It IS in Stone!

This week was not so much about birding...I did however round up one new bird for my 5 mile no photo of the Cedar Waxwing (#112)...almost all the birds have young in tow now or are feeding fledglings.  I love this log, it almost always has a wood duck or 2 or even 3 on it! 

Notice the young drake in the middle...I'm trying hard to find a Snowy Egret in my radius so far no luck!  We have been taking some Sunday Drives like this one up to the Lake...

Lake Wateree, 19 square miles, and one of the oldest man made lakes in SC...one of the residents...

And some lovely Buck Eye Butterflies...

On Another day we visited some cemeteries up beyond the area of our county north and east of the lake.  This is on Stoneboro Rd... and by chance spotted this old one just off the highway in the woods near the community of Stoneboro...at least 30 graves are marked by locally gathered field stone...and 3 graves with surname of Duncan have engraved headstones...with death dates of 1857, 1859, & 1862 just prior to the Civil War...We both agree we believe the field stones are marking the graves of slaves...The elder of the family was William Duncan he died in 1862, I found some info about his will he was worth about $24,000 in 1860 census and he died in 1862.  His will was in probate in 1862 and later in 1865 the original was destroyed when Sherman marched through Lancaster! (as stated on the stone)

This is the old community...and we came across a stone with this fairly long history carved on it...there is no town here only a couple big fields..

According to the stone...there was a Granite Quarry nearby originally run by Stewart Heath...the stone cutter for the Quarry was an Italian immigrant,  George Sassi, he created the Confederate Monument that stands in front of the old court house in nearby Lancaster...c-1909 using stone from the Quarry.  I found the list of items deposited in the corner stone to be quite fascinating...you can read about it on that link 

So we drove over there to see it!   Pretty nifty indeed.  Also on the Stoneboro history stone is the name of James D Magill who lived in this area in 1871...he served as a State Representative and later as a Senator...We stopped at the nearby Beaver Creek Cemetery just to take a look around and there he was laid to rest...and marked by this stone. 

We were HUNGRY so we stopped in the Town of Heath Springs for lunch...it is located between Stoneboro and Lancaster. 

864 residents in the 2000 census...and 809 in 2018 and they had a pretty good veggie pizza!

And back in Lancaster we strolled one of the small parks there not far from the old Court House...

There was a wishing fountain,  and a town bird, the English House Sparrow.  

and we also stopped to see the Lancaster and Chester RR Spring Maid Line...still in operation today...there was an ugly power line in the way so I cloned it out 

The L & C RR along with the Central SC RR Mentioned on the Stone both used to stop at the Historic Heath Springs Depot  c-1903 on the National Historic Registry...We left town without getting a photo of the depot here is one that I found online,

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On the second floor of this beautiful Stone building is this amazing RR Museum! 

And we met this town dog Caroline Rose! Yep you guess it she is made of Stone!

All this history recorded in stone makes me think about the way we are currently preserving our records and our history??  On computers! Insanity!!!....we should be writing it on stone!!

It's a GREAT DAY to be in CAROLINA!

rock quarry we stopped to see in 2012, Westville, SC.

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Latest Patch Finds

After a slow start the first week in February things did pick up!  In January I finished up with 55 species.  (my Feb tics are in Bold) I had 3 new species at the beginning of the month the Wild Turkey and the Loggerhead Shrike..and the Hairy Woodpecker I almost forgot to list! I haven't done too well with taking photos for the challenge, but I sure have enjoyed the search.  I have sought out the soggiest, swampiest, and wettest areas in my patch and it helped get my numbers up...also got some gnat bites...and soon it's going to be mosquitoes as we have standing water everywhere thanks to the wet winter we had.  

I have been taking nature walks about every day...and that's because I need the exercise, and to clear my head of rust.  Im about half way through the month...and I know that migration has already begun here in my area...it's not in full swing but it has started!  Got the Cooper's Hawk he flew right across my path as I drove down the road, then 2 Great Egrets were spotted in one of the private wetlands where I have found a decent viewpoint from the highway, along with the Ring Neck Duck!!  He is not real close to the edge so not a great photo...But I will take it.  And he was there everyday since.  That marked up 6 additions since Feb 1st, then another wetland that straddles a road got me some great birds and some really fine behavior.

This wetland is created by the Thoroughfare Branch...and this spot is about 1 mile north-west of me.  I heard a bird calling and although it seemed familiar, I just couldn't bring to mind what it was so I phished out and got a look though the binoculars of the Common Yellow Throat...
I did not get a photo of him stay tuned to the video at the bottom to hear him....he was too quick for me. I pulled a photo out of my archives for the video...and  Literally hundreds... no thousands of Common Grackles!

I also heard a chip call and on the other side of the road and found...

the Swamp Sparrow.   He really blends in with the reeds.  

The next species I found in my 5 MR was also a common bird but one I rarely see since Im in such a rural area and this bird tends to like more populated areas, but I found the House Sparrow! Got one really awful shot through the windshield of the car, since I was pulling out onto a highway when I spotted the bird.  

