March Madness?

I have a lot of  clean winter up I need to be doing but I just keep going out and checking the trees for birds instead.  Tomorrow I may try to get a start on it.

Saturday of last week I finally made it to Sandhills.  I spent the majority of my time at Lake Bee Picnic Area where the lake has just been refilled a few months back and the little wetland  the water flows through on it's way out of the lake is open to the public again. 

OUT of all the habitat types I love wetlands the most! Because the diversity is unmatched!

The other end  has a highway running thru it so that is a huge negative, but it still has great potential.   I ran into several Swamp Sparrow...

You can just see the road that crosses this wetland...Once the trees green up the critters will have more cover and privacy.  Fortunately after the water passes under the highway it goes into the Wildlife Refuge where it flows into another small pond.,,and then it goes on and flows into what they call Pool D, 

Up by the picnic area are very tall Long Leaf Pine, and I found three of the rare Red Cockaded Woodpeckers,  pecking away and getting bugs out from under the bark. The males do have a little red spot on the top of the head which is rarely seen...

Glad to know the numbers are increasing all over our state...Thanks to some proper forestry management.   They nest in mature long leaf pine. 

On the way out of the Park I stopped at Pool D another of my favorite spots, and glad I stopped there I found a River Otter.  

He hissed at me....

Sunday it rained all day...so I did some window birding...A couple of the large Pileated Woodpeckers burrowed into the bark in the big pine in the frontyard...

Cousin to the Ivory Billed Woodpecker that is thought to be extinct now...there is some controversary about that.  If you ever see one of these with BIG white Wing patches, and a white bill, you have seen a bird thought to be extinct.  

And a Golden Crowned Kinglet was  soaked by the rain...but still managed to throw up his golden crown..

Monday was blue and pretty again and a flock of Cedar Waxwing came into the yard...they are amazing to watch..

These are the first I've seen in a long time!

 later I checked a couple of nearby Hotspots...Bluebirds are ready to get their families started...they make good use of the picnic tables At Goodale State Park,  to perch on while looking for insects.  

And the Yellow Rump Warbler (Myrtle variety) is a bird I will  see many times this breeding season...they are such great insect hunters! Here he tries very hard to blend in with this fading piece of mistletoe..

After that stop I headed to Bramblewood with some take out! I don't normal partake but I was starved so I got some junk food...sat n my van out of the wind and gobbled it up then checked out what was going on...The Geese are staking out good spots...

Tuesday I stayed home....got busy picking up lots of  sticks and such in the back which is a  wooded area, sort of the dogs play area,  I try to keep it picked up of all the big stuff...I don't mind the cones on the ground but sticks they can get tangled up in I try to keep picked up...So while I was in the yard I spotted the first Purple Finch of the year on the feeder.   

She had me wondering for a while if she could be a Rose Breasted Grosbeak, which sometimes do stop by but I couldn't pin it down and went with the safe bet, the reason I questioned  it at all was in one shot I got she had a yellow tinge to her throat.  I cropped this so the yellow can be seen...she has a sunflower seed in her beak...so looks a little weird, 

 either way she is a stunning bird. 

Wednesday I combined some chores with some birding...I had to empty my trailer of the sticks and such so I stopped at the recycle center to do that...

I decided to take up a challenge given by a Youtube channel I follow called Badgerland Birding.   Its a March Madness challenge and they tossed out 3 species for us to find...each participant is entered to win a prize, we don't know nor do we care what the prize is, we just love the challenge...SO in my region the 3 birds I have to find are the Song Sparrow, an Eastern Meadowlark, and a Northern Shoveler.  

I found my Song Sparrow right away...at Bramblewood ponds,..I have had better shots of a Song Sparrow but this is THE one I found for the challenge...

I had only just heard a Meadowlark on March 1st.  The challenge is to see or hear each bird beginning March 1st at 12 am to March 31st Midnight...so technically I got the Meadowlark...but I really want to SEE it as well.   I didn't hear about the challenge till that night of the 1st when I watched the video...so I just heard an Eastern Meadowlark singing and  marked it down on an accidental birding list when I dropped off the first load of trailer limbs on Tuesday...morning.  So according to the rules I did get it...BUT Im trying to see and photo one if possible and I have plenty o time to get it done.  

While looking I found a bird I don't see too often An English House Sparrow..

Seems they are nest building up in this piece of electrical equipment

I hope this was a good choice for them...

Also found another European bird, the Starling.  They are nest building up in the belly of this F- 4C Phantom Fighter Jet from the Vietnam era on display at our small air field..

Rocket bird!

On the day I was looking for the Meadowlarks, I didn't see one...I checked another spot where I normally find them but didn't see any there either-- saw a ton of Brown Headed Cowbird instead...

Such a lovely bird! So here it is Friday and I have more yard work to do it's supposed to be windy today so a good day to tackle more stick pick ups...and we'll see what the weekend holds for me, come my next post...HOPE all of you are happy n healthy and ready to enjoy the Month of March...madness and all..


Russia PLEASE  just stop!!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Ye' Old Towne

This week started with another snow event. AND it was really cold!

Spring wants to happen!!

I made my way on the warmest day to the area I call Bramblewood, 

the first bridge was washed away by floods...in 1831 and in 1835 the first Steamboat made it's way up the river from Charleston here in the Wateree River.  When the bridge washed they started a ferry service right out there...

And on this day a Belted Kingfisher was resting...

There was three  eastern Bluebirds, seems they are getting ready for nesting.  

And from the back...

I was happy to see a Palm Warbler there,,

And a sneaky Great Egret

And another visitor that I haven't seen as much of this winter is the Yellow Rumped Warbler This one really showed off his yellow patch. 

