Bird Sightings – The Hermits' Rest

It’s a wild life!

Today I did my best to fulfill Lee’s goal of looking at every neighborhood in and around Ruidoso, New Mexico that might contain a residence that fulfills his dream of a summer getaway in a cool Mountain climate. Of course, it was hot today, but ten degrees cooler than home.

Since we aren’t remotely thinking of relocating, the beautiful horse properties and mountain estates we saw were just eye candy. We looked at the other end of the scale, too, such as numerous creatively updated 60s and 70s mobile homes. Mostly we looked at small cabin-like houses.

As Lee evaluated property, I took every opportunity to spot wildlife and look for birds. In fact, between listening at the hotel and looking in trees, I got five new life birds! One was a favorite, the Acorn Woodpecker. Here’s the list. I wish I’d seen that Lazuli Bunting!

My eagle eyes were on the lookout for others, such as these beauties. Poor Lee had to stop and back up.

I was excited to see deer a few times early in the travels. They have Mule Deer here, which are larger than white-tails and have large, expressive ears.

As it got later in the afternoon, I started seeing even larger deer. But, no, I figured out all for myself that they were elk. The first ones I saw here resting in the shade, and none have antlers right now, so they did look like deer.

I did get some plants, too. I’ll share them later. I should tell you our eating adventures. I had to stop with the driving and looking occasionally, because my eyes got tired. So we had an early lunch at a great place called Casitas. There was healthy food and much charm. Probably not to Lee’s taste, but I loved my fancy avocado toast and my dulce de leche latte. Mmm.

After a few more hours of going up and down mountains, being saddened at flood damage, and being jarred by potholes I requested my treat of the day, which was to visit Noisy Water Winery and cash in on my wine club membership perks. Wow, the club members’ lounge was nice, quiet, and beautiful.

I tried four different wines, one that just launched (2022 Demi goddess), one older white that had aged SO well, and the members’ exclusive, which was a rich dessert wine. Oh, and a red varietal I’d never tried, it liked more than I expected. I did come home with three bottles of white wine. As I am the only wine drinker in our household, it will last a while.

The final place we stopped was a park we visited years ago with Anita. It was not great for birding, since a huge motorcycle group went back and forth while we were there. But I enjoyed the scenery and Lee even said my hair looked good. Wow!

Whew. So much mountain beauty, wildlife, and interesting homes. I’ll sleep well tonight.

Not to worry

What’s something you used to worry about but don’t anymore?

Oh, there’s a whole bunch of crap I don’t worry about anymore. That gives me a lot more mental space for living in the moment, discovering beauty, and sending out positive energy, which is sorely needed right now.

One thing I no longer worry about is what other people think about me. That’s a hard one for a reformed people pleaser! (And it is so easy to slip back into those patterns under stress.) I am pretty sure anyone who is thinking random negative stuff about me is not worried about what I think of them! So, let them!

I’d rather remind myself that I don’t know what’s going on in other people’s lives, so it’s better to assume they’re doing their best. Mental illness can make good intentions hard to see, but they’re usually there. Yes, even my least favorite political figures think they’re doing good. I do occasionally worry about them. Some worry is justified!

After another intense but interesting work day, and some rest and relaxation in the pool and with my animal buddies, I’m ready for some travel! See you tomorrow in another time zone!

Here’s a tip

If you had to give one life-changing tip, what would it be?

Just one? Do not confuse hormones or sympathy for love. Let’s just say I’ve made that kind of mistake so many times that I have no intention of starting any new love relationships.

On a more cheerful note, it wasn’t quite as hot this morning, and I figured out I can sit in the shadow of my bird hut to hang out with nature. My spirits were lifted by getting to see a Yellow-bellied Cuckoo in the closest tree.

It never faced me, but I got to see its eye!

I also got to watch three Gulf Fritillaries enjoying the passion vine and sorrel vines. It was rather enchanting.

I’ve really needed more nature time lately. I’m trying to figure out what I want to do for the years I have left. I really want to stop volunteering to do things to try to make others happy, and I don’t want to spend my time on things I don’t enjoy, just because I “should.” If I cut back on obligations and let myself just relax more, my mental state could improve.

Looks like the green heron is a hummingbird on the fence wire.

If my mental state improved, I’d start exercising again and keep feeling better. That would lead me to choose activities I enjoy, not obligations. A happy cycle.

A thing I enjoy is taking pictures of dogs making funny faces.

More on this later. I’m thinking hard but also allowing ideas to come to me when I’m relaxed.

I found the birds, at last!

