A Rainy Day Woman on a Rainy Day

   This morning it was raining, so it took us a while to roll out of bed. We left Georgetown and drove west through Francis Marion National Forest. New Year’s Day began with Cattle Egrets (Bulbulcus Ibis) tending a small herd of cattle. This is a small white heron which originated in Africa. It has an orange beak and orange legs. It is white, but at this time of year, it bears a slight tinge of pale orange on their feathers. This signals its willingness to mate. The cattle egrets tended to their cattle and we drove on down the road.

   We turned down a tiny dirt road named Wildlife. This was a good idea. After we slowly rolled past a huge flock of hundreds of Red Winged Blackbirds (Agelaius Phoenicus) roosting in the trees beside the road, then we arrived at a field in front of someone’s house. There was a flock of the bluest Eastern Bluebirds (Sialis Sialis) that Berry had ever seen. They were brighter than usual to Berry, I think, because the drippy weather conditions diffused the light. It was overcast all day and raining off and on. Blues looked very blue, today.

   We keep seeing the Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis Phoebe) in every flycatcher friendly place we looked. It is indeed a flycatcher, hunting midges and mosquitos in all the wet bogs. And in South Carolina, there is water, water everywhere. The Eastern Phoebe appears rather big-headed, especially if it puffs up the small crest on its head. Also, we note that it pumps its tail up and down, when perching on a branch.

   As we drove down the highway, we saw a male American Kestral (Falco Sparverius), balancing on a power line. He was holding a small dead or dying critter in his right claw, pinning his prey against the wire with his claw and leaning his head down to nibble on it. It was about then that we decided that it was time for us to eat our lunch too.

   In the afternoon we went to Lake Moultrie. There is a large fish hatchery on one side of the lake. There was a small boy tossing rocks into the water. There were fisherman launching and retrieving their fishing boats and barges at the ramp. We stood on the warm, windless parking lot and leaned against our car. The pine trees along the side of the parking lot yielded for us the Black and White Warbler (Mniotilta Varia) with its striking black and white striped coat of feathers. This bird forages like a nuthatch, gleaning insects off the bark of trees. We spotted it about thirty feet off the parking lot.

   Another yummy warbler from the parking lot was the Chestnut Sided Warbler (Setophaga Pensylvanica). This one had a large yellow dot on its head. A delicious yellow dot on the top of its head. We spotted this one about ten feet off the parking lot.

   We worked the excellent parking lot for about an hour and then walked to the end of the peninsula to see the entire lake. The wind howled and there were white caps on the surface of the water. The temps dropped and Robert shivered in only a t-shirt. By the time we got back to the car to get warmed up, it was getting dark, so Berry called it. We drove to the hotel for the night.

In the week that we have been here, we have observed several of the available woodpeckers in South Carolina. The large Red Bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes Carolinus), the Red Shafted Northern Flicker (Colaptes Auratus) high in a tree, the small Downy Woodpecker (Picoides Pubescens), but we did not observe the rare and endangered Red Cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides Borealis). We looked for it. It only lives in a few places now. South Carolina has them, but their population was decimated by record flooding in October 2015.

   On someone’s fine recommedation, we had dinner at Seewee Restaurant on rainy Highway 17. Robert had Shrimp and Broiled Flounder with lima beans and mushrooms. Berry had the Grouper served on spinach leaves. This is a good place to eat if you are in the area. Real authentic Low Country vittles in a homespun atmosphere. Very nice.

The Grouper Special that Berry Had

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia