April 13, 2025: Spanish Moss and Soggy Snow

We spent the past week in South Carolina where it was nice to see something other than snow in the tree branches.  When we returned to the lake on Thursday night we found quite a change had taken place in the days we were gone.  Not only was all the snow gone, but the lake was almost completely open.  We were greeted the first night home with the call of a loon drifting over the lake.  The next morning was dull and gray - a perfect day if you're a duck - and we were immediately treated to a smorgasbord of ducks on the lake including mergansers, wood ducks, mallards, black ducks, and these ring-necked ducks which are always a treat to see.

Ring-necked Duck.

Later in the day a pair was having an afternoon siesta near the shoreline.  

Sleeping with one eye open at 1:00pm.

I was careful not to disturb them, but eventually they woke up and perked up a bit.

When they suddenly leapt out of the water, I thought I had startled them.

But in fact, their flock, which was hidden around a point of land, had taken flight, and they were just heading off to catch up with their friends.

Can you see the mallard on the rock near shore?

Another early migrant was an Eastern Phoebe.

Eastern Phoebe perched over the lake, hoping the insects are out soon.

And no surprise, with the ice out, the beavers are back on their evening cruises across the lake in search of food and timber for building supplies.

There were branches nibbled clean of their bark showing they had been on shore, and sure enough, come night fall, one arrived to feast.

That's one big beaver that seems to have stored up plenty of winter food, but nonetheless is looking for something fresh to eat.

Now, South Carolina.  Our hostess arranged for perfect weather in the mid 80's all week and not a drop of rain.  A fun part of visiting new areas is finding unfamiliar things to investigate, such as these blossom-type items scattered all over the ground in a Low Country forest.  I figured they were pollen-producing blossoms of a tree and it didn't take long to identify them as Sweetgum.  

The dried up, brown spikey-thing (a "gumball") tucked into the leaf litter on the left was a helpful clue.

Imagine how much pollen can be expelled from all those blossoms.  

Male flowers of the Sweetgum tree.

Not far away at food-serving facility beside a lagoon I saw a large bird we don't have in New England but is easy to identify.

A Black Vulture looks for easy pickings.

Black Vultures don't venture north of Massachusetts, but maybe soon they'll make their way up here like the Red-bellied woodpeckers and winter Bluebirds have.

On the Isle of Palms we saw the usual culprits such as Laughing Gulls, Egrets, and Boat-tailed Grackles, but also a new bird for me, Willets.

Willets foraging in the surf on Isle of Palms.

It took a bit for me to recognize them as they were wearing winter or immature plumage.  (Thanks RB for the confirmation!)

Along Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, a pair of Barn Swallows was dashing around over the marsh collecting insects, but then perched on a railing just for our enjoyment.

Barn Swallows at Shem Creek.

There were also pelicans gliding low over the creek watching the fishing and shrimp boats for cast-off fish.

Over at Folley Island we saw Pelicans performing their freefall crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

Searching for targets.

On the attack.

Contact!

No trip to the Low Country would be complete without a visit to a stand of Live Oaks with their Spanish Moss.

This is "Oak Alley" at Boone Hall Plantation which also provides much history of the slave trade and life in South Carolina.  It's worth a visit, for the history lesson as well as the flowers.

Some of the gardens in front of the plantation Mansion.

And then, after a beautiful trip through the Shenandoah Valley where we drove along miles of Red Buds and flowering trees, watching summer return to late winter, we were back in New Hampshire.  And yesterday, mother nature made sure we knew that as we woke up to this on Saturday morning.

Back to snow in the trees - we should have stayed down south another week!  Thanks for a great visit!

April 30, 2023: Dolphins Don't Fish in Wicwas

We spent the past week a thousand miles south of the Lakes Region, getting an early peek at summer, and it sure was nice.  We saw spring unfold before our eyes as we drove the scenic route to South Carolina through the Shenandoah Valley, watching bare branches turn to flowering trees, then budding leaves, and finally to blooming magnolias as we arrived in Charleston and Mount Pleasant.  Our favorite Low-County tour guide had plenty of activities lined up for our entertainment, and one of the first was a visit to "Breach Inlet", a break in the barrier islands that separates Sullivan's Island from the Isle of Palms.  We walked the Atlantic shore along Isle of Palms and when we reached The Breach we found a dolphin fishing right in the breach as the tide rushed out.

A bottlenosed dolphin.

The breach is narrow so the current is swift as the water drains from the inland waterway when the tide goes out.  There are docks and boats close by on either side, but the dolphin didn't seem to mind.

Looking for fish in the riptide.

It swam against the strong current yet it remained stationary, diving down and coming up in the same spot, probably catching fish after fish coming out with the tide.  

Swimming against the tide.

It was one of the highlights of the trip.  

Another wildlife spectacle was found at the edge of a small lake which contained an egret rookery.

These beautiful birds don't seem to mind sharing nesting territory as there are over a dozen nests in the same small area.  And these birds are stunning when they show off all their plumage.

They have such an interesting shade of green on their face.

They also seem to be magnanimous, allowing interlopers to share the neighborhood.

A male anhinga preens while his mate feeds the young in the nest.

Mom with the hungry chicks.

Like many herons and storks, anhingas partially digest food and then regurgitate it for their young to eat right out of their throats.

Feeding time at the anhinga home.

They must really trust their parents

The anhinga pair was ahead of the egrets in the nesting cycle as they already had four good-size chicks in the nest while there was no evidence of egret chicks.