Most of the week we’ve been in Myrtle Beach, we haven’t had much birding time, and not many birds have been around other than the classic pigeons and pelicans one can see from the condo balcony, Ospreys on the river, statues at Brookgreen Gardens. Today was different!

That’s right, I’m a bird! (Little Blue Heron)

We headed over to Huntington Beach State Park, right by where we were yesterday. I just love this place. Thank goodness Anita got excited by how many beautiful water birds were there. By the bridge were many White Ibises, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, a Tricolored Heron, an Osprey, and way in the back, Roseate Spoonbills.

Next we wandered over to the nature center, where there are always songbirds. We saw Red-headed and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a female Painted Bunting, a hummingbird, and more. The boardwalk was closed, but that’s okay. We also enjoyed the fish, snakes, turtles, and other marsh life on exhibit.

We then headed over to the beach to check out Mallard Pond. There were lots of birds in the trees, but not many around the pond. It was full of dead fish. Because of the drought, the water has become too salty for them, I was told by a park worker. I did find some interesting flowers, and the elusive Seaside Sparrow (lifer).

There was one more stop at the state park, where the birder/sales guy told us to go. It’s a lovely walk between two ponds Mrs Huntington had built for shorebirds.

Were there birds in the ponds? Oh, yes. And beautiful American lotuses, too.

We had to walk very quietly, because there were many juvenile birds everywhere, darling Common Gallinules, White Ibis, and best of all, a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron! Look at all the cuteness!

I had a good talk with a park worker and his son who were working to create a rookery area. They were carrying water in buckets for new trees. It looked like they were succeeding, since dozens of Purple Martins were surrounding some pine snags in the area. I learned a lot from my conversation.

I managed to delete my Martin picture. Darn.

We were tired, so we stopped for a cold beverage at the park store. It was so relaxing to sit on a bench and enjoy our photos while cooling off. But, we did have another stop to make.

Yes, we returned to Brookgreen Gardens, because we had missed some of the glass art yesterday. Our passes lasted a week, so why not? Anita had left hers at the condo, as we hadn’t originally planned the stop, but the worker let us in. That pleased Anita a lot!

We quickly found the indoor exhibit, read about the artist, and enjoyed all the colored glass.

As we were leaving, we had to look at more glass art, as well as some cool bromeliads and unusual white flowers

This is a dandelion seed—they are hidden throughout the garden

What I did not expect to find were more birds, but they were lurking everywhere, unlike yesterday. The Little Blue Heron was right in front of us when we were looking at the glass water lilies.

Whew. We didn’t have energy to get pedicures or eat out. I miraculously managed to fit all my stuff in my luggage, too! Back home tomorrow.

Shiny! Colorful! Warm.

Today’s trip with Anita was to my favorite spot around here, Brookgreen Gardens. I have blogged about this place many times, but that’s what’s great about this huge sculpture garden is that it’s different every time you visit. This time was no exception.

This is the new conservatory that opened this past February.

That’s what happens when you skip a year! New stuff. And this new building, which can be used for weddings and other events, is just spectacular.

It has beautiful (healthy) living walls, huge hanging baskets, and an incredible miniature erosion of the gardens made with all natural materials. Somebody worked very hard on that.

What excited me and Anita the most was the large collection of orchids.

I wished my mom could have seen these. But I was able to share all these photos with my friend Lynn, who inherited my mom’s and her dad’s love of orchids. Look at them!

Slipped among the conservatory plants and grounds were glass flowers. The artist is Craig Mitchell Smith.

The sculptures were set up among the gardens and sculptures. Each one was a bright new surprise. Here are some of them.

Also new were these amusing animals covered in artificial flowers and other doo-dads. Little kids just loved them.

Was this enough? No! The gardens and statues were still there to enjoy.

Was there more? Of course. Flowers, insects, and birds. The hummingbird moth was the most exciting thing for me and Anita, for sure. By the way, I did edit these. I just liked them all. I don’t identify most plants because I don’t know fancy plant hybrid names.

It was warm out, so we did take inside breaks inside a couple of galleries and the little cafe in the Old Kitchen building. The exhibits had lots of birds and other animal art, which is typical for Brookgreen and liked by me!

We didn’t make it to everything, but we could go back tomorrow if we wanted to

How’s that river doing?

Yep, we have a twofer today. Lucky us. In today’s travel adventures in South Carolina, I felt compelled to show Anita the Waccamaw River and its glorious birds and gators. I’ve already shown you hundreds of photos of the river cruise, since this was my fourth trip, but of course there’s more!

