Friday, March 22, 2024

Not Spring

Yeah, we got some snow today. About five inches, we figure, although it was warmish, so it melted some as it fell. 

Accumulation on the deck table this morning.
Probably got another two inces after that.

The chickens were loath to come out of the coop this morning.

I'm not going out there! My feet will get all snowy.

I shoveled the snow from in front of the coop door and tossed some scratch grains on the ground. Only then did all seven venture forth.

So I shoveled the snow and put down scratch grains.
They went back in when the food was gone 

I had the presence of mind to cover the dust bath yesterday. Good thing. This is what it looked like at 8:30 this morning.

Snow on the top of the dust bath cover

The oaks were snow covered

The fifth oak

As were the river birch.

The river birch

This robin found a place on the patio that was snow-free to rest for a moment. It looks a little grumpy.

Damn! I though it was time to fly north, and look at this shit!

Meanwhile, the goldfinches busied themselves throwing the sunflower seeds from the feeders onto the ground. Cardinals, juncos, mourning doves, and redwing blackbirds worked on cleaning them up.

Mourning dove, male cardinal, junco

It wasn’t peaceful, though. The male and female cardinals have their head feather fluffed up. Beware!

Cardinals fluff their head feathers to signal danger.

The redwing flashed his epaulets and screamed. The mourning dove and junco take to the air.

A redwing blackbird, lower right, chases away a mourning dove and junco, upper left

The birds flew back and forth between the feeders and the shelter of the trees. A bunch of blackbirds took refuge in an apple tree.

Blackbirds in an apple tree

Two mourning doves sat in a birch.

Mourning doves in a birch tree

For most of the day, every time I though the snow was letting up, it came down harder. It’s 4:00 now, and it seems to have stopped. Last week we were grilling. This is why we don’t plant the tomatoes until late May. The robins might have been fooled into thinking it is an early spring, but I know better. 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Attrition

 Spot is missing and presumed dead. I didn’t think too much about the feathers I saw by the road when I checked the mail yesterday. Road kill, perhaps, or a hawk getting one of the wild birds. Later, though, Terry asked, “Have you seen Spot today?”

Feathers by the mailbox

I went to the coop and counted. Seven. She was gone. I went back to the mailbox and realized that the feathers were too large for a mourning dove or pigeon. I walked the ditch looking for clues and soon found indisputable evidence that the feathers belonged to Spot.

Definitely one of Spot's feathers

It wasn’t a surprise. Like many youngsters, Spot wanted to be free, even at the expense of her safety. It’s not a good trait in a chicken. Terry explained to her more than once that it was dangerous. She got out of the run two or three times a day. We never saw how, but it doesn’t seem very likely that she flew. I had her right wing’s flight feathers clipped right down to the nubbies. We use “clipped her wings” as a metaphor for restricting freedom, but from what I’ve read, the idea is to clip only one wing, leaving the bird unbalanced and thus flightless. I think she ran at the netting around the run and managed to get up high enough to slip through the larger openings toward the top. She was a slender chicken. She could have gotten in the same way, had she been sufficiently motivated.

Spot, left, with Silvia on top of the coop last summer. Always an adventurer. 

We knew if she kept it up, she would come to no good end. When she first escaped, she would run around the outside of the fence. If we didn’t come right away to open the gate and shoo her back in, she started wandering. I watched from the kitchen window as she explored the closest raised bed, then the next one out, working toward the high tunnel. I went out then to retrieve her, not wanted her to get too far afield.

Since we got the automated coop door, I got out of the habit of taking attendance every night when the girls went to roost. Spot must have wandered off; we would have seen her if she’d been circling the fence. Sometime in the night she was either hit by a car of carried off by a predator, probably the later, as we couldn’t find the body. Those of us old enough to remember Janice Joplin know that freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, and so it is with Spot. She is free from all worldly cares. The worst part is that Spot was an Ameraucana, and I am now down to only two blue-egg layers to 5 brown-egg layers. I will be limited in making up a lovely assortment of alternating colors. I also didn’t order enough extra chicks for this spring. Man.

In other news, the weather yesterday was beautiful, sunny and 70°F. I went for a walk. The pussy willow was not only blooming but buzzing with bees. I thought they were honeybees. Terry checked it out later and said they were too small. Whatever species they were, they were stuffing pollen into their leg baskets like there was no tomorrow.

A bee collecting willow pollen

By the creek, the scilla were starting to bloom. I think the purplish leaves to the right of the scilla might be bluebells.

Scilla blooming, possibly bluebell coming up on the right

The rhubarb is also coming up. Everything seems early this year. I hope there will not be too much damage when we get snow on Monday. Or maybe the forecast is wrong.

Rhubarb

We capped off the lovely spring-like day by grilling out. While the steak and foil-pack potatoes cooked, we had margaritas on the deck.

