December 1, 2019: Hungry Birds in South Carolina

We spent the past week in South Carolina, enjoying a wonderful visit with family in the Charleston area, adding in a few days in Beaufort, South Carolina, and Hunting Island State Park on Fripp Island.  Being migration season I kept my eye for our New Hampshire summer birds that have made their way this far south and I saw quite a few including these three, though there's no way of knowing whether they are migrating or permanent SC residents.

Bald Eagle at Palmetto Island County Park

Great Blue Heron at Hunting Island

Osprey at Hunting Island

Other birds I found were local to the South Carolina shore or its maritime forest including these two along the barrier islands.

Semipalmated Plover on Little Hunting Island

Semipalmated Sandpiper on Isle of Palms

After identifying my second shore bird with the term "semipalmated" in its name I figured I better find out what that means:  a semipalmated bird has webbing half way down its feet (semi and palm) - it seems obvious now.  At first I thought the plovers might be piping plovers, but they are clearly the semipalmated plover based on their coloring and location - piping plovers mostly stay on dry sand in the dunes.

I saw quite a few snowy egrets and great egrets which are common in the lowcountry.  One of the great egrets posed quite nicely and gave us all a good show.

Great egret on Hunting Island

The snowy egret on the other hand was more focused on catching food and didn't seem to pay any attention to us.  It would walk quietly along through the shallow water looking for a school of fish.

A Snowy Egret hunting on Hunting Island

When it saw a school it flew up and over them which caused the fish to thrash around wildly, churning the water up into a froth under the bird.

On the approach

On the attack

It then stabbed down into the water with it's beak, more often than not coming up with a little fish.

Success!

All the while these birds are fishing they must keep an eye out for predators, including these guys:

An alligator looking for its own meal

Tic-toc, tic-toc   (or was that a crocodile?)

We had a great visit as always with our wonderful hostess (thank you LG!) providing more great memories, including my favorite nature-moment of the trip:  As I was watching the sun rise over Fripp Island, a long line of brown pelicans flew low over the water in front of the emerging day - another uplifting moment courtesy of mother nature.

January 28, 2018 - A mid-winter celebration

This week we celebrated a life milestone (which will not be revealed) with a trip to a warmer climate for a few days.

Delnor Wiggins State Park

Yes, it was a trip south to savor a taste of summer at the beaches and wetlands of southwest Florida.

Corkscrew Swamp

Of course a trip anywhere must include a stop or two to sample the local flora and fauna, and this one allowed opportunities to look for some of our summer friends who travel south for the season.  Several migrating birds that spend summers in New Hampshire were spotted, including yellow-rumped-warblers and ospreys.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Osprey returning from a fishing trip

The warblers were catching insects in the Corkscrew Swamp, while the osprey were fishing in the  waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  We didn't see any Great Blue Herons, but we did see several of it's smaller cousin, named of course, the Little Blue Heron.

The Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) is about half the size of the Great Blue Heron

These were fishing in ponds and estuaries, and were quite successful in their endeavors.

Another similar bird that appears to be a mash-up of two of our favorite summer birds - the Common Loon and the Heron - is something called the Anhinga.

Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)

The anhinga is a diving bird shaped somewhat like a loon, and it fishes like a loon although it doesn't catch fish with its beak, rather it stabs its prey spear-gun style with that long, sharp beak.  At breeding time, it nests like a heron, building a nest of sticks in a tree.  We were fortunate enough to be near the nest at meal time, which was reminiscent of the feeding of the Great Blue Herons seen up at Arbutus Hill Pond in Meredith last summer.

There were also many beautiful animals that have no counterpart in New England, including 'gators, Snowy Egrets, and the ungainly, yet wonderfully elegant, Brown Pelican.

Snowy Egret near the Naples Pier (love those yellow slippers)

Anyone want to mess with me?

A brown pelican glides low over the gulf waters

We also found some other friends that are smart enough to travel south with the other animals for the winter.

Thanks M&N for everything!

We knew we had picked a fine time to be away from central New Hampshire just by watching the weather reports of snow, ice, and freezing rain.  Learning that we had lost electricity for a day just added to the picture.  When we returned the result of the weather was evident, as the lakes had reformed into frozen icy glaciers.  But it didn't take long to see people out taking advantage of whatever New England doles out.

Fat biking on Lake Wicwas

These two were moving along quite nicely on what are called Fat Bikes:  bicycles with low pressure tires (3-10 psi) in the range of 3 to 5 inches wide that can ride on a variety of soft surfaces such as sand and snow.  Evidently they also have soft enough tire composition to provide traction on clear ice.  If anyone recognizes this couple, I'd be happy to send some pictures to them.

Later that day there were some other two-wheeled vehicles out on Lake Wicwas.

A faster mode of two-wheeled transportation

A couple of short videos:

They're also a little louder than fat bikes.  These high-tech machines have spikes mounted into their tires so they have no problem with traction on ice.

The snow surface is rock-hard at the moment, and with no snow in the immediate forecast, ice sports may be the activity of the week.  There certainly won't be any animal tracking, as I had to really stomp on the snow to break through the crust.  But until new snow falls, we'll enjoy the ice:  next weekend brings the New England Pond Hockey Classic to Meredith Bay, and they will be loving the current conditions in the Lakes Region.