Backyard Birding an Ongoing Joy

 

A recent brief photo shoot in my backyard reminded me of how fortunate I am to live where I live, to have the bird feeder arrangement I have, and to have this hobby I have. 

Relaxing on the deck one morning during my recent Spring Break from teaching college, I photographed several types of birds in a short length of time, all while sitting comfortably in an Adirondack chair. 

In this photo you see the approximately 15 feet it is from the chair to the array of tube, suet and bark butter offerings hanging from the elaborate feeder station. Birds currently have 11 choices at the buffet, plus two bird baths (seen flanking the feeders). 

Alesia (who took these pictures) and I will reach a milestone 30 years in our home this June. In the backyard is where my interest in photographing birds and learning about them slowly grew and flourished. 

On the day I photographed the birds in this post, March 8 at around 11;30 a.m., I was pleased with the quality of the images, particularly how well the eyes of the different species are prominent. See if you agree. 

I try to photograph birds not just at the feeders and baths but also in the nearby trees, bushes and on the ground where lots of seeds end up after falling from the feeders. We also have a small pond at the edge of our property that attracts many larger birds such as Herons and Egrets, as well as turtles and alligators. 

                                    Brown-headed Cowbirds

Sad Occasion in a Beautiful Setting

 

My previous post tells why my family gathered in Colorado- my father’s Saturday, March 1 funeral. 

This entry is about the beauty of the Estes Park area. Alesia and I arrived on Thursday and stayed until Sunday afternoon. So the sad reason for the visit was buffered by the time we had to walk around and enjoy the scenery and geography so different from South Carolina’s Lowcountry. 

I didn’t have to go far to get these stunning images. We stayed at the Estes Park Resort, which is situated on Lake Estes. 

I just needed to step outside at around 6:30 a.m. to see the glorious dawn of a new day. 

Estes Park is located near the entrance to the popular Rocky Mountain National Park. In August 2022, my brother-in-law Paul took us up there. Wow is it a national treasure! See my post here. 

Fortunately, this winter trip offered moderate weather conditions with highs in the 50s. 

This is a view of the Estes Park Resort from across Lake Estes, an 185-acre water reservoir. Elevation here is 7,522 feet.

Our room was on the first floor, left corner of the hotel building. It was the perfect room for quick access through the back door to the lake and the parking lot too. 

The resort also offers cabins. You see some left of the hotel. 

Here are some more looks at the resort- and of us too...

The Passing of My Dad in Colorado

 

On Feb. 20 at 3:10 a.m. my dear father, Michael Sullivan Harwood, departed this life, taking the express lane to Heaven. He had a long robust life of 90 years. Dad was devoted to my mother, his wife for more than 70 years. He was devoted to his children and he was devoted to God. He worked hard during his military career then his civilian one and he found time for leadership roles in many church and civic organizations. 

We were blessed to have him our father. 

Alesia and I flew to Colorado for the March 1 funeral. In Estes Park we gathered with more than 20 relatives representing several generations of our big, widespread family. 

Ahead of the funeral, my brother Pete asked us for photos of Dad. With them he produced a beautiful montage about Dad’s life, accompanied by music his son Andy created. It was shown during a reception after Mass.

The funeral Mass program featured this lovely image of my parents taken at the beloved home they built on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. They lived there for something like 30 years after Dad retired. 

We enjoyed many wonderful Bay visits over the years. Many involved fishing. In 2008, we had a big family reunion. I’m so glad I captured the charter boat excursion that I shared at the funeral reception. 

White Delight- Rare Snowfall Blankets Our Area

 

You can hear me by clicking here

Local TV meteorologists were predicting it for several days and around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 it began. What began? SNOW! 

This is a very rare occurrence in the Charleston area. 

The last major snowfall we had was seven years ago, Jan. 3-4, 2018. Check out my post from then!

So Tuesday night it began sleeting.  Around 8:30 the temperature dipped to below freezing, and the white stuff started to fall. 

It did not take long to accumulate, covering the No. 15 fairway and green at Coosaw Creek Country Club where we live. 

For Joseph’s fiancée Tamy, just a few days removed from her native Brazil, this was her first encounter with snow. 

