Fine Stuff

So little sis flew back over and the three of us are together! We were a family again for an entire week...That was a boost for me.   On Sunday we went to the free Community Concert Band performance...this is something I have a history with, I hadn't been to one since I returned to SC, and this was their 40th anniversary.  It was fun! 

 Monday little sis and I drove down to the coast to do some birding.  This is the shot to the soul I needed...to spark interest in the things I love...we had some soupy fog to deal with but we had a great day anyways. 

By the time we hiked the 1.2 miles down the beach to the Jetty we were soaked by mist...

We saw a Great Black Backed Gull here it is with a Ring Billed for scale...a state bird for me...and a lifer for sis, she racked up quite a few this day!

Lots of foggy Ruddy Turnstone  

We had 2 beautiful Eared Grebe pop up...

Some really cute Sanderlings' on the rocks too...

Dunlin barely visible in this fog enjoyed poking thru the mud...

And then along came a Clapper Rail, he seemed to be strutting. 

Missing a few legs but still spunky 

Gr Blue Heron..

More  Shell trees!

How much cuter could a Semipalmated Plover be?

We made an entire day of it...what a great day it was!

Wednesday  we headed over to the McBee WMA, and found many Field Sparrow,  

Photographed at a Cemetery in the afternoon, it was so cold that day...and Thursday we went to the Archives to do some family history research, and later we birded the County Riverside Park...lots of Cedar Waxwings were about.

Today its Friday and raining cats n dogs...the Sisters are hosting a brunch and little Sis leaves in the wee morning hours..it was a Fine Week! spent with Family!

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My Mom memory for this post...

Here she is enjoying some tasty Ice Cream on one of our "Townies" day trips here in a small rural place called Lone Star, SC...this was taken in 2016.  

 Such good times!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Make it thru Dec.

At time of this writing,  it's Monday and on top of that it's December and heading toward Christmas, a Christmas without Mom. She was not a big fan of Christmas  when my son was little i did it,  now I wish it would just go away...  This year was one of loss, not just my Mom also 5 people from my blog roll!  

Tioga George, Judy the Bird Lady, Lynn of Winnie Views, David of In the Direction of our Dreams, and McQ Travels.  Not to mention many of the Pets I had grown to love via blog reading and Vlogs.
I hope each of these bloggers families are handling their sorrow in a way that makes it bearable.

We did more clearing out of Mom's personal possessions, we found old letters from our Dad, little things we had made for her when we were children, and the most precious gift, a receipt.  If any of you have read my book Before Life Got Complicated, you know we had little.  At one point we lived in a wonderful old house on the grounds of Bramblewood Plantation.  We all loved it there  horses, dogs, cats, it was just on the outskirts of town and a great place to just be a kid. 

 It was owned by a wealthy lady who kept retired horses there and we kids took care of and rode those horses.  Some of the happiest parts of all our lives were spent there.  Only one issue...it was cold! Mom at this point in life was a widow she made little salary in fact I found one of her check stubs her bring home for that week had been $63.  Imagine having to pay rent, keep up an automobile, and feed 3 children and yourself on that...So anyways most of the time we had NO heat in the house.  An old oil burning radiator system was there but buying the oil was not always possible, so one Christmas my mom bought  3 electric blankets.  She did not buy one for herself,  We slept warm.  Mine was the green of nature, big sis's was sky blue, and little sis's was yellow like banana pudding.
While going thru some old receipts I found one from Sears, and it was for 3 electric blankets, $44.  Almost an entire weeks salary...
I have been extremely sad and fragile since finding that receipt.  

 There is a way now I'm waiting on  the will.  If you don't see blogs from me, you know I didn't find it.  

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Mom Memory for this Post

This was taken in Tennessee on a trip we made back to visit our family there.  I am guessing the year was about 1968.  Mom was 44 yrs old here.  This was the first car she alone purchased and owned it was a 1963 Plymouth Fury.  My Dad had always done the car buying etc.  He passed away in 1967.  It had a push button gear shifter...  She loved this car, we were so proud of her.  

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Down but Not OUT!

