age is a whole new ball game.  

sis and Julie way down the road...

We had Ring Neck, Northern Shoveler , American Wigeon,  Green and Blue Wing Teal, Northern Pintail, American Coot, and more. 

In the brushy edges dozens of Song Sparrow perched and teased us along with many other species...like Field Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Eastern Meadowlark, and in the canals that followed the path Wood Ducks and one Barred Owl called from the woods.  

Finally got my lifer Sedge Wren thanks to our new friend Juile, who told us this corner was good for them and she used a playback and bam, there it was, happened so suddenly I got an awful photo of him...Until I get a better shot this will have to do we did get good looks but only seconds long. 

FOY---Yellow-throated Warbler...been seeing these everywhere we go.

An immature Bald Eagle was stirring up the ducks...

Blue Wing Teal 

imm B. Eagle

Thursday we stopped by one of my favorite AG fields...had various field birds...and then to Goodale park for a walk around heard the Blue Headed Vireo and after we did our grocery run.

Later I didn't feel well...Pollen is here and I  think too much sun the day before.  We postponed a day trip we had planned for Friday and got a later start so I could re-evaluate how I felt..and then around 11 we went up to Liberty Hill WMA to check on that habitat. 

 Nice and easy stand or sit on the bridge and bird both sides...we had the entire place to ourselves, and found 33 species of bird. 

 Now this is the life!

 Nice to see Great Blue Herons Standing up tall on the nest.  Three nests in all...

Also nesting was a pair of Canadians....

 Red Headed Woodpecker coming out of a nest cavity..

We pulled out our picnic lunch on the bridge and enjoyed a sandwich and watched the wildlife go about their day. 

A Red-tailed Hawk, landed nearby...

And later we took a hike and found Wild Turkey and two FOY Black n White Warbler.  

And with a face only a mother could love the Turkey Vulture! 

The Yellow Rumped Warbler ^ and Another Yellow throated Warbler below. One flew down on the ground and I finally got a look at his back, it's just such an amazing bird, the back is grey with the black and white stripes...its gorgeous.

We have had so many great days of being out and about we birded till we dropped...and tomorrow the day trip of today is rescheduled.  Plan is to be out at 7:30 am when the sun is coming up because I can't see to drive in the dark!!  We had a really great week the weather was awesome, and we made the best of it. One thing is missing tho, that's our other sis...WE miss and Love you!!  Hope to see you soon. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Sunny Sunday 2

Welcome back!  After driving past the Peach Orchard I arrive at Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge...Im fortunate to have this awesome place close by...We have rambled it's roads for years.  

A Bachman's Sparrow was seen here a few days ago...I have no hopes of seeing it as this is a huge place 45,000+ acres!  I strain my neck backwards and find the singer...a House Finch!

or two...

Everybody is pairing up time to replenish the supply of birds! 

Eastern Bluebird

I walked around the area listening and looking and found White-throated Sparrows, and Chipping Sparrow, but no Bachman's showed.  An American Kestrel soared over, heard and saw a Red bellied Woodpecker and then a not so familiar woodpecker chip chirp and rattle...

The Female Red Cockaded Woodpecker! And..in a tree nearby the male, 

First time I've ever gotten a photo of one of these and first time seeing one in many years...

note the big white cheek patch this is the main diagnostic to look for...

This male has a band on his left leg...I can't read it, I can make out it's like aluminum....I only reported 2 birds but I'm almost 99.9% sure there was 3 birds...as they left I swear I saw 3 swooping shapes.  I stood still and was no bother to them they took their time, I took a bunch of photos...these are the best from the distance I stood away.  The Male was on a big tree on the right and the female on a small tall tree on the left so I saw them both pretty good, the 3rd bird came into view as they moved off...he was probably behind me.

I was thrilled! Not just for me for these BIRDS!!
This is an endangered species,,,,it's only alive due to being protected and provided for in places like Carolina Sandhills!   There is hope.  Of course we have to get Trump out of the White House or all our endangered species will lose their protection! 

 

rice n beans with cilantro and cold coffee

 After eating my sack lunch I drove over to the Oxpen Lakes...on the other side of the refuge road.  They have recently burned this area...I saw one Canada Goose, and one Pied Billed Grebe in the South Pond, 2 mallards flew off the North Pond when I drove up....

More Song Sparrows hopped around in the brambles...

A tree line of American Robins formed...

Then I realized my Sunny day had turned sour...

Clouds rolled in the wind picked up and it began to drip rain...A Yellow Rumped Warbler peered down  from a budding Maple tree...

And that was the final bird of the day...it was such a primo day even the rain didn't seem to matter, it was a fitting end...and a gentle reminder that home was waiting.

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.