Birds as a whole have been steeply declined in my area all winter.  I am alarmed that next winter I may see NO BIRDS...how did we come to this?? The only way to understand where we are is to look back and so....

More on the History of Camden: Colonel Joseph Kershaw

The town name changed from  the backcountry settlement of Fredericksburg, to Pine Tree Hill,  and finally to Camden in 1768  in honor of Lord Camden a champion of Colonial Rights.  Joseph Kershaw our founding father,  was born in Yorkshire England,  immigrated to  Charles Towne  in the 1750's with this brothers Ely and William.  Two brothers moved north to this area and  fought for Independence from Britain,  but William  lived out  his years in Charleston as a Loyalist. 

This Bronze stands in one of the Public Squares...

This is Joseph Kershaw (r) with our Patron Saint 
King Haigler, (1700-1763) King of the Catawba tribe.  Kershaw helped broker peace with the tribe to ensure safe passage of whites using the Tribal path moving  the goods to and from the Interior to the Port at Charleston.  Early crops traded were Rice and Indigo!
Indigo for the Royal Blue

The old Opera House and clock tower had a weathervane installed on top in 1826 representing 

King Haigler this is not the original, it's in the City Archives building. This likeness is sort of our town Mascot. 

 Both Joseph and Ely were captured at the battle of Camden and shipped to a Prison of War camp in British Honduras.  Unfortunately Ely died enroute to Bermuda  in 1780 of dysentery at age 38 and was buried there.  While imprisoned Kershaw mortgaged his properties back in South Carolina to raise money for a ship of supplies to be sent to help the Patriots regain lost ground but it was sunk by the British before it arrived.  His son John Kershaw  spent many years selling off his estate to pay off these debts.  Col Joseph  tried to recoup some of his losses, but he was told by the Governor who he wrote to, "sorry you gave of your own free will."   

The Original Courthouse (1826) is now a Welcome Center for Tourists

 Kershaw passed away December 28th, 1791 and is buried about one block from this Courthouse,   in this enclosure with other members of his family.  This land was donated by Kershaw  to the Episcopal Church. 
  Kershaw County was named in his honor that same year,  he had given practically all he had to the cause.

The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution plaque 

Joseph Kershaw's Burial place 

 An early  Platt showing the names of the Streets and purposed locations of key Town Centers at the time of Kershaw's death in 1791 the cemetery enclosure is located at or near the Letter C.  Now a days the Episcopal church is on the corner of Lyttleton and Laurens streets.   Generations of Kershaws are buried in the old Quaker Cemetery. 

  

I go to the Battle Field area to walk, have biked there and to check out birds...It will undergo a facelift and become a real Historic Landmark.  

Baron DeKalb mentioned in my last post a, German who came here to fight for the cause of the Colony and was wounded at the Battle of Camden died of his wounds and was buried by the Old Oak back on Joseph Kershaws land in town, and was later moved to more prominent resting place in front of the Bethesda Presbyterian Church 

That's the Baron's tomb in front....this building has a dirty secret I will discuss maybe next week?  There is at the very least two sides to every story. 

Most of our  street names are still the same as the original platt of 1791...this is one of our major arteries named for DeKalb at least in the city limits.  I will highlight other streets named for characters from the past history...I hope you find taking a close look at my town and how it came to be interesting. I have some ideas for my next post to recognize Black History Month. 

Fresh n hot.....YUM!!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Busy Week

So this week I decided Im ready to take the bike beyond the yard.  

Safety First

I went to Sandhills, it's quiet, no cars, or rarely and there is Paved  dirt and gravel roads to practice on as well so my first day ended up being like a 10 mile day!  But I didn't like pedal to metal do 10 miles, I did it in 4 different section rides including 2 dirt/gravel roads...I did about 5 miles of each. 

I absolutely need a new front gear shifter.  I tried to buy one on Amazon, but they insist on putting Amazon Prime in my shopping cart so I dumped the whole damn thing right there in the virtual aisle.  WTH, that should be illegal.  Lately Im just grumpy and my patience has worn not thin...but out.  So I went to Walmart.com bought the thing free shipping and no dirty tricks. 

IT was so good to be moving through the air with the only sound is the gentle click of the wheels I really enjoyed it and I want to do that again.  

Red Headed Woodpecker

Brown Headed Cowbird

I took a muddy hike to see the Pitcher Plants up close they are in bloom now.  These ones get quite tall and they love this boggy hillside.  

This Wood Duck pair had 2 ducklings, so very cute..

And the Geese had some Goslings  from the opposite side of the pond.

The Orchard Orioles have arrived and I added a new FOY bird...

Another day I went to Bramblewood and took a nice long walk around...The Clover is in bloom and it's so pretty.  

It attracts some cool insects, 

And the big mature hardwoods bring in some migrants.  

The Painted Bunting, 

The Prothonotary Warbler, 

The greens along the edge of the river soooo inviting. 

Red Winged Blackbird 

And around the yard some good going's on...

Floss "show your surprised face." 

A new Guard at the door, 

The Myrtle Yellow Rump in the trees, 

Along with a singing Black and White Warbler 

 

And a brilliant Prairie Warbler

The Red Breasted Nuthatch still in the yard...a pair actually.

And a new Rose Bush Inspector...

And my latest project is UP in the Air! 

Barn Owl Box!!

That was a full week we have a cold front passing through then some rain we actually need it even tho we had a rainy winter the air is very dry right now...AND one more the lady RB Nuthatch 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

RIP Little Bunnies 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.