Porterhouse and foil-pack potatoes

We are getting rain today, which is good too. Everything will grow better if we go into summer with well-watered soil.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Spring

March, while retaining some of its fickleness, seems doing her best to get us to believe the groundhog’s prediction of an early spring. Many days are in the 60’s, although freezing at night continue to be common. “Pothole weather,” Terry grumbles.

I did my last blog post from the basement, as we were under a tornado warning. This was one occasion when we did not care one bit that the storm split and missed us to the north and south. The sky was black, but not that hideous gray-green it gets before a tornado. Inexplicably, two deer came out to grab a last bite before running to the shelter of the woods.

Deer grazing in front of an advancing storm

The migratory birds are coming back. Robins are everywhere. I have seen four kildeer in the south field. Sandhill cranes are flying north in flocks. A red-wing blackbird scolds me from the top of a small oak tree every morning when I go out for the paper. Downey woodpeckers drum on the dead branches of the fourth oak, which was struck by lightning some years ago and struggles along with the live branches that remain.

Spring has come to the inside of the house as well. I have a number of native species scarifying (pre-treating for better germination) in damp sand in the downstairs refrigerator.

Cold treating native seeds

Terry’s sticks (a.k.a., grafting scion) are also in the refrigerator.

Twigs of fruit trees for grafting

And my onions are sprouting on the downstairs kitchen counter. A sprouted seed is hope for the future. In this case, it’s a cautious optimism. Kate says that El Nino is strong this year, and we will have a hot, dry summer. She’s a geologist. She understands these things. My poor babies! For now, though, they are at a comfortable 68° in damp soil. I think they look happy.

Onion sprouts

I will start the peppers soon, and the tomatoes in a month. In spite of the lovely weather, I will not plant outside until at least mid-May. Spring is a trickster—you never know when she’ll throw a late frost at you. We just hope it isn’t after the fruit trees blossom. Fingers crossed!

Monday, March 4, 2024

End of vacation

 Sunday, February 11

We had another slow start to the morning. Eventually, we left for a Sunday drive. A large flock of buffleheads, one common merganser, a could of Bonaparte's gulls, and some shorebirds poked around the oyster beds in Russel Burgess.

Birds in Russel Burgess

We went up to Lewis Ocean Bays Heritage Preserve, an area of sandy soil dotted with pothole swamps. I could see the circles on the Google satellite pictures, but the road didn’t go close enough to see much of the wetlands. I wonder why. We did see a little swamp by the road.

Swamp

Most fascinating to me were the long-leaf pines. The preserve had been reforested recently, and there were many young trees

Long-leaf pines

As well as some seedlings and saplings, which were so cool! They looked just like bottle brushes.

Long-leaf pine bottle brush

After that we went to Waccamaw Nation Wildlife Refuge. Google said is was closed on Sunday. It turned out that it wasn’t just the nature Center. The road had a gate across it. Oh well.

Back to town for my last stop at Saltwater Scoops. It was such a lovely afternoon that we sat at this outdoor picnic table. Also, there were two old couples (which is to say our age) camped out in the small dining area inside.

Jan and Jane head to the car after eating ice cream at the picnic table

Being outside, I noticed this magnificent live oak in the parking lot. I was glad someone had the presence of mind to save it instead of cutting it down and paving it over.

A magnificent live oak in the parking lot

Monday, February 12

It was the day before I had to leave, which meant laundry and packing for me. The day passed. We researched nice restaurants for my last supper and decided on the Parson’s Table. The restaurant was in a beautiful old church with a collection of stained-glass windows, some original and some added in the renovation.

Happy Hour and Early Bird Specials were restrictive—4:00 to 5:00 for the former and 4:00 to 4:30 for the later. Woe unto you if you get your prime rib order in at 4:31! We got there at 4:00, ordered cocktails and prime rib, and sat back to enjoy and excellent meal.

Prime rib, green beans, roasted fingerling potatoes with garlic and rosemary

They even had grasshoppers (the drink, not the insect) for dessert!

I flew home the next day, and that’s my vacation. Jan and Jane stayed until the end of the month and got home last Friday. Now back to our regular lives.

 

Friday, March 1, 2024

Gulls and Duck Donuts

 Saturday, February 10, I walked a long, long way down the beach at low tide. This is the view looking back at the condo.

A long way from the condo

This is looking ahead to the mouth of House Creek, which also features the low spot that didn’t end like I thought it would, so I walked through it instead of turning back and got my feet wet. Note: it was not a warm day. House Creek leads to a wetland with multiple little rivulets and runs past Russel Burgess Coastal Preserve and Heritage Shores Nature Preserve.

House Creek runs in front of the trees and other vegetation in the distance

I walked all the way to the edge of the creek, but even though the low tide was very low that day, the creek was too deep to cross. I was disappointed because I could see that there were new birds on the other side and could not get close. I’m sure the birds knew that. There are a few gulls in my book that have black spots behind their eyes. Based on the ranges given, I concluded that this were Bonaparte’s gulls. Although they sound exotic, they commonly winter all along the Atlantic coast.

