birds – The Hermits' Rest

Drowning my sorrows?

Today I tried very hard to find happiness amidst sadness about so many good people passing away lately (famous and not-so-famous). I should get used to it, and normally I am. This is just a rough week.

I did find beauty! This is Ohio Spiderwort.

I got up early and dragged myself to a nearby park, Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park, where I wandered around and enjoyed many beautiful plants.

I then walked across the road to a nice dock with great views of the Intracoastal and native woods. I got to see birds and talk to a couple of nice folks. I still made it back in plenty of time to start work.

It stormed pretty spectacularly this afternoon, with lightning right on top of me. I enjoy watching rain over the ocean, and it brought peace except when the big booms came.

After work, I went for a nice walk. I ended up with more birds today than any other here so far. To reward myself for working hard and because I was kind of lonely, I took myself to a nice dinner right across the road from the condo. I had old fashioned and a dessert. Good thing my meal was nice heathy fish and kale!

I’m looking forward to reading and relaxing for a while. This condo might not be fancy, but it sure is nice and quiet. Time to reflect.

Also, thanks for all the good feedback on Stephanie’s poem. She is full of understanding.

There’s a lot of water here

Since it’s Monday, I had to work. But since it’s Eastern Time, I didn’t have to work until late morning. So I took the opportunity to head over to Tomoka State Park, which is quite close to where I’m staying in Ormond Beach, Florida.

The park is surrounded by two rivers, the Halifax, which is also part of the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Tomoka, which joins the Halifax here. As you can imagine, there are beautiful views, many without any signs of humanity. My kind of place.

There are lots of kayak trails and camping areas. The nature trail and the trail around the point were what I focused on today, though I have plans to return and either go on a boat tour or hike another path.

Oddly, I didn’t hear many birds, just a very persistent Osprey and a Belted Kingfisher were loud. Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Carolina Wrens rounded out the songbirds, and I spotted an Anhinga, some Ruddy Turnstones, and a Great Blue Heron. Nothing too exotic.

There were plenty of very interesting plants to distract me from the lack of birds, however. The scenery was lush and verdant, with some new plants, like a hog plum (Ximenia americana), also known as a sea lemon. Apparently they’re common on the Florida coast, but I don’t remember them.

Take the tour of the nature trail with me! It’s fun.

There was lots of turtle and tortoise evidence here. I saw a nest that had recently hatched and found a beautiful gopher in its hole. I sure enjoyed gopher tortoises as a child!

Here’s more on the Gopherus polyphemus.

Okay, I’ll just share a few more interesting plants and insects I saw.

After exhausting my eyeballs from all this, I headed back to work and tried not to let the pelicans distract me as the majestically sailed by. The ocean was very blue.

After working I took a short walk on the beach to enjoy the sea birds and the shifting sands. This is a great place to come in summer after school starts. It’s warm but quiet. There are so many beautiful colors to enjoy.

And finally, I got to hang out with Vicki, whose headache was over, thankfully. We ate at a fun place in a non-touristy area with a great ocean view. After an amazing grilled cheese sandwich and much conversation about taboo topics like politics and religion (where we disagree less now than at other points in our lives), we went to a quiet beach park and watched pelicans dive as the sun set. A fine day with much water!

The cordoned off areas are turtle nests.

Sleepy time!

Nothing wrong with uneventful days

Yeah, the last couple of days have been fairly low stress, with just a couple of bobbles. Also the blog prompts are so repetitive that I didn’t feel like answering the last few. Nonetheless, there have been highlights.

Master Naturalist meeting was last night, and I even made the end of the Board meeting (but missed some ruffled feelings, thankfully). A highlight of the meeting was getting a photo with all our living Presidents as our current one received a commemorative Bald Eagle pin.

The other highlight has been Stumpy’s growing popularity with its avian buddies. We now have little flocks of House Sparrows vying for stump space, as well as Cardinals seeking out their sunflower seeds. My patience has really paid off! Here are blurry phone photos to prove it. I’ll have to bring out the good camera now that there’s something to photograph.

Look at all the birds in the tree awaiting their turn.

