Weather Report – Page 9 – The Hermits' Rest

Another Island Full of Birds

We said farewell to Hilton Head yesterday, and not a moment too soon, because my heart broke to learn that a sperm whale washed ashore on the beach in front of our condo. That only happens when they are sick. It’s a part of life, as I’ve been reminded, but would be hard to watch.

Enjoy this beautiful plant, Large-flowered Orlaya, instead of anything sad.

We didn’t drive far before our first, more cheerful, stop. I couldn’t miss a visit to the Pinckney Island rookery in spring! It did not disappoint!

Of course, there were many songbirds, grackles, and such, but one huge highlight was seeing baby Great Egrets in their nests being tended by their beautiful parents.

It was great fun to enjoy the bird cacophony and chat with other birders about what we were seeing.

I hope those give you an idea of the crowds.

Many other herons were there, but all the Little Blues insisted on landing deep inside trees. Tricolored ones were much more sociable.

We were delighted when a beautiful Tricolored Heron landed right next to me and proceeded to be endearing for a long time. It even did a butt-wiggle dance. Oh, the cuteness. You’ll just have to suffer through more photos.

The heron was right next to three young alligators. They mutually ignored each other.

I had such a great visit! Between birds I saw and birds I heard, there were 48 species. Here are other highlights.

The staff at the preserve are doing a project to get rid of invasive Chinese tallow trees and thin the understory to prevent devastating fires. They’ve cut down many trees in the first phase. It isn’t pretty but is understandable. I saw funding came from the recent infrastructure bill passed by Congress. I hope the funding isn’t withdrawn mid-project like so many are.

Much larger gator not bothered by pruning

We next drove to the greater High Point, North Carolina area to visit our family members. (Some were unavailable, sadly). The roads were not in great shape, and we followed rain much of the way, but we made it. It was worth it to see Donita and Libba, who couldn’t join me on this trip to Hilton Head.

We had dinner at a very nice restaurant, though it was hard to talk due to people screaming while they ate. Three of us were hard of hearing. But we persevered and laughed a lot. Lee and I also had fun.

This morning I managed to get a 20-minute walk in the neighborhood of our hotel. I found 31 birds and some interesting plants. Let’s see where we go next!

Peach-colored Fly Agaric – *Amanita persicina*

I Left the Vicinity

Another day of nice weather and nice birds. This is not an exciting trip so far, but it has certainly lifted my spirits and calmed me down. If I hadn’t accidentally got mixed up with a bunch of people living in the alternate society in the US and had to deal with some insults, I’d be completely okay. But anyway, it’s all good, and I have access to a car!

Magnolias are another sign of the Deep South for me.

While I waited for Lee to get here, I went for a walk through neighborhoods, it being Sunday and me not wanting to interfere with church services by wandering their parking lots and trails. I did hear some good birds and even saw the flash of a Redstart, which was exciting. I enjoy looking at the houses here. It’s a mix of ones built when the island first started to be developed, which are modest 60s and 70s houses and huge vacation homes that are three stories and obviously for renting to large groups. There are a few smaller rentals.

Did I take photos of any houses? No. That feels icky to me, so here’s a skink with a missing tail.

I continued to take pictures of cultivated plants, finding it rather fun to see the information on them in iNat. There are a lot of people with over a thousand observations in the City Nature Challenge now, but I just have over 200. I have a life. Also, there just aren’t that many different native plants in this part of Hilton Head.

This one’s a mophead hydrangea, *Hydrangea macrophylla*.

Today maybe I’ll see some different plants, since I can go to a different part of the island. It’s interesting how just a few miles can be a different ecosystem, which I’ve learned in Milam County, where Tarrin gets many different plants from our ranch.

You will see this fungus in many places, though. Stereum lobatum.

Of course, now that Lee is here and we have a car, it’s probably going to rain all day, but we have some other things we can do. We did go to dinner last night at the very pleasant Sea Camp restaurant, with the lovely outdoor areas. It’s dog friendly, so I was not surprised to find Lee talking to a couple with two dogs when I got back from taking pictures of life around a dock.

Just look at this tiny crabby cuteness. It’s a squareback marsh crab – *Amases cinereum*.

The people were very nice, though, so it was quite pleasant, after spending so much time all by myself. Maybe I’ll run into more people today. At least I’ll have the Big Lens on the camera, so we can try to photograph wildlife. Maybe there will be things that are more exciting than dead and stinky armadillos (I sure remember that smell from the one our dogs got into) and dead stingrays (boo hoo).