Bonaparte's (?) gulls

This next one is a mystery, perhaps a black-backed gull, although great or lesser is anyone’s guess. The head is so white. It doesn’t match anything in Sibley.

Great (?) Black-backed (?) gull

If it is the great black-backed gull, it would be quite a lot larger than Bonaparte’s gull. If this picture shows Bonaparte’s gulls with juvenile great black-backed gulls, the size difference might be right. Have I mentioned that shore birds are annoying?

Mixed gulls

I walked a bit along the creek. A willet walked so close to me I could have almost touched it. Brave bird!

Brave willet

A handful of people gathered on the beach to fly large kites. Here is an example of two of them.

Fancy kites

I got back to the condo about 2:00. Jane had been researching little parks around the area. The parks did not live up to the hype. On the other side of the House Creek wetland we finally saw some ibis, a bird so common in Florida, they are known as Florida chickens.

Uncommon ibis

We went past a pond and saw a turtle. It’s hard to identify because it is mostly in silhouette. It might be an elegant slider. I can’t tell if it has its pinkies up.

Elegant (?) slider

It was going on 4:00 when we got back to North Myrtle Beach. Ready for a food adventure, we went to Duck Donuts. Duck Donuts makes donuts to order. I don’t me just the frosting part. They fry the donuts in an automated fryer after you order. Does it take forever? You betcha!

Duck Donuts box

But we got our donuts. I had nuts. Jane has sprinkles, which are not sprinkles but jimmies. Ignorant rubes!

Warm donuts--very messy

We picked up Jan at the airport and resumed vacation with the full company again.

 

 

 

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Huntington Beach State Park

 Huntington Beach State Park had more birding areas than Myrtle Beach. Jane dropped me off at the north parking lot, which had a trailhead to Sandpiper Pond. The first trail I took led to the beach. I got a nice picture of a ring-billed gull, clearly showing the black ring.

Ring-billed gull

I backtracked to the parking lot and found the other trailhead. As soon as I started down the right trail, I heard many birds, probably all the same species, but was unable to see more than an occasional flitter of small wings in the brush. I saw a red-bellied woodpecker in a tree.

Red-bellied woodpecker

There was also an “octopus tree” with a plaque explaining that when a live oak tips over, sometimes it does not die. As the trunk gets buried in drifting sand, it sends out new roots, and many “trees” develop from the former limbs. I have seen this same process with beech trees at the dunes around Lake Michigan.

Octopus tree

There were a few ducks on Sandpiper Pond. Sandpipers were conspicuously absent, however. There were male and female hooded mergansers, but my best picture was of this male. The ducks were all far away.

Male hooded merganswer

And buffleheads.

Female bufflehead

Two females and a male bufflehead. 

Meanwhile, Jane drove to the Nature Center and took pictures of birds at the feeder.

Goldfinch and chickadee

Cardinal

We were particularly happy to see our friend from the Boundary Waters, the white-throated sparrow.


We drove to the south side of the park, where I walked a short distance to a pier into Mullet Pond. Lots of people were crowded onto the viewing platform at the end, and for good reason. This was where it was at. A flock of dabbling ducks was hard at work on one side of the pier. It was difficult to get a picture of them with their heads out of the water. When I did, however, I saw they were shovelers! I had never seen such huge bills on ducks before.

Shovelers, mostly with heads underwater

At the edge of the shovelers, a couple pair of gadwalls nosed around. They are drab dabbling ducks. How’s that for alliteration?

Male and female gadwalls

On the other side of the pier, birds that may have been dunlins poked around in the mud. Shore birds are annoying.

Dunlins?

The main attraction was on the other side of the pond, where a great blue heron was trying to subdue and eat a black snake.

Great blue heron with snake-like prey

But wait! The man with the largest telephoto lens saw that the “snake” had tiny arms and external gills. “It’s a siren!” he announced. I had never heard of such a thing, but others, presumably locals, looked at the image and concurred. Google it if you’re interested. It’s one hell of a big salamander that has no hind legs whatsoever.

The heron worked on the siren a long time, dropping it to the ground, picking it up, shaking it.

Dropping the siren

Picking it up. Tiny front legs are sort of visible here.


And up again

Finally, it flipped it up and began to swallow it…

Down, maybe

Oops! Back up it came.

Or maybe not

Then down


And down.


Whew!

Recovering

In front of all this drama was a flock of sanderlings (maybe) and a pair of green-winged teals.

Female and male green-winged teal (front) with sanderlings in the back

The sanderlings got spooked by something and took wing.

Sanderlings in flight

We had to head back home after that. We stopped at Saltwater Scoops for raspberry chip (me) and Myrtle Turtle (Jane).

Raspberry chip and myrtle turtle

We took the road by Russel Burgess and got an excellent view of a great blue heron.

Great blue heron

And that was the end of our most exciting day.