Eggs

 

This egg mass is on a dead tree along one of the trails in the work swamp. I happened upon it in December when I was out scouting in preparation for a hike I planned to lead. The total surface area of the mass is a tad larger than a dime. I'll keep my eye on it and perhaps we will be lucky enough to find out what type of bug will emerge when the weather warms.

Birds I noticed today, in no particular order:
tundra swan
northern pintail
mallard
wood duck
great blue heron
bald eagle
red-tailed hawk
red-shouldered hawk
American crow
grackle
red-winged black bird
starling
robin
northern cardinal
red-bellied woodpecker
white-throated sparrow
dark eyed junco
pileated woodpecker
eastern bluebird
blue jay
rufus-sided towhee
goldfinch
mockingbird
turkey vulture
black vulture
pigeon

Solstice

 

 

 

 

We had our Solstice fire last night and celebrated the change in season by roasting oysters and steaming shrimp - our favorite way of welcoming winter. Technically, I guess it was more a Solstice Eve thing since today is the Solstice. But, whatever it was, it sure was good!

Hope your first day of winter is a happy one. And smile! The days will start getting longer now.

Winter Blue

 

Skies are bluer here in winter. The air is clear, the humidity is low, and the blue is brilliant. But don't you dare call it Carolina blue...them's fightin' words in our household...Treebeard is an NC State man and I am an East Carolina Pirate. We don't tolerate any reference to UNC in this house ;)

February Baskers

When we have warm days in the winter something alerts the basking turtles and up to the pond's surface they come. It always amazes me -- exactly what triggers the behavior? Water temperature changes slowly so I don't think that alerts them. So what, then? I must find a herpetologist and ask.

If you know, please leave a comment...

The turtle above is a male yellowbelly slider (Trachemys scripta scripta). Sliders are very common here.

A log full of basking turtles. If we could have gotten close enough, you would see that the backs of many of these turtles are covered with mud and algae, signs of where they are spending most of their winter days.

Hibernating

It was 14 degrees F this morning when I got up - that's outrageous. You can tell me that it's not that cold...that it is much colder up north. Well, yeah. It's supposed to be much colder up north! Personally, anything under, say, 35 degrees F is too cold for me unless we can have snow. No snow? Then no reason to be any colder. Period.
The unreasonable temps have me hovering next to the woodstove - any closer, and I'd be in the woodstove - and eating everything in sight. Guess I'm entering hibernation mode :)
Outside the kitchen window the birds are busy cleaning out the feeders. Today's list has reached 28 species. That includes the red-shouldered hawk and the red-tailed hawk that visited the tree-line at the edge of the yard and the vultures (both black and turkey) that flew over the house. Lucky for me, I have reached my RDA of birds without having to go outside at all.
Tomorrow I'll be back outside, but today I'm just going to hibernate.

Just A Dusting

Ah well, meteorology is, after all, an art, not a science. The cold air did not move in as quickly as was predicted. We ended up with a dusting of snow instead of the up-to-four inches that was being anticipated. Had I pointed the camera down, instead of up, you would see a photo of green grass with little tufts of snow here and there.

Glancing back through my archives I discovered something -- today is my blog's birthday! And it seems that we had snow that January day in 2005. Plus, I had my first ever comment - thanks SquirrleyMojo! You are near and dear to my heart :)

Waiting...

The weatherman says the miserable, cold rain that has been falling all day is going to turn to snow. One to three inches of snow. We'll see. Snow is an infrequent occurrence here and I only believe it is coming when I see it falling. Stay tuned...

snow on spanish moss 

another view of the pond 

a little chilly today 

Cold and Quiet

see

I seem to be a little more "one" with my computer today. Still having trouble getting pictures where I want them. Case in point, the picture of the eye should be in my profile -- alas, it is not. But that will be remedied eventually. Live and learn, blog and learn.
We have had our second snow in as many days...this has certainly been a January of sharp contrasts. The first two weeks were warm and springlike. I saw a cottonmouth sunning on January 3rd and the alligators were out and about as well. Bet all those reptilian types are hunkered down today.
This morning I walked from the house, through the woods, to the millpond. It was so beautiful -- my camera can't begin to do it justice.
Lots of ducks and geese on the pond today. The ice in the swamps must be making them move into the more open water of the pond. The prize sighting of the day was an adult bald eagle flying over the water. Other birds seen today include pileated woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, golden crowned kinglets, juncos, fox sparrows, carolina wrens, cardinals, canada geese, wood ducks, mallards, pied-billed grebes, american widgeon, and red-shouldered hawk.
The only mammal signs I saw during my walk were some rabbit and deer tracks.