I love the views of the marshes and river.

PS to email subscribers: I used a different setting for the email the blog sends out. Please let me know if it is weird or what.

April Showers and Flowers

I realized I blathered on and on about something even more boring than usual in my previous post, but I have to confess I spent yesterday doing the same thing. Almost all the photos I took were of plants.

But not this one! I enjoyed watching kites on the beach.

I re-looked at the instructions for the City Nature Challenge, and sure enough, they do not care if you take pictures of plants that aren’t native. So, I found out the names of all sorts of decorative plants from foreign lands that I didn’t know before. And I’m #127 on the list of most observations (out of 2K+).

Oh my. The common name for caladiums is Heart of Jesus.

Yeah, iNaturalist doesn’t do as well with fancy cultivars. It literally had no idea what decorative ginger with yellow-and-red blossoms and striped foliage was. But I persevered. It did way better with squirrels and alligators.

My first walk was back to the Prayer Trail and the surrounding area. There, I was thrilled to actually see Great Crested Flycatchers, which I’ve been hearing frequently as I wander (did you know that a majority of Cameron, Texas residents think that the word for meandering aimlessly is “wonder”? It’s true.).

Two Great Crested Flycatchers. Blurry, but loudly identifiable.

I also heard an unfamiliar call and found out it was an Indigo Bunting! That’s the second type of bunting for this trip. I even got to see it fly around and be all blue and beautiful. Sadly, the best photo I got was not good at all. Only I would know what it was, because I saw it fly in.

Oh, and I also finally got a photo of the new-to-me butterfly I’ve been seeing in the woods. And a cat. Exotic.

Palamedes Swallowtail *Papilio palamedes*

On my second walk of the day, I tried to go back to Lagoon Road, but got confused by a lot of traffic and had some detours. I saw the second alligator there, so all was good.

When I started out, I saw some really interesting clouds, but thought nothing of it until the clouds were accompanied by thunder.

Pretty cloud formation on the road with all the identical condos.

It really didn’t rain much until I got past Coligny (shopping area that has a Chico’s; I miss Chico’s). It was drizzling when I saw Alligator #2, but never got above a light shower. That’s a pretty poor highlight for one’s day, but yep, that and the birds were it. I stood under a big tree and waited until it lightened up enough to get back to Ocean Oak.

Raining in the sunshine where I was sheltering

Oh, why did I do that? Standing still makes you a mosquito dining zone. I paid for that when I tried to go to sleep last night after my television binge. If you’re wondering what television show I’m watching now, it’s the one with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie. With 94 episodes, I’ll be watching for a while, especially since Lee comes today and he won’t want to watch it.

Yeah, Lee bit off more than he could chew with his travel goals yesterday, so he stopped in Georgia to get some rest. I’d rather he arrives during the daytime and not totally exhausted! It doesn’t look like there will be more rain today. Yay. Off for more iNat observations!

Even common plants are pretty, like plantain.

A Camping Dilemma

Any day out I nature is good. It did rain much of today, then got cold, but rain sounds good on the roof and I have warm clothing stashed in Seneca’s closet. However, the rain was not enough to dampen the spirits of our fellow campers.

Two, perhaps three (hard to tell) groups of incredibly enthusiastic Scouts are here, with one taking up three sites across from us. They are having FUN. So far I haven’t detected any actual scouting activities from this group, unless bellowing, screeching, and making siren sounds can earn you a merit badge. The adults coped by yelling back.

I coped by trying to leave, but it kept raining on me.

The other group was set up in the other camping area by the lake. They even had on uniforms as they blasted through empty campsites screaming instructions. One of them saw me and yelled, “Stranger Danger.” I was annoyed by then and reminded them that scouting encourages them to respect other campers.

I’m under a shelter. They’re scampering off.

They were on their way to a ceremony (I’d heard, ha ha), so by the time Lee had picked me up from standing in the rain and we drove by, they were doing a lovely ceremony with flags and saluting. Of course, THAT is when the park police went by. Such good little citizens.

I got to see a gun millipede while in the shelter in the rain.

Note that I did get a little walk in between rains and found a couple of interesting plants. I was trying out the new and improved iNat app, too. It identifies what I see immediately, so I don’t have to do it when I get back from a walk. Fewer Master Naturalist hours, but that’s fine.