I’ve felt good about work, because I’ve hit a few deadlines, but I’m glad the weekend is here. We had a pleasant dinner with my son and his partner at the new restaurant in town, which always is a pleasure. I do enjoy the little downtown area.

It rained somewhere near here this evening, but not here. We are back in crispy season, with extreme heat and brown plants. I’m glad to have water to look at here! Tomorrow I’m working with the water garden some more, too.

Stumpy success

Now, that took a while. The huge stump has been sitting in the corner of the back yard for months.

It’s been many weeks since flat bits were created on the surface.

Spring Stumpy with bird bath fountain and flat spots.

I have been adding bird seed whenever rain or wind washed it off. I waited patiently, knowing the birds had plenty to eat after all the rain. But yesterday, out of the corner of my eye, I caught motion. A sparrow was eating some seed!

Today I looked over at the stump every time I went out to check the bird phone for new birds (Swainson’s Hawk today!). Sure enough, the House Sparrows are eating my admittedly low-quality offerings.

Since I’ve established that birds have discovered Stumpy’s magical gifts, I can now give them better stuff. I even sprinkled some corn mixture on the ground to attract the doves who have been hanging around. Tomorrow I’ll break out some better seed mix I’ve been hoarding so maybe songbirds will see what’s there. I can store all the food safely in my birding hut, too, since I have a tightly sealed bin. Winter may be fun when all the various sparrows return.

It makes me feel trusted when Carlton sleeps right next to me—he feels safe.

Looking and learning

I’m pretty much wiped out, but today was extra, extra fun. I enjoyed listening to and watching birds behind the hotel. I got to watch Lesser Goldfinches eating thistle seeds and the happiest Raven, who had scored an entire biscuit. I also saw unidentified animals in the hills.

Hard to believe this is behind the business district.

Next we met a fun young woman named Alison, who showed us some representative houses here that might work as summer homes. Alison was a lot of fun. We met in a restaurant where her fiancé painted a cool mural.

There was quite a collection of properties to see, ranging from sad small condos to rustic cabins to a house nicer than ours. It reminded me of the good old days when we bought houses and fixed them up.

Of course, I also found flowers that elk hadn’t eaten. This is scarlet cinquefoil.

I didn’t think anything would match all my criteria:

Not too big
No close neighbors
Space to park an RV
Lots of nature
Attractive view

Two did. One rustic place in need of some TLC near town, and one doublewide in a more rural area in really good shape. (There are so many well preserved mobile homes here.) They both are quirky, which I like.

The lady who owned the rural house had taken great care of the yard, which I liked. It was very low maintenance. The other one needed occasional weed whacking. Anyway. Here are a couple things I enjoyed in other houses.

Upstairs family room in a house that was too big

After a lot of driving around, we dropped Alison back off at the restaurant and went back to look at the area where the rural house is. It’s a big, green high mesa with a mix of double wides and nice traditional homes. There are also many horse properties nearby. However, the most interesting thing is in the middy of the neighborhood. A rock shop. Not just a shop, but the place where miners of fancy rocks with geodes and other beautiful formations inside process the raw material!

We got to see all the grinding and polishing stations. It was fascinating! We got to look at beautiful examples of the finished products and watch a slideshow of how they mine the rocks (almost all in New Mexico). after mining, they put back all the dirt they dug and seed it with appropriate plants. I was impressed.

After that, Lee took me to the Noisy Water winery outdoor gathering place, where we sat under trees and drank wine and ate charcuterie. I also listened to birds. Of course. They had a petting zoo, so I went over and said hi to the goats and other residents.

This one licked my hand clean. Yes I washed it.

But wait, you ask. Did you see any interesting mammals? Of course I did. Many elk, of which I just share a few, and a herd of wild horses serenely grazing next to a parking lot. Apparently that’s common. That was the last fun wild animal I was looking for, so yay. No bears. That’s fine.

This was a fun whirlwind trip. I’m glad we are coming back in September so I can do non-real estate activities.

I want to look at more flowers like this Rocky Mountain zinnia

I have no idea if Lee intends to buy a property. I understand why. Texas is getting more scary to us as time goes on. But we love our ranch and don’t want to go away from our family there. A summer getaway would be ok.

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.