Still trying to pick up the pieces of our recent loss...and the weather waxes and wanes from good to bad every other day...yesterday was good! My sis and her husband returned home this week, I sure miss her and hope she has a great winter... lucky me I have 2 sisters and one has remained for a while I'm so glad to report.  We are taking care of the last affairs and going through some of Mom's personal things...its hard but it has to be done.

Y'all know we are into the cemetery photography and so we decided the best way to resume normal for us is to go tromp around a graveyard and with Jimmy beside us, we did just that.

We had a list of about 50 names to find and photograph the headstone of, and we did find most of them.  This cemetery is named Bethany Tiller Cemetery.  It is a rural cemetery and has some burials as far back as 1860.  Some of the ones buried here have birthdays of 1794, so many generations  planted here.  This cemetery is only a mile down the road from Mr. McSween's grave,  the Scottish Civil War Solider that I have blogged about before.  

I did see lots of Pine Warbler in the trees...but I got no decent photos of birds on this day...After a lunch eaten in the car, out of the chilly wind,  we headed to one of our favorite places not too far away...

a cropped shot of the Pine Warbler

HE'S BACK!!  You just don't know how much good it did me to see that the Beaver has rebuilt his dam and his pond has returned to it's previous glory!  I wish there was some way I could have this legally protected...They had him down but he is not OUT, not yet anyways...

Sorry for all those sun spots.  We hoped to see the Eagles hanging around preparing for January's upcoming nest season...I guess it's a bit early yet, but you can bet I will be going over to check.  Beaver are actually hunted YEAR round on private property, and there is actually a trapping season from Dec 1- Mar 1 and mostly they are treated as and considered  a nuisance animal!! Can you believe that?????????

                          

The little fellow did a fine job of repairing the man made damage that was done to his home...you can see it actually reaches across a wide place in this shot, from the foreground to the edge of the pond where you see the reflections...I hope one day to actually see HIM if I can be there at the right time. 

Just look at the master piece he created! This lovely pond for turtles, frogs, birds and other wild life, like the Bald Eagles who nest here last season. Without the beaver, will the Eagle come here?  Doubtful. 

His dam is so perfect, it allows just enough water to flow out so as NOT to flood the entire area...

Happy Turtles...

Large flocks of Common Grackle passed over as we were there and some rested a bit...

Some swamp and song sparrow were also around...hiding in the brambles...on the drive back we caught up with a huge mixed flock of Grackle and Blackbirds..My horrid video skills meant I needed to edit it before sharing so here goes...

I can't figure out how to work the volume on vimeo...;0/

Then we spotted this juvie dark morph broad winged!  but after further research I thought Red Shouldered, but that didn't really fit either so eventually I got it right Broad Winged Hawk.... The eyes's are a little dark...(adult Coopers have red eyes, and immature have yellow, Red tailed Hawks, have a white yoke). And Red Shouldered have those rusty wing patches,  We couldn't get around to see the shape and coloration of the tail without scaring him off..

So this was a good day.

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My Mom Tribute for this post is a candid shot I adore of her...we were on one of our many picnics and she was enjoying her July 4th watermelon...this photo was taken in 2011 at Sandhills NWR. 

Never Forgotten. 

Hope all of you had a nice Holiday...ours was simple and bittersweet.

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

A soggy Day in November

This is a post I began prior to my Mom going into hospital, I never really finished it but I'm going to use it for this weeks post until I get myself back up to snuff

Nov 8th, 2019

I normally start writing a post on Monday and it's done for posting on Sunday...I've been covered up with projects and I have done very little birding this entire week in fact I turned in one list to ebird in 7 days.  Last weekend it rained on Sunday but my sis and I went out birding anyways! We did mostly car birding.

Next to some cotton fields we had lots of Palm Warblers!  We had some Song Sparrow at this location as well.  

Then we moved about 1 mile down the road to a sod farm my sis ran in and got permission for us to cruze around...it was raining pretty hard....we had about 7 horned larks on the ground...

Not a bird I see very often and a horrible photo thru car glass with drizzle.

Lots of Crow both Fish and American were about..

We had a couple Hawks hunting from atop the irrigation machine....here is the Red Shouldered we spotted against a really dull sky....