Meanwhile, Lee and I took a drive around the area and looked at a couple of cute small towns. When we came back, the local kids were back outside, now throwing a football. I left again, and had a pleasant, if chilly, walk on the Nails Creek Trail, featuring lake views, more fun plants, and an owl.

A better picture of Sandyland Bluebonnet

The dilemma for me is whether I should have gone over and talked to the adults about the noise levels. I see two sides. One is that these are children who are outdoors. They don’t need to use their “inside voices” and that’s probably fun. Knowing how structured and protected the lives of kids are these days, this was probably a rare opportunity for free play with their friends, and that’s exhilarating for sure.

On the other hand, those of us who weren’t in their party could not enjoy our campsites when it wasn’t raining. In fact, we could only enjoy inside the RV with music or television on. I’ve been told that the training for the adults covers how to act when camping. I didn’t see a lot of buddy system or respect for the leaders.

I’m just not sure if I should have asked the park staff to talk to them or talked to them myself. I know how people react these days, so I said nothing. I honestly don’t mind kids having fun at reasonable volumes and staying in their own sites or the road. They were running all over the campground while the adults mostly sat in their chairs. I wish they’d gone on a hike or something but they’d have scared all the birds and animals.

My fervent hope is that they all pack up and leave early to go to church. Fingers crossed.

By the way, I want to thank any readers who went to peaceful protests today. Sign creativity was high! Since 2020, I can no longer do big crowds. But I’m grateful to those of you who fought through introversion and showed up.

And hey, here’s the first row of the 2025 temperature blanket. It’s warmer!

Worn Out

How on earth can I be worn out on a day when I couldn’t do much due to drizzle? That’s easy. I wore my mind out.

I lost my detachment from current events and got angry. It’s a good thing fewer than 30 people read my Substack, because I went off on the concept of “improper ideology” for many paragraphs. You can read it if you want to. I just blathered. It will bite me in the butt someday, but I’m old and have no employer to defer to, so who cares?

Bluebonnets and slightly more full pond.

I got my stuff ready for our in-person horse show tomorrow, though Apache is filthy and I’m not sure how great he feels. My shoulder still hurts a lot, but otherwise I’m okay. I have all sorts of wound care and cleaning stuff for him. I just hope I have time to get him ready.

That black-and-white blob is a Mournful Thyris moth.

Ah well. I’m glad for the rain. It’s much greener already. Maybe more will come, after tomorrow.

Brain hurts. Worn out. Good night.

Thanks, Ma Nature, Candles Are Fun

Weirdly, the temperature range today was just five degrees. That made for an interesting square in my temperature blanket with two shades of yellow for the low and high temperatures Fahrenheit.

We had a couple warm days this week (Orange is when I start to sweat (85-89°)).

The reason for this stasis is that we finally had a good rain front come through, which hadn’t happened since last month. People south of us got much more, but we are closing in on an inch here, which will at least moisten the parched wildflowers and raise the levels in the ponds/tanks a bit.

More is predicted for tomorrow, so I’m hoping Mother Nature will be kind to us, even though the rain made Dusty and Drew go into wild stallion mode all day. So much rearing, kicking, and neck snaking has to be hard on them both.

To top the day off, we lost power right as I was getting ready to cook dinner. I set the last pot on the stove and was about to cut up onions when the power started to flicker. After about ten minutes of that, the lights went off for a couple of hours. I’d say that forced some downtime but that’s not true. I took a walk in the rain with the big umbrella and was rewarded with the haunting sounds of Upland Sandpipers, followed by much ado from a Greater Yellowlegs, another shore bird with an unforgettable sound. The rain had it pretty excited.

The horses were quite concerned at the sight of me with the unfamiliar umbrella. High alert!

After a candlelight hamburger dinner, the power came back so Lee could get back to bookbinding and I could finish my crochet squares. This domestic tranquility reminds me that there was a good event this morning.

Yes, this morning I was reading email in bed, when I heard dog footsteps. I looked, and Carlton and Penney were both in the bed. What?

I was being good. Just like this, only in bed.

It was Harvey. He’d made it upstairs, which he’d only tried twice before, since his stroke or whatever happened. But there he was, happy as he could be. The important thing is that after I got dressed and went downstairs, he came down in his own. Lee heard it, and he said it sounded more graceful than last time. I guess his liver medication is helping (it costs more than any of our human medicine).

It’s good to see Harvey helping Alfred guard the premises.

I’m hoping for more rain, then for a nice clear Saturday, assuming Apache and I are healed up enough to do the show. He seems fine. My shoulder is messed up, which may have something to do with the hoof-shaped bruise on my upper arm. I’ll live, I’m sure!

My shoulder isn’t too bad, anyway. I managed to lift 40-pound bags of alfalfa and salt that the previous horses needed. I’m a strong older person!

Enjoy this bonus ground cherry, which is undoubtedly happy with Ma Nature tonight!

Meteorological Warm Fuzzies

After all the horse hugging yesterday, I did not expect the weather to be nice to me today, but it was! Now, it’s still windy as heck, but I guess that’s typical March coming in like a lion stuff.

I’ve been unhappy with the weather, because all the flowers are coming up late, but it turns out it’s not just here. Friends elsewhere report similar late spring plant activity. I did go wander through the property today to check for flowers coming up, and they are there, just not up as far as usual. Whew.

The weather even blew a Barn Swallow into the house when a door blew open, which I’m sure was no fun for it. Luckily it found its way back out and the house isn’t all poopy.

The day was so lovely and sunny, though, which was a gift after so many days of angry clouds and dust. Imagine my surprise when we got a severe thunderstorm warning just as I was finishing a call with my financial advisor (depressing).

Can you see green leaves forming on the trees?

I went out to feed the animals and get everything all cozy, and even had time to ride Apache before it got ominous out. The rain that came was pleasant and didn’t last too long. Afterwards I noticed the sun came out while it was still drizzling. I knew was warm fuzzy gift that would bring!

It was one of the fullest rainbows I’d seen here in a long time. It was very intense, which is hard to tell from pictures.

Little things like light refracting on water droplets can make one’s day!

But more awaited me. The nearly full moon rose and peeked over some leftover rain clouds and was so pretty I had to stop my errands to watch it.

There were no clouds in the west, so all the color you see is from the setting sun hitting the clouds.

Right now, when our horizons are quite cloudy, pausing to enjoy gifts like rainbows and sunsets can make all the difference.

Let’s Pivot with Cautious Optimism

All the ideas I got from reflecting on my tarot reading last night swirled around me today. With the nudge I got that maybe I CAN get through these times and help others if I do what it takes to keep me centered, I decided to up my grounding ante.

I got enough time in today to enjoy nature, meditate well, and really see the big picture of what I’m surrounded by—the natural world and its order. Not always peaceful or perfect, but adapting as things change. Thanks, birds and clouds!

The clouds and sunset were gorgeous today.

After all the warmth and grounding I got from Apache and Dusty yesterday, I decided Mabel from the Stable needed a turn. She’d been looking at me with kindness and interest lately.

So, after Apache did his workout, I haltered Mabel, which is her least good skill, and gave her some extra alfalfa while I groomed and de-burred her. Neither was easy. She had mud dried into clay on her coat, which even with my nails I couldn’t completely eliminate. And while her tail is a breeze to get smooth, her mane is another story. For one thing, it’s way up there. She’s a tall Thoroughbred-style mama. And it’s very fine. But I did it, and noted that she was pretty patient.

As her “reward” I took her on a walk, and just for fun, did some longe-line work in the round pen. She was fine, other than getting a little excited toward the end. Her ears were always forward and she stayed focused. I got her to back up and side pass a bit. Well.

That was a lot more fun than working with Drew has been lately. I think we will pivot and play with Mabel while Drew gets a break and maybe finds a home with someone who can work with him the way he needs. If not, he may be the pasture ornament for a while. An expensive one. But I still love him! He’s just too much for my skill set.

I’d look much better without the burs. Yes, I’ll working on him tomorrow.

On the other hand, I feel very calm and centered working with the other three, so that’s good!

Another bucolic scene of nature and peace, brought to you by our back pond.

I Annoyed the Horses

I am feeling a bit better today, probably because after a misty morning, we had a beautiful day to enjoy.

After work, I went out to sit outside, but something caught my eye. I saw four horses and a donkey in front of the house, where the unmown grass is. Horse heaven.

I figured they’d finally noticed their fence along the driveway had only one strand of wire and it had mostly broken fence poles or whatever you call them. So I took out some new posts conveniently located in the garage, (ah, yes, we call them posts) and found a random piece of wire I could use to repair the broken wire-attachy-thing. This is not a permanent fix, because it’s a temporary fence and the original plastic posts are deteriorating. But it looks better.

The orange things are new and I “repaired” yellow the top attaching hook.

I got it all fixed, then as I was walking back I surmised that the horses (most likely Apache) had opened their gate to get out. I thought I must not have done as many tricky chain things as were needed to thwart him yesterday. I was all fine with that, since I knew they would come back in for dinner, and that field has some nice older grass for them.

There were little flowers to distract me, too. This is crow poison.

I went over to the bird-watching chair to write down what Merlin heard during my fence repairing (Purple Martin and Lark Sparrow were highlights). When I took a refreshing swig of my fancy soda I found in Kathleen’s refrigerator, i discovered something non-liquid and buzzy in it. I sure spat that bee out fast!

About 20 minutes later, I hit ANOTHER bee, got more drink all over myself, and gave up my reverie.

I lured the horses out of the grassy field with some food, which rude Drew tried to knock me over for until Apache pushed him away and escorted me to the pens. What a gentleman. As a reward, Apache got all cleaned up before his daily workout. Burs. Yuck.

Two old friends. I’m grateful for these two.

After the other horses were finished eating every morsel in every dish, I noticed some teamwork going on. Drew and Mabel marched right up to where the broken fence was, ready to head back to the grass. The new fencing didn’t please them at all. I realized they had indeed broken out and also opened the gate!

They went all the way down to the pond, testing for weak areas. They even pushed a bit. Whew, the fence held. Disgusted, they fetched Dusty for help.

Then I just had to laugh. It’s like Dusty told them to chill out, and the three of them took a nap. They really had eaten a lot!

I’ll probably find them out again tomorrow, but we closed the gate and the guy that is fixing Seneca the motorhome knows how to use it. Yes, all the yearly service is done and some things are fixed! There’s just a water issue to remaining to take care of. The cold was not kind to any of our couplings, it appears. But that’s for tomorrow. I hope I don’t have to disappoint the horses again.

Consequences of the Cold

The recent cold spell has taken a lot out of me. Combined with mourning from losing Goldie and being sad that the Red House on Fannin got rented out, I’ve been not much fun. I’m glad we will get income from the house, but it was fun fixing it up to be the Airbnb. Another failed enterprise. We’re racking them up.

In good news, I unpacked these pretty things from boxes we’d stored at the Red House.

I’m not going to be a part of any more joint ventures with friends and family from now on. Hold me to that. I really stink at such things, and sitting inside in the cold gave me too much time to dwell on past mistakes, knowing perfectly well that beating myself up over past errors and regrets in judgement is not productive. Learn from mistakes and move on, I’ve been repeating that.

I also found my really good bowls and gave away many things to my son and his coworkers. That felt good.

The cold was hard on the birds I usually hang out with, too. For two days in a row I only observed a few birds on Merlin. Yesterday, it saddened me to find one of the male Barn Swallow scouts had died on the porch. I put it safely to rest and then washed my hands a lot in case he had bird flu.

The chickens and Connie made it through the cold snap by staying in their house. They didn’t stop laying eggs, though. Today they were back to normal outdoor activities and Connie finally laid a big ole turkey egg. Here it is compared to her first egg (I saved it).

Today it finally warmed up and I was able to spend my usual amount of time outside. It made a big difference, since I started the day really dragging and ended up with stories to tell Lee.

All the chairs now have cushions, making for good patio time.

I was able to pull some burs off the equines and do more than stick food under their noses and flee. That pleased everyone but Drew, who just isn’t in a good space.

Since I was out a lot, I got to hear and see fun bird action. The Barred Owl was hooting much of the day, which is always fun. There were ducks flying around, too, at least three kinds. Of course, the sparrows, chickadees, and Cardinals entertained a lot. They all seemed glad it warmed up.

I was walking along the fence line listening to a Red-tailed Hawk making some of its weird calls when something white bounced off my head. I looked up to see all the mistletoe above me was full of round, white berries.

Did one just fall on me? No. It quickly became obvious that one of the Mockingbirds had dropped it. It hopped over to the fence then into the bush next to me, scolding me with mistletoe still in its beak. I understood that I was on his territory (must be a male, because he’d been singing earlier) and retreated with a smile on my face.

Hooray. I need my bird observation and horse time to keep me out of my funks and remind me about that living in the moment thing I’m supposed to be aiming for. Darn those polar vortexes.