On the Move?

I guess you all noticed that I changed my publish days to Friday Night instead of Sunday Morning,,,,mainly because email subscribers don't get their email notice till Sunday night meaning they read on Monday morning, so I think Monday morning is not the right time for my blog...a blog about my simple uneventful life is not Monday morning material.  Busy people are up and about on Monday...my writing is more for slow down weekend reading.  So I will see how it goes as I work on the post a little each day.  

Saturday I jumped out of bed wide awake...made my coffee the dogs eventually came in for their breakfast, then I fired up my laptop and saw a rare bird alert...so I decided why not...I'm not even thinking I will actually see the bird but it's a beautiful day...so I packed up my cooler with lunch fixins' and down the dreaded I-95 I shot.  Felt so sorry for these folks heading North...this looks pretty serious it was an 8 mile backup.  

Amazing the campground at the Santee Coastal Reserve was FULL...it is a FCFS campground.  What happened to the no more than 3 in a group thing?  I would not want to be in a full campground right now.  There is a visitor's center in this shot somewhere...behind these moss covered live oaks...

Anyway I headed to the Big Well Trail where I was around no one! 

The water level was low I figured it would be the opposite with all the rain we had in Feb.  The lower levels was perfect for the waders..

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron 

White form Little Blue Heron 

Tricolored Heron

Just off the trail a Downy Woodpecker stops to look at me..

                Good example of a Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs

I found all sorts of critters I could  give my solo attention to...def more than 6 ft personal space given here.

                                                           Love the patterns on his body...

          SAW many gators of various sizes from babies to over 7 ft...

this one is about 2 ft in length

I ran into 3 people in total on the trails, and no one stopped, all said hello and kept walking as did I. 

After lunch I moved the van  to the Cape Trail parking area, and walked around the impounds I ended up hiking 5 miles in total, my feet were pretty tired...






Many Glossy Ibis stayed distant but I zoomed for this shot..their colors are so deep and rich.

Monday:
Today it rained but I decided to go out and get some supplies in a neighboring town that has only 2 cases of the CV-19 not the 54 my town now has...I used alcohol to clean my hands when I removed my gloves upon exiting the store.  Then I went to my favorite spot the Beaver Pond!

 

The pond is in good shape the water plants are vigorous and the birds were out.  The young Eagle looked pretty lonely as the parents have left him alone now.  He will hang around the nest as long as he needs to.  I felt really sorry for him so I name him Solo. Could be a her...have no way of telling.  

Here he is in his Aerie.  He has those big wings and when he feels like he just can't stand to be alone anymore he will soar away....I will miss him when he goes. When I come to the nest and he is not there I will feel that pain deep inside the one you feel when someone really special is not there. 

King Fishers were out in numbers on this rainy day...a dull sky didn't bring out those awesome blues of this bird...

And a combo of the Kingfisher and a Great Blue Heron. 

This Tufted Titmouse may be feeding young already, while the White Eyed Vireo just got back in town!

A little farther down the road is Ashwood Lake, recently refilled after the dam there broke free in 2015.  It's not officially open but I go and park roadside and see what birds are there...some Ring Neck Duck about 15 today, Pied Billed Grebe, and at least 3 American Coots, and some Canada Geese on the water, an Osprey overhead, and at least one Double Crested Cormorant diving below.  

Up in the tree by the lake a Savannah Sparrow my FOY. 

Had Tree Swallow, Northern Rough Winged Swallow, and Purple Martin flying over the lake catching bugs...lots of competition. I may go back there tomorrow I think I heard a LeConte's Sparrow! There is only one call that has that sound...If it's not raining.

Purple Martin

Tuesday: buckets of rain, thunder and the whole 9...
Wednesday: Went to a couple spots...saw this cool Osprey...

 

It's fun staying away from people...a good week. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Coast II

Black Skimmers in with the terns...

This is where I left off with my last post on a day trip to the coast...this shallow pool up by the shore bird breeding area.  

Once I got down to the lower part beyond that grass was a small group of Willets, with Short Billed Dowitcher and one Greater Yellow Legs.  Two of these willets had one leg! They were hopping around

Up on the sign this willet seems to have a healed broken leg...

 the Western Sandpiper I saw was rare, but honestly it just has not been reported...like Jen pointed out no green bars in the bar graph basically for the last 2 weeks of June and the first 2 weeks of July, but I think that is only because its hot and no one has turned in a checklist so anyway here it is! 

 the Western Sandpiper..

I didn't see anybody list the American Oystercatcher so I guess I got lucky and saw these two..

I hoped to see the Whimbrel, but it was no where in sight...some areas were closed.  I had been up there 3 hrs and 45 minutes and I took one break but it was getting hot now and I was tired and ready to get back to the parking lot where I had my lunch waiting so I headed back...toward the jetty.  

I passed by the sand spit area now under water as the tide is coming in and earlier I had seen one female Black Scoter and now there was more...

The black male and females...there was about 19 all total most were on the beach...

And this ONE Surf Scoter was with them...

I had seen both on the Oregon coast but not these good looks from the high cliffs so this was good to see!  Also rare birds! My list ended up with 3 rare birds!   So  I head for the jetty and there's some Snowy Egret hunting along the rocks...

Some toes missing there...

The Great Blue Heron in the marsh grass blends in so well...

Brown Pelican 

The walk back along the dunes has signs like this one and is roped off to protect shore bird and loggerhead turtle nesting areas...

Dogs are not allowed in this area...the high tide was occurring on my walk back so I made a brisk walk and was pretty done when I finally arrived...I had my lunch under one of the picnic shelters...

there's a crab hiding in there...here is one just peeping out of his hole..

This bush is decorated by seashells!  The tide is doing the decorating...

It was so neat!!  

Lunch!

Then I went to the boardwalk, but with the high tide in, I saw more waders but I had hoped for rails and  sandpipers and other shore birds...I did see many Great Egrets, Double Crested Cormorants, and Anhinga's

One Tri-colored Heron, 

On the way off the boardwalk spotted some Wood Stork in the trees...

then it was time to head back home...the weather was quite different when I left at 5 pm, and much hotter inland...

On the way home I saw a cloud with a silver lining!!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.