I headed back over to the wetland on Memory Lane...parked, got out and started phishing.  Didn't take but a moment to get 2 Blue Headed Vireo's chipped at me...one took off immediately and one let me get some not so clear shots of him UP so high in the tops of the big trees...

And at first I thought I had white eyed...and my photo is not too good, but when I finally got it up on the screen... I saw the little dark patch below the wing bar, and no yellow on face.  And today passing by a private pond just down the road, a pair of Wood Duck drake and hen...love is in the air! 

I've been trying like crazy to find a rock dove! Hope to see some around cattle but so far; nope...yesterday almost got the turkey's displaying...

Really hope I can ride by at just the right time...

down at the clear cut area there is a yellow eyed Eastern Towhee...so that's been fun to find, and he has a mate with him...she is very aloof so have not gotten a decent photo of her so I can study her up close.  

if you enjoy videos, here is my morning at the Thoroughfare Branch.  

Oops I missed an O in the video title spelling ...I will do a month wrap up at the end...hope to add several more species. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Cheyenne Bottoms, Great Bend Kansas

Hwy 4 is very scenic with farms dotting the horizon and some have seen better days... I think of a tornado when I see this type scene, wonder how this small structure is still standing, and the windmill is still in operation. 

If you stop at one of the information centers in Kansas you might learn about the Post Rocks.  There is actually a Post Rock Scenic Byway...but you can see post rock almost anywhere in Kansas...

...and it is exactly what you think it is, rock cut to become fence posts...they are not tall...

I think in the beginning it was just land boundary markers, then later wire was added...

Limestone post last for years...and faced with no trees to cut for wood post the rock served it's purpose..

I have driven on I-70 across Kansas SOOOO many times over the years on trips to visit my sis, so this time I did NOT want to see one single mile of Kansas via I-70.  So taking back roads across was my plan and never going near St Louis Missouri was another part of my plan.  So I studied the map to see what else I might find interesting on the back roads of Kansas.  I saw a little blurb called "Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area" right off hwy 4 just a little bit south...so made a bee line for that.  Awesome huge place!! Amazing amount of wading birds, some waterfowl, and white pelicans.   The dirt roads were very rough other than that it was a good auto tour of about 8 miles.  I drove slow and saw what I could from the van,  the reeds were tall and made it a little hard to view the birds...I entered via Great Bend side and exited the tour on the Education Center side...

Hundreds of Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and some Little Blue Herons were spotted, as well as Great Blue Herons, Ibis Glossy and White Faced...

Glossy Ibis

Snowy Egrets 

the water level in the canals can be raised and lowered by a series of dykes...

wood duck 

Waterfowl I spotted included Cinnamon Teal, Wood Duck, Ruddy Duck, Mallard, Mottled Duck, Canada Goose, Pied Billed Grebe, American Coot., Double Crested Cormorant, to name a few..

Cinnamon Teal

 Ruddy Duck

...and way up high lots of white pelican coming in for landings...the shoreline of the lake was 50 ft deep with white pelicans..I estimated 2,000 but I think that is way short of the reality. 

white Pelicans line the shoreline Thousands of them,

sooo many, awesome to see... also in great numbers were tree swallows & mixed flocks of blackbirds...and lots of Franklin's Gulls. 

Imm Red winged Blackbird 

A flock of Brown Headed Cowbird, and I see at least one Yellow Headed Blackbird in the mix..

So pretty here!

Franklin's Gull

and I spotted this Peregrine who at first I thought was a Prairie Falcon, but the marks under the eye the dark lines going down are in the wrong place and too heavy for Prairie, so I think Immature Peregrine...with a kill, unfortunately a truck pulling a boat passed by so fast it scared the bird and he took off and dropped his kill...hope he was able to retrieve it..

If you happen to be in this area in April they have good Prairie Chicken Lek tours so says the website...

Reservations ONLY so plan early, you can get the info on that link. 

I wasn't as enthusiastic about taking photos on this day I had some problems with my camera, and the day was HOT cruising on those dirt roads with windows down was hard and the dogs were panting so I finally just gave up rolled up the windows put on the AC and left...this would be a great spot to hit about the 3rd week of October!    

I think the miles were catching up with me, so I  traveled only another 40 miles and stopped for the night...found a really great quiet spot...at the Kanopolis Lake Army COE Riverside Park campground a great deal with an electric site costing me only $4. I used the electric to run the fans Kansas was HOT!  The big lake was across the road with a a larger campground, but I just needed a quiet spot to spend the evening and walk the dogs,  a good trail took us down to the Smokey Hill  River, and it had a little waterfall...only about 3 ft high but still it was nice the sound of falling water...

Smokey Hill River

Another cool thing in this campground was all these trees had painted lady butterflies all over the trunks!  Thousands of them..in fact I moved to a site away a  bit to get away from them cause they were getting into the van and everything...

Never seen anything like this...and down along the river, I saw a lot of monarch butterflies fluttering by...Really awesome experience!

In the morning I drove over the dam to see the lake...and saw TONS more Franklin's Gulls...

chattering Franklin's Gulls

we don't see these back east..

Then continued  East to the Flint Hills Region of Kansas. 

More on that next post....

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.