Did I mention the large, smiling alligator hiding in the foliage on the edge of the pond, just waiting for one of those plump birds to make a mistake?

"Never smile at a crocodile"  (I know, it's a 'gator - sorry Peter Pan)

At another site, a marshy bay beside the Pitt Street Bridge in Charleston Harbor, we saw a wide range of birds, including sandpipers, brown thrashers, marsh wrens, grackles, and more egrets.  I was able to watch one egret picking out its lunch from the marsh - probably small fish or shrimp.

Of course there were pelicans all around the South Carolina shore.

It's good to see pelicans making a comeback after their population was decimated by poisoning from pesticides.

We saw many animals that also live in New England, including ospreys.

Osprey over Isle of Palms

Other northern birds we saw included cardinals, mockingbirds, bluebirds, sandpipers, wood ducks (already with chicks hatched) and of course, Carolina wrens.  Yes, the Carolina wren has worked its way north even to New Hampshire as things have warmed up over the years.  

All along the drive both down and back there was a nearly constant circling of vultures taking advantage of thermals over the highway to search for road kill.  From a distance I can't tell the difference between turkey vultures, which migrate to New England in summer, and black vultures, which don't come as far north as New England.  But up close the black face (versus red on the turkey vulture) is evident.  The South Carolina vultures are more much more tame than they are here in New Hampshire.  

A Black Vulture perches on a roof top and watches the world pass by.  

I even saw a vulture driving a bunch of crows away from a dumpster that the vulture had claimed for itself - this is one bird that's learned how to adapt to modern civilization.

Alas, we did eventually have to return home.  As we drove back to New England we watched the season retreat, eventually regressing all the way back to brown leaves and bare branches here in New Hampshire.  But I was happy to see the see that the Trailing Arbutus are still blooming.

So we didn't miss much, and now we get to experience spring twice in the same year.  Thanks for a great visit LG!

November 21, 2021: A Southern Expedition

We enjoyed a week down in South Carolina to visit family, with the added benefit of missing out on a week of November drab.  I knew we were out of our region the very first morning when we were awoken at daybreak by a bird song we don't hear in New Hampshire, a Carolina Wren.  On our excursions in the low county, guided by our expert host, we experienced plenty of other southern creatures including this little lizard in a cypress swamp.

Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei)

The south has plenty of invasive species of its own, among them is the brown anole, a native of Cuba and the Bahamas which was introduced to America as a pet.  Its journey began in Florida and has been making its way northward, expanding its range rapidly by easily out-competing species of native lizards, though it's unlikely to be seen in New Hampshire anytime soon.

And what would a visit to a southern swamp be without a snake?  

Perhaps a Mud Snake.

I don't know what kind of snake this is, but it may be a Mud Snake based on its coloring and its location at the edge of the swamp, into which it slithered upon our approach.

You can barely make out the coloring on its underside which makes me think its a mud snake.

Along the edges of the swamp many southern plants were still in bloom including this hibiscus with a pretty yellow butterfly enjoying its nectar through its long proboscis.

A Cloudless Sulphur butterfly (Phoebis sennae) on Hibiscus Moscheutos.

We observed quite a few birds that we do see in the Lakes Region during the summer months including great blue herons and great egrets.  

Great Egret (Ardea alba) on a lagoon.

Great blue heron on the far side of the same lagoon.

The great egret is rare visitor to New Hampshire's lakes, while the great blue heron is abundant here. 

The snowy egret looks like a smaller version of the great egret except it has a black beak and those yellow feet:

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) on a different lagoon.

I've never seen a snowy egret in New Hampshire though their range maps show them breeding along the east coast as far north as Casco Bay in Maine.

Other fun birds to watch are the ubiquitous brown pelicans along the ocean shoreline and in the creeks.

A group of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) take a free ride up Shem Creek on the flood tide.

I also observed multiple flocks of vultures soaring overhead on the warm updrafts.

Black vultures searching for food on the updrafts.

It wasn't until I saw a few closer to earth that I realized they are a different species than the turkey vultures we have in New Hampshire.

Black Vulture (Coragyups atratus)

These are Black Vultures which don't travel north of Long Island, but according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where they do overlap with turkey vultures they follow the turkey vultures to locate food because unlike turkey vultures, black vultures have a poor sense of smell.  The white underside of the wing tips was the most obvious difference, but the black head versus the the red head of the turkey vulture is also distinctive.

Finally, I'll share a couple of southern plants, one small, one giant.  First the small:

Rice growing about four feet high along the Ashley River.

Rice was once a major cash crop in South Carolina, starting in 1685 when a ship carrying rice from Madagascar was forced into Charleston by a storm.  The industry flourished until the end of the Civil War when labor became scarce; rice farming ceased in South Carolina by the early 1900s and is now rarely grown.  [REF:  Carolina Plantation Rice]  This was a demonstration field at the Middleton Plantation.

Now the large plant:

A Live Oak generously adorned with Spanish Moss.

Live oaks can grow for centuries, up to 400, maybe even 500 years.  This specimen and several others at Middleton Plantation were saved from the lumber axe to provide shade around the plantation's mansion.

As soon as we arrived back in New Hampshire we were greeted to a day of snow squalls, and after being no more than a dozen feet above sea level all week, I needed a blue-sky mountain fix.  The Squam Range's Mt. Morgan and Percival filled the need nicely.

Looking south from Mount Morgan.

Many thanks again to our gracious host for another great visit to the Low Country!  Now I'm ready for snow!