May 1, 2022: The Rookery

We've returned from our excursion in South Carolina, but not before experiencing a few more wonders of nature.  Our fabulous host and tour guide had tracked down a rookery along a marsh in Mount Pleasant and when we visited we found a host of southern bird species sharing an obviously popular spot for nesting which included Anhingas, Wood Storks, Snowy Egrets, and Great Egrets.  And in their breeding mode they were putting on quite a display - not for us, but for their mates.

A Snowy Egret struts its stuff.

The males of both the snowy and great egrets had their breeding plumage in place and were proud to display it.  

A great egret attracting attention.

It's easy to see why these birds where hunted to near extinction for their feathers during the early 1900s.  No longer at risk of being shot, they now have more time to discuss parenting methods.

"I think we should let them cry at night."

I couldn't tell which nests had chicks in them but it appeared that the great egrets were flying back and forth bringing food in to feed chicks in at least some of the nests.

Regurgitating food for the chicks.

Meanwhile, one of the snowy egrets continued to make home improvements.

Bringing in some additional building materials.

The wood storks were well hidden deep within the trees so it's not clear what they were up to, but it appeared that the anhingas had already nested and were incubating their eggs.  

The anhingas looked like loons panting on their nests in the hot sun.

We earlier had watched a snowy egret fishing in Shem Creek at low tide and I found it fascinating how it would shake its foot in the mud to scare out a crab or a shrimp and then with lightning speed stab it with its bill.  You can see it in action in this video I took at the creek:

A couple of other interesting, non-New Hampshire creatures we came across during our travels in the low country included a reptile and a crustacean.

Brown anole  (Anolis sagrei)

Some kind of land-and-sea crab.

I don't what kind of crab that was, running around by the brackish water with the alligators, but the lizard is a brown anole, a non-native species that was likely introduced to Florida in the 1970s and has exploded in population throughout the south, largely displacing the native Carolina (aka green) anole. 

Upon returning home we found winter still hanging on strongly in New Hampshire, with barely any progress towards spring while we were away.  The red maple blossoms, the first to come out, had barely budged.  

Red maple blossoms still just emerging.

But at least the Trailing Arbutus (mayflower) are blooming in the forest.

Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens)

And, two more summer residents and a passing migrant arrived this week:

A palm warbler makes a rest stop on its way to Canada.

This pair of yellow-rumped warblers is behaving like they are going to nest right here.

On the lookout for the next insect.

Yellow-rumped warblers are an early arriver and we watched them dashing around the bare branches as well as on the ground, picking off insects, probably of the crawling variety.  The palm warbler is just passing through New Hampshire on its way to breed in Canada or downeast Maine.  I also heard a blue-headed vireo singing from somewhere high in the tree tops.

I'll end with one decidedly non-nature moment, but an interesting connection between north and south.  I saw a large ship which looked like a ferry heading out to sea from Charleston Harbor in a direction that didn't seem like a ferry route.  I took a picture and after expanding it I saw it was "The Cat" which I thought ran from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.  A little digging revealed that after a few seasons off, it was returning to New England from its summer berth in Charleston.

"The Cat" returning north for its service between Maine and Nova Scotia.

This ship started life as the U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command fast ferry Alakai (USNS Puerto Rico).  There's a neat video of it being retrofitted at the Detyens Shipyard in North Charleston including how it was put into drydock and then refloated.  

It's one of the larger migrating objects I've seen this spring.

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!