Birding with Friends

We headed for the Outer Banks last Saturday to do a little birding with some friends from the Raleigh/Durham area.  We met them at Alligator River Wildlife Refuge before heading down to the beach.  There was still ice on the roads at Alligator River, but the sun was out so it wasn't too bad.

I am breaking in a new camera.  We aren't on a first name basis yet, I'm afraid.  It's a popular camera and I have been told that I am the only person who doesn't love it.  I'm trying...I'm just not there yet.  So why am I whining about the camera?  Because, I missed several shots of birds Saturday that I could have gotten with my old camera.  That being said, we had fun and got to see lots of good birds.  The only casualty of the day was my lens adapter (with my UV filter) -- it took a dive off the Bonner Bridge into Oregon Inlet.

Here are a few of the birds we saw:

 

 Northern Shoveler

 A shy Gadwall

Wilson's Snipe

 Ruddy Duck

Band-tailed Pigeon - a western species paying a visit

Harlequin Duck - another unusual visitor

Purple Sandpiper

It was cloudy, windy, and pretty darn chilly on the Banks, but we stayed until we lost the light.

My birding buddies' backs.

Avian Snow Angel

I know everyone is snow-weary, but I have one more picture I'd like to share.  This was in my front yard.

My nephew dubbed it the "avian snow angel."

Snow Walk

The booger bear of a winter storm that dropped ice and snow in the deep south slid up our way, too.  We got 8 inches of very dry, fluffy snow Tuesday night.  It was our second round of snow this month.  We were expecting temperatures in the teens last night but Mother Nature had a different plan.  We dipped below zero - so despite the sunshine today, it looks as if the snow cover is going to stick around for a day or two longer.

Treebeard and I headed out for a walk during the mid-afternoon yesterday.  We covered about a mile and a half, looking for tracks and such.  Signs of wildlife were few and far between, though.  We saw plenty of birds and bird tracks but the other critters were hanging tight it seemed.  After checking out several low areas we finally happened upon some deer sign.

We entered an area of young woods and found some criss-crossing trails.

 

Some of the trails offered up a little something extra.

A closer look revealed what that "extra" was.

 

We were surprised by the number of piles of droppings that we found in a relatively small area.  Guess the deer had been eating well prior to the snowfall.

As we followed the trails, we came upon an area where the deer had bedded down on either side of a large downed tree.  One of the deer must have been anti-social or else there just wasn't room for one more on the other side.

 

 

 Three beds on this side of the log.

Hope they cuddled up last night.  -3 degrees F is chilly for these parts.

Bee Ready

Sunday was sunny with temperatures in the mid-50s.  Monday was mostly sunny with a high of 60.  Our honey bees were delighted and wasted no time in heading out of the hive.  I was rinsing road salt off our car when I noticed the bees were checking out the drops of water on the car's roof.  I walked over to the hive to see what the industrious little critters were up to.  Some were cleaning house and others were striking off to find water and even a little pollen from the henbit and dandelions that seem to bloom no matter what.

We're expecting another wintery blast today with a possibility of up to a foot of snow.  Hang tough, little girls!  We are supposed to be back up in the 50s by the weekend.

Still Icy

Yep, still icy cold outside.  I'm afraid this white stuff is going to stick around.  The weather folks are already saying we may be in for more snow next week.  Ugh.

Snow!

We don't get snow often and we certainly don't get temperatures in the teens very often.  We got both last night.  We awoke to a dazzlingly bright morning with a whopping 1.7 inches of snow on the ground.  Wind chills were below zero.  Chilly willy, for sure. 

 Roux, our foster dog, sporting her purple 'Walk Your Dog with Love' harness.  I don't often endorse products, but I will give two thumbs up for this harness.  If you have a dog that pulls, you might want to check out the walkyourdogwithlove.com site.