For example, I’ve never showed you an alarmed Southern Toad before. The preteen girls who sat near us found it. They were really into the nature.

This year we saw many Ospreys and their nests, many with large juveniles about ready to fledge. I’m extra glad I brought the good binoculars with me! There was fish drama, feeding behavior, and much more.

We saw lots of other birds, some of which I photographed. There were also Purple Martins everywhere, and more Swallowtail Kites, too. There were plenty to satisfy me.

And of course there were alligators, many young ones and a few adults as well. It’s always fun spotting them.

I took my usual abundance of plant photos. Here are just a few.

It’s just so pretty floating down the tidal river that is still so natural in many places!

After we left the tour, we motored down past Murrell’s Inlet, Pawley’s Island, and such until we hit Georgetown, another place I have been to with Lee before. I knew Anita would like the old houses and cute downtown. We browsed the shops then had lunch at a pleasant bistro. It rained a while, so we stayed there until it stopped. They need the rain here! We enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Back at the condo we watched the beach come to life after the rain. We enjoyed some interesting wine from our travels, and ate pasta that Anita cooked. Mostly we laughed at odd internet stories like back in the old Austin days.

Bays, bears, and bubbly

Today’s adventure in Myrtle Beach was to find the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve. This is the huge protected area we learned about yesterday from the birder/salesman. It’s a beautiful pine forest maintained by prescribed burns. It’s home to a population of carnivorous plants (that we didn’t see, sadly) and many other interesting species that grow among the Carolina bays—shallow ovals that collect rainwater then dry up. They are dry now.

The bays are formed in incredibly white sand and look pretty weird out there in the forest.

Anita and I drove all over, looking for trees with Red-cockaded Woodpecker nests. We found nests, but no birds.

Luckily there were other birds, like Eastern Towhees, Indigo Buntings (even saw one!), Red-headed Woodpeckers, Brown Thrashers, and a beautiful Swallow-tailed Kite.

I found many interesting new plants, too. There were a few still blooming in the heat.

The most exciting sight was a young bear who trotted across the road a ways down the road from us. That was my first wild black bear sighting. This preserve has a thriving population. Amazing that it’s so near civilization it so remote.

I’d love to come back at a time of year with more moderate temperatures, because there are many miles of trails to explore.

We headed out and found a Publix supermarket, which was kind of like visiting a tourist attraction. We got fun food to eat the rest of the week. Most importantly, we got beverages.

After afternoon rest, we picked up my book about the Cherokee wars of 1776 written by Kevin the bartender/professor. I like his views of history from different viewpoints. Then I had to take Anita to the Sea Captain’s House for a taste of old Myrtle Beach. It’s a ritual!

The views were beautiful, the wine bubbly (Anita’s), and the food just lovely. We knew we needed to eat hummingbird cake for dessert!

The visit so far has been pleasant. The traffic and crowds aren’t bad at all. Hooray for NOT coming during Bike Week!

Reason to be celebrating America today

Today was Anita’s and my first full day on our genuine vacation with NO WORK involved. Throughout the day, I was reminded of why we still have a chance to recover and be proud of our 250-year-old country.

The day started out with a dreaded condominium sales pitch. Anita agreed to do it so I could get a bunch of Hilton Honors points. There’s no way Anita should be buying a timeshare, but we went through the motions with a sweet young salesman. I think he’d never heard a story like hers, but he tried real hard to do the pitch he was supposed to do, knowing he would not make a sale.

Wandering around looking at condos and getting sales pitches.

We got to the very end, when they bring in “the closer” to try one more time to get her to buy. While that didn’t work, somehow the topic of birds came up. He was a big-time birder! He turned into his human, non-salesperson self and we had a great talk. He told me about a fascinating sanctuary to go to, drew me a map and everything. Faith in Americans revived! We all have things in common!

An interesting group of new and old military planes and helicopters flew by the beach. That was fun.

We took a walk on the boardwalk here at Myrtle Beach and looked at the wide variety of humans who visit here. You name the ethnic group, there were some of them here. It’s not a snooty place like Hilton Head can be. Middle America was well represented, and everyone was cheerful, friendly, and having fun. That’s how it should be. No signs of divisiveness at all.

We took naps this afternoon, a real treat for both of us, then headed off to get food at the sports bar. Everyone we talked to was friendly and happy to be here. We had fun with a new young woman friend from Georgia and discussed more with Kevin the bartender/history professor about how our families interacted. He was related to my childhood pediatrician. Weird.

Unrelated: Anita spotted this Osprey with a large fish flying around our balcony.

But that’s the point. If you actually talk to people you will find commonality. That’s my favorite part of relaxed travel, getting to know new people. America doesn’t seem as full of hate and division when you interact with the people around you.

That brings me to Independence Day fun. We were going to try to get high up in the building to see fireworks, when they started and we realized we could see them from where we were. A young couple invited us to join them on a comfy bench, so we watched a huge display with them.

Our view of fireworks and other condo folks

The young people were having a nice break from their sleeping baby (who they were watching via a video call—clever), which means all four of us were relaxed and happy to enjoy the show with low stress. We had to do the oohing and aahing, because it’s mandatory. It was great to enjoy the festivities with them.

We went back to our room and were charmed by the impressive shows regular people were putting on up and down the beach. We did get our fill of pyrotechnics and were glad nothing burned.

All in all, I felt better today than I thought I would. Just being around people doing their jobs with respect and kindness, catching up with old friends, and meeting friendly and gracious people reminded me that this country is full of good citizens who do care about each other. I’ll hold on to this hope as long as I can.

So many birds, so tired

Today Pamela and I drove from Corpus Christi to port Aransas and back before returning home. For that reason I’m tired as heck so I’m hitting the highlights.

Hello, I’m a highlight, Tricolored Heron.

First we drove down Shoreline Blvd in Corpus, where I’d never been. Whoa. There were beautiful old and newer homes to see! Corpus is t as ugly as it appears from the highway. We then went to a small and kind of rundown bird sanctuary, the Hans and Pat Suter Wildlife Sanctuary. We saw many interesting birds, plants and hundreds of Great Southern White butterflies. Enchanting.

After than visit we drove all across Mustang Island, which was new to my native Texan friend. It’s my dream marshland. Eventually we got to the Leonabelle Turner Birding Center.

As this photo shows, the wind was not kind to Pamela’s hair.

Nor was it kind to mine. It got stuck in trees.

There weren’t zillions of birds like the time I came during migration, but there were some good ones.

The best, most wonderful, and the most amazing sight we saw did not come through in photos, but was very clear through my binoculars. At first I thought it was Mississippi Kites, but they weren’t marked quite right, and their tails were forked, but very long. So when I got home I looked to see if kites were likely birds in Port Aransas this time of year. They were not.

What was large, flocking, black-and-white, and likely? The Magnificent Frigatebird! A bucket list bird of mine!

This is one cool seabird. I didn’t realize they’d come this close to the shore. They can fly for hours and hours and steal food from shorebirds (I guess that was today’s plan).

Otoño this picture to document where the birds were. She’s looking at them, I swear!

I immediately had to text Pamela about the ID. This was a memorable trip, even though the drive home was long!

Apologies for not sharing the plants I saw. Too tired!

Feeling encouraged, warm, and fuzzy

We got to sleep in today, since convention stuff didn’t start until 10 am. Pamela talked and met a few people, while I went to the beach outside the hotel to look at birds. Both of us had fun.

We eventually made it to the Selena Arena and watched more speakers and talked to various minor celebrities. I enjoyed greatly hearing some of the candidates for office talk about their goals. It was a parade of regular folks who want to help Texas. Some were very good public speakers and some were not. But they were real people. Citizens like you and me. And it was so diverse. Encouraging.

Finally, after a bunch of voting and stiff, we were treated to hearing a familiar voice with a familiar story. The great Bernie Sanders came down from Vermont to make us sad, then cheer us up.

It was encouraging to hear him agree that in Texas we can possibly make things better, even running against all those billionaires! Even to briefly have hope that us little guys can effect change is liberating for me.

Bernie! And proof I was there near a significant historical figure!

After the rest of the voting we fled. We had no trouble parking or leaving, which was great for Pamela, whose feet had been unhappy. Usually I dread all the crowds exiting parking lots. But, yay, we got back to the hotel safely.

We decided to be decadent, so I found a very nice restaurant and made reservations there. We read our books for a while, then had a wonderful meal at Fork and Vines restaurant. My beverage was an amazing apricot version of an old fashioned.

Each of us holding my drink. The blue water bottle came home with Pamela.

It was such a pleasant evening lingering over amazing food, telling stories, and laughing with our server. A great way to end the trip!

I have to say I found the political convention more fun than I expected. Talking to so many new and interesting folks was encouraging and enlightening. People all across the state share my thoughts and my fears. I’m not alone. I’m a little more hopeful.

Tomorrow, back to nature reporting.