Tracks in the Sand

One last post about the river before we move on...

A sandy beach can be a great place to find tracks - or make some. This shot reminds me that I need to re-waterproof my boots ;)

The river water itself can make some pretty tracks in the sand.

The raccoon who made these tracks left a curious little alternating drag mark.

At a couple of spots along the shoreline, there was evidence of an otter romp. Otters are always ready to party!

But the oddest track of the day was this one. We saw it from a distance and had to get closer to investigate. What on earth left this mark in the sand?

Turns out it was this little guy, a barnacled bit of driftwood.

Down By The River

Life on the edge can be tough. Particularly for trees living along the shore of a coastal river...

Wind and water conspire and take the ground right out from under them...

Until one day there is not enough left to support life...

But even as bare skeletons, there is beauty in trees.

Photos taken along the Pamlico River in Beaufort Co., NC

Solstice '09

Treebeard and I usually celebrate the Winter Solstice with an oyster roast. This year we decided to build our fire and eat our oysters in the afternoon rather than wait for nightfall so we could incorporate our solstice bird count into the celebration.

A half-bushel of NC oysters waiting for the coals.

The fire is hot and the coals are forming as the bricks heat up.

Treebeard put the heated fire brick between the ground and the bottom of the grill to help keep the coals uniformly hot. He shoveled in the coals, put some oysters on the grill and then covered them with a wet sack.

A few minutes later, we were shucking and eating. This one had a prize inside! It's a little crab that was sharing the oyster's shell.
Yes, we ate the whole half-bushel. That's only a peck apiece ;)

For dessert (a couple of hours later) we roasted marshmallows over the fire.
I also roasted the souls of my shoes, but we won't go into that ;)

For those who are interested, here's our bird list for the yard today. We noted what we heard or saw from about 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. We got 29 species:

Turkey vulture
Black vulture
Pileated woodpecker
Red-bellied woodpecker
Red-headed woodpecker
Northern flicker
White-breasted nuthatch
Pine warbler
Chipping sparrow
Song sparrow
Swamp sparrow
Field sparrow
American crow
American robin
Northern cardinal
Eastern phoebe
Great blue heron
American goldfinch
Red-shouldered hawk
Carolina chickadee
Carolina wren
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Yellow-rumped warbler
Wood duck
Tufted titmouse
Hermit thrush
Bald eagle
White-throated sparrow
Dark-eyed junco

A-birding We Did Go

Yesterday Treebeard and I left home in the early dark and cold and headed to Goose Creek State Park to participate in a Christmas Bird Count. We had fun, IDed around 56 species and recorded their numbers. It was windy and cold but the day was beautiful -- a nice change of pace from our more recent weather...

We birded down by the Pamlico River (above) and along Goose Creek (below).

We had hoped to pick up some sparrow species along the Palmetto Boardwalk (below) but alas, saw none. Plenty of butter butts and a nice assortment of woodpeckers and nuthatches, though.

By afternoon the birding had slowed considerably so we took to rambling about, enjoying the river and the Live Oak Trail. We were pretty tired and a trifle punchy -- all of which leads to silliness.

Things your mind sees when you've been up too long and need a nap...

Above, a cypress-knee "frog" to my eyes (of course I would see a frog) and Muddy Mudskipper to Treebeard's...

An owl by Picasso - staring out of a dead tree...

A set of lichen-covered "antlers" - obviously dropped by a post-rut tree ;)

Senior Moment

While I'm being all blogger-blocked and all, I might as well relate to you my most current senior-moment induced frustration. Somewhere, in the infinity that is the 'net, there is a recipe that I desperately want to find. It's out there -- I saw it with my own eyes and was certain that I could pop right back to it when I was ready to make it. FAIL!!! The amount of time I have spent trying to find this particular recipe is shameful...despite searching back through recently-read blogs and even Googling the parts of the recipe that I remember, I can't find the damn thing. AARRGGHH!!!

So, if you happen to be the person with the cranberry conserve recipe that features cranberries, oranges, pineapple, and apricots, please put me out of my misery and tell me where the recipe is hiding.

Not So Cheery and Bright

 

So, I had high hopes of posting something coherent today. More specifically, I was planning to post something about lichens and lichenologists to follow up on my last post. Alas, it has proved difficult to string together two sentences that cooperate enough to transmit a simple thought, let alone communicate the complexities of lichens and those who study them. Perhaps it is the weather. Nor'easters are never pleasant and this one has teased us with a rumor of snow that has not materialized. Instead we have has howling winds and driving rain -- Fa la la la la, la la la la.

(Lest you fear that I am all bummed out and gloomy, let me reassure you that I am not. All is well -- I just can't seem to overcome a bad case of blogger-block!)

The Lichen Room

 

To the untrained eye this looks like a half-bath full of boxes. To those of us who are in the know, it looks like a lichen sample storeroom. Treebeard and I played host to a couple of lichenologists for the past five days and we had a great time. I'll try to put together a post about our experience within the next couple of days...for now I just wanted to let you know that I hadn't fallen off the face of the earth ;)

Speaking of Cats

Why is it that bobcats always manage to be just out of range of my lens? This morning this pair was sitting in the sun, just sitting looking at me as I sat in my truck. By the time I got my window down, my glasses on, my camera powered, set and zoomed, they were starting to saunter off. They are such cats...

Maybe, just maybe, one of these days I will be close enough and fast enough to get a decent picture.

Weasel Watches

Wiki, Smidgeon, and Friday have each had their turn at a close-up. Now it's Weasel's turn. Don't let her diminutive stature fool you, she's a tough guy and keeps all the other animals in line.