She had also never before seen a raccoon. This one came to our porch to eat some cat food we had out for a couple feral cats we have adopted (more or less). 

At daybreak the next morning a winter wonderland is revealed. 

Chill Start to the New Year

 

I was eager to get in an early 2025 nature outing so on Jan. 9 I cleared my schedule and headed south down to the ACE Basin.

It was clear cold day with temperatures in the 39-41 degrees range. I felt it in my hands while walking around looking for birds to photograph. 

I knew the Bear Island Wildlife Management Area might be closed, and it was for periodic hunting. 

But I also knew that I could still check out Mary’s House Pond, which is accessible after parking in the entrance area. 

Having been to Bear Island many times (see this post when we took bicycles out there!), the large pond attracts many birds, especially migratory ones in the winter. 

I would not be disappointed! Tundra Swans were the stars of the show. 

Tundras are North America’s most common swan but you don’t see them too often in the S.C. Lowcountry. They breed in Canada and Alaska and migrate to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts during the winter. 

Here at Bear Island is the only place I have seen this big beauty. 

Orange-crowned Warbler- A Lifer Bird!

 

This year is ending with a flurry of backyard bird activity. A highlight has been discovering a species I have not seen before (nor had ever hear of), what us birders call a “lifer.” Press play above to see what my camera captured. 

This is an Orange-crowned Warbler. It resembles the Pine Warbler and a few other small birds that are regular or occasional visitors to our feeders. The screenshot above is from the 15-second video below. The clip at the beginning shows a Brown-headed Nuthatch and the aforementioned Pine Warbler. 

Old Orangeburg House Succumbs to Time and Nature

FEBRUARY 2018

Since traveling to Orangeburg to teach at SC State- wow it has been 10 years now- I daily pass this old homestead. I see it when I take Exit 149, leaving Interstate 26 to get on Highway 33 (Russell Street) heading to Orangeburg. About a mile down on the left, there it stands in the distance just past the Garden of Prayer Church. 

I took these photographs in February 2018. It is accessible after parking on a piece of road in front of a gate that is easily walked around. The house is a few hundred yards back in the woods. At that time the road to the property was pretty open and clear. 

Whimsical Grave For a Boy Tragically Killed

 

This past Sunday I spent quality time at one of the Charleston area’s most unique and unusual grave sites. 

This is a story of a death that has taken a life of its own. 

I wrote about this colorful, elaborate grave in my 2022 book, “Stories from the Underground: The Churchyards of Charleston.” It is in fact, deliberately, the last story in a 230-page book that has hundreds of stories about mostly 18th and 19th-century Charlestonians. Herbie’s story is among many I feature in the book’s last chapter that is about the Charleston Historic Cemetery District, an area anchored by Magnolia Cemetery that has 20 or so cemeteries. My book is available for order through this site and my Amazon author's site. 

Little Herbert Alonzo Brown was just a few weeks shy of his fifth birthday in 1983 when on March 14 he was struck and killed by a truck on Highway 174 near Edisto Beach. Herbie’s foster mother stopped at a gas station/market, and went inside without the boy who apparently wandered off onto the highway. 

What a cute boy he was! 

The background story, according to various sources, was that Herbie was at some point taken away from his parents by social services. I don’t know why. When he died in the horrible accident (called a hit and run by one news source), a social services worker sought to get him a proper funeral and burial. 

This YouTube video by a guy who posts "Fascinating Graveyards" is really good. 

Back on the Trail Deep in the ACE Basin

 

Two days before Thanksgiving worked out well for a visit to the ACE Basin, the Lowcountry treasure of vast wilderness and wildlife. 

With the Donnelley and Bear Island state nature preserves closed for seasonal hunting I made the 50-mile drive to the Ernest F. Hollings National Wildlife Refuge, which prohibits hunting.

This refuge near Hollywood and Meggett was established in 1990. It consists of 11,815 acres. The ACE in ACE Basin stands for three rivers- the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto that run and drain through a protected system of 350,000 acres representing one of the largest undeveloped wetland ecosystems remaining on America’s East Coast. Ernest Hollings (1922-2019