Two large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds moved away in the distance...

And we had a couple White Ibis out there in the fog also.  This sod farm is just barely out of our county.  We sighted other birds like American Kestrel, Turkey Vulture, and at least one Northern Harrier was there early on, but left after he saw us. This is a spot I want to return to on a sunny day. 

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...and my post just ended there....we had an enjoyable outing but by the next day mom was quite ill...

My Mom Memory for this post is a day trip we made to Swan Lake And Gardens in  

May of 2009, Swan Lake is in Sumter County southeast of us.  Mom was only having to use a cane at that time, 10 yrs ago!  This friendly Canada Goose decided to be Mom's pet for a while as we strolled around checking out the flowers, Swans, and other bird life of the garden... 

..what a great memory. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Resume normal...

This was a really hard week for us, and now the "work" of wrapping up someone's life is either done or a lot of progress has been made.  Mom had a wonderful send off but the weather was not very good...cold and rain battled us.  She was so beautiful in life and in death.  I know death is not something any of us want to talk about but I do encourage you all to have a conversation about it!  

We were so happy when we got word her oldest brother and sister would be attending, they made a heroic drive down with their families so we had 10 family members at her entombment.  One miracle was in searching for some photos we wanted to share at her visitation my sister found a sealed envelope with my Aunt Jeans name on it, mom's sister.  She had written her a special thought and never for some reason given it to her so that was given..and what a sweet message it was.  A treasure forever.  

Mom made a lot of decisions herself, she had purchased her mausoleum space long back and so we had some decisions to make but not a whole lot...also she had enough life insurance to cover her final expenses but not excess amounts, so keep in mind your passing is not about leaving people wealth, its about your funeral and the debts you may be leaving behind.  

I am ok so far but each day leaves that empty feeling of "I really miss Mom", I can't have any more conversations with her, all the remaining wisdom of her lifetime she took with her, now we are completely on our own...she had always been there for each one of us...I don't know how a single child deals with this without my sisters I would have had a complete meltdown.

I hope to resume my normal routine soon, I do believe normal is good...so soon. Today it's raining again so I made time to catch up on your posts and found all has been good in each of your lives.   I haven't taken any photos in 2 weeks or more because I was working on a project for mom when she started to have problems...so for an entire week or more I was busy doing that, unfortunately she only got to use it 3 times...but more on that later.  So I am sharing some old photos of some of my favorite flowers and stems. Saw the first Junco in the yard this fall from the water dripped window, my sis and I had planned to visit the sparrow fields today but that won't happen.  Maybe tomorrow?  

As a tribute to Mom for the remainder of the year I will post of photo of her and explain what we were up to.  Many of you were along with us in real time as had our little adventures...so today it's

July 30, 1998, Yellowstone National Park.  We were into our Great Adventure Road Trip -- you can find the tab on my home page to the journal entry of the entire trip.  Mom was always a little nervous about being close to natural wonders sometimes she saw them as a natural hazard..lol, note the apprehensive look on her face.  She was 74 yrs old in this photo and I think I see one grey hair my hair is solid grey now at 66 she didn't grey till she was in her 90's! 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Mom (1924 - 2019)

The post I never wanted to have to write

Sadly today I'm heartbroken, as is my entire family, we lost Mom yesterday at 1:55 pm she was after 95 years at the end of her time on this Earth and there was nothing to be done except what she did so gracefully and that was to pass into whatever life comes after this one.  She was kind and gentle and she loved the outdoors and the Earth's creatures and her family.   We will miss her and mourn her till the day we join her.  I wanted just one more....of everything we shared...

She passed peacefully with us by her side.  Our family has gone from 6 to 4 in just 2 years, so we are due some days of Peace and Serenity.
I am not a religious person as you have guessed...I do believe in the life spirit I have seen it as we all have and I can only hold onto hope that Mom's in now with her mother who she has been embraced with in spirit for a couple of years now.  I dream she is sitting on the old home place porch with her Mom Dee, and her Grandma Dovie,  or her cousin Hestle down by the spring she loved so much from her childhood.  

Life will never be as it was for me...

Thank you's to those of you who wished her well in my last post I did tell her of your wishes and she held a little smile for a moment at that news. I will put up a link to her online Obituary once it's released I welcome all of you to join us in wishing her happy trails on that unknown journey to eternity.

OBITUARY

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Mom...

I will be Missing in Action as my Mom is not doing well and is in the hospital so until then I don't know if I will have time to come to blogger, I will be back when I am able...until then send your warm thoughts her way...

💟💟We Love You MOM!! 💟💟

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Fall colorful...

I've been immersed in Projects all of October! I'm so happy I took that day trip to go and find the Hudsonian Godwit a couple weeks ago..and I'd like to go back there as ducks arrive! I have made some Vlogs on my Youtube Channel (link on the right sidebar)  of my projects, both of the recent ones were pretty big projects...and I'm happy to have that hard work behind me.  I hope soon to be able to get back to making some of the Nature Vlogs I enjoy doing.  

Well it seems October NEARLY skunked me in the 5 mile radius.  I had  hopes when a person who had not birded this hotspot all year long reported a bird that I had not seen there this year.  He provided no photo of his early rare sighting (Louisiana Waterthrush) so I dunno it was not confirmed I did not refind that bird, if it was ever really there! Danggit.

BUT just today, the 30th, I was sitting in a chair at Mom's I saw movement on a tree via the window, a bird 'creeping' up the side...jumped up grabbed my sis's bins, and yes it was a Brown Creeper! A new yard bird for us and one for the Radius! #(124) I really didn't want to have a Zero month! No Photo as I was sitting with mom, and I don't normally take my camera on those days.  If you have never seen a Brown Creeper...then check this link to a photo

 ... the fall color is nice around the lake...

 sweet day

Cyprus trees loose their needles each winter but first they turn this awesome rusty orange color

focus focus focus

some early morning fog hangs around

Pied Billed Grebe swims in a puddle of color...

The side challenge for the month of October in our 5Mile Radius was "how many sparrows can you find" so I ended up with 3.  The Song Sparrow, the Chipping Sparrow, and the Eastern Towhee.  

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On Halloween Night we had a terrific thunderstorm pushed in by a cold front.  It drove the nastiest gulf air possible into our area for 2 days prior to hitting us...humidity was 99% if you even had a thought in your mind you would sweat so the AC was back on high! That morning on my way to do my last day of birding for October, a black cat with 2 white feet ran across my path! OH MY--you know I'm superstitious...what a day to have that happen.  Later the storm hit with a fury unlike any October storm I recall.  The wind swirled, trees swayed, rain pelted, the sky lit up with forks of lightening tossed hither and tither...then the power went out!  No spooky movies for us on this night so.....

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Pileated Woodpecker

Finally I saw a couple of Song Sparrows show up in the clear cut...so my fall buddies are back...not all but most also saw some Yellow Rump Warblers..

But I've seen nothing new so far in my radius for October.  I have about 5 days to go and right now I've got lots of chores I need to complete and am not getting out there everyday like i'd prefer.

So today my blog is going to highlight one species!  The Pileated Woodpecker.  It is the largest woodpecker species in North America it is the size of an average crow.  It is loud and raucous when it flies over and it sounds like a Jungle Bird straight out of an old Tarzan TV show!

As you can see this bird is striking with the big read tuft on the head...and it is the closest cousin to the believed now extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker. 

This particular day I was birding my hotspot, Goodale Lake, and this bird was very close to the path,,,and when he saw me he froze...normally they don't pay me much mind, but this one decided to not move so as to be stealthy...But the blinking of the eye he couldn't stop..

When they are drumming on a tree it echoes and reverberates all over the forest...and can be heard for quite a distance. 

One fact I recall learning about woodpeckers is this the various length of the beak determines the bugs they eat in the trees..some bugs only go so deep and others go way down inside the tree...these guys will push their beak pretty far so they dig out the deepest of wood borers and other tree dwelling insects. This way there is enough food for ever beak size! And I've seen them push under the bark and get insects hiding on the trunk exposed! 

Hope you have a great week.. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.