 

It's an odd perspective, but look back to the right, behind the wind chimes.  That's our lone bee hive.  It's crazy to think that just yesterday morning the bees were out working like crazy.  Today they were tucked in tight.  This is the second round of really cold weather we have had this month.  Bet the bees are over it and ready for spring!

I found angel tracks under the redbud tree in the front yard :)

The brush pile next to the snow covered limb is where a bunch of those angels hang out.  I bet there were over 80 birds in there this morning.  It is a popular place for the feathered critters in the yard.

The weather folks say it's going to be cold for the next few days.  I guess that means that some of this white stuff is going to hang around for a while.  Sure hope all of it is melted away before seven days have passed.  My grandmother always said if snow stays on the ground for seven days, it's waiting for more to come...

Winter's Revelation

Sometimes you just don't know who's living right next to you.  Such was the case for us this year.  We had no idea that bald-faced hornets had set up housekeeping in the edge of our woods.  It was well after leaf fall that we discovered this large nest, just head-high in a small beech tree.

Such industrious workers, those hornets.

One From the Files

The weather has not been camera friendly the last few times I've ventured out for a walk or a paddle.  As a result, I have very few current pictures to share.  What I do have are some shots from this past summer and fall that I can share.  So let me reach into the files and pull out a few I think you might like.  (And a note to those of you who are on my friends list on Facebook...you've seen these pictures.)

Way back in April, when I was still relatively newly retired, we spent a great deal of time out and about hiking and paddling.  In an effort to expand our knowledge of local waters, we struck out into nearby counties to see what they had to offer in the way of navigable streams.  We revisited a creek we had paddled briefly on a VERY windy day about two years ago.  It is called Dillard Creek. It is in Chowan County and empties into the Chowan River.  The river is pretty wide where the creek flows into it - probably about 1.5 to 1.75 miles across.  We paddled a short distance out into the river to take a look around.  I won't bore you with a whole slew of pictures, but I think you might find the following at least mildly interesting:

 

Take a look at the tree to your left.  Yeah, the taller one.  See anything out of the ordinary?

Okay, how about now?  Way up there near the top where the tree starts to lean off to the left. Could that be an osprey nest?  No, wait, that's a live tree and ospreys are partial to dead trees.  Eagles build in live trees but that nest isn't nearly large enough.  Hmmm...maybe a closer look is in order.

Well now, that's a surprise.  It's a Canada Goose!  I have seen many a goose nest in my life, but this was a first.  Never have I seen a goose nesting so high in a tree.  Prior to this, the highest I had ever seen a nest was about six feet off the water in an old cypress stump.

  Wonder what the goslings thought about that first step into the wild blue?

Anybody Out There?

My goodness, it's been a while.  Pablo from over at Roundrock Journal suggested it was about time that I post something here.  Perhaps he's right.  Things certainly have changed since I posted last - it may take a bit to learn my way around the "new" Blogger!

I'll ease back into the whole blogging thing by sharing a photo of our current house guest, a stray we are calling Roux:

She is a mastiff mix or as we prefer to call her, a muttstiff.  On January 4th, she magically appeared on the front porch and made herself at home.  She is one to two years old and ridiculously friendly.  We have been fattening her up - she was about 20 pounds underweight and sporting quite a load of intestinal parasites when she first came to us.  Now she's on meds for the worms and is gaining weight at an acceptable rate.  (The vet seems to think she needs to carry around 80 to 85 pounds.)  We are planning on having her spayed.  From the looks of things, she has had at least one litter of puppies in her life.

We have put up posters, notified the vets in the area, called the pound and animal control to get the word out that we have her.  We don't hold out any real hope that her owners will show up though.   Seems like dogs with mysterious pasts show up regularly out here in the sticks - sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose.

Well, this wasn't a planned post, it was just a response to Pablo's prompting.  I'll try to put together something a little better next time.  Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by.

January Butterfly

Yes, it's winter, but we've had a couple of nice warm, sunny days.  As a result, there have been a number of critters on the move.  Today, while birding with some folks who were visiting from the western part of NC,  we got a treat.  An American Snout butterfly landed on a branch right in front of us.  Snouts are not a butterfly that I see very often so I was quite delighted!

Through My Office Window

My camera does not like rain so when it is wet out I resort to observing nature through the window panes.  

The rain didn't seem to bother these bucks though.  They were taking advantage of a picnic area empty of pesky people.

Happy New Year everyone! 

Christmas Dragons

Working Christmas Day is not so bad when Mother Nature offers up sunny skies, mild temperatures and dragonflies. 

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas.

A Streak of White

Sorry for the poor quality of this photo.  Sadly, it was the best of the 15 I took!  Treebeard and I were taking a walk in the woods this afternoon when he spotted a flash of white.  Being the observant guy that he is, he pretty quickly came to the conclusion that he had seen a white Carolina Wren and the chase was on.  We followed the little flashes of white as the bird made its way through the tangle of undergrowth along a ditch bank.  We got a couple of good looks at it and confirmed that it was a wren.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't sit still long enough for my camera to focus.  At least this shot shows the beak and legs as well as the overall body shape of the Carolina Wren.

American Woodcock

Wow, I can't believe it has been six months since I posted here last.  That's a long time!  I imagine I will become a more regular poster come the end of February. 

In the meantime, please enjoy this hasty photo of a woodcock, a.k.a. timberdoodle, a.k.a. bog sucker, a.k.a. hookem pate...  While on foot patrol, I nearly stepped on this little fellow.  He gave me quite a start when he flushed right beside my boot.  He flew a short distance down the trail and then started his crazy little walk.  Woodcocks are funny birds and if you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend that you watch them.

They tend to hang out in moist areas like woods, swamps, and wet thickets.  They probe the soil with their long bills in search of earthworms and other yummies.  One cool thing about their bills is that they are somewhat flexible.  A woodcock can open the tip of its bill without opening it along its full length.  Pretty remarkable, if you think about it.

Yard Finds

Hiding in plain site down in the corner of the yard this morning. I walked right past without seeing it.  Treebeard saw it and took this picture.

Freshly shed exoskeleton of a blue dasher dragonfly nymph.

A nest with eggs in a dark corner of the shed.  This is the second Prothonotary Warbler nest in the yard this year.

I posted all these on my Facebook page but thought I would share them here as well.  Other yard finds today included an eastern mud turtle in the compost and a black rat snake below the garden.  Tadpoles have colonized all the water in any open container.  Yep, it's a jungle out there.

Leaf-cutter Bee Nest?

Ever wonder what those leaf-cutter bees do with all those leaves they cut?  I think we found out this afternoon.  Treebeard lowered one of the rolled-up shades on the front porch and this fell out...

It is a pretty intricate structure.  We want to see what emerges from this nest so I rolled the structures back up, this time using newspaper.  The roll will go into a screen box and we'll wait to see what comes out.  I'll keep you posted.

Lots of Legs

Yesterday morning, before I headed to work, Treebeard and I took a walk around the yard.  We like to keep up with what's going on out there, you know.  As we passed by one of the red cedars growing on the lower end of the property Treebeard spotted something neither of us had observed before - a molting daddy longlegs.

While we watched this critter wriggling out of its out-grown skin, I looked around and spotted a couple more in various states of molt.  I was surprised to see so many so close together. 

It was a fun find.  You just never know what you're going to see when you take the time to look.

Little Rewards

Sometimes you don't get to do what you want, but if you're lucky, you get little rewards for doing what you have to do.

These are some little things I was rewarded with today...

Eastern Amberwing - our smallest dragonfly

Little Grass Frog -- our smallest frog

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle -- a little predator with a big attitude.

Skink Fest

They have been everywhere lately.

On the bridge...

On the deck...

On trees...

And beside the boardwalk...

Check out that head.  This one is a mature male broad-headed skink.  It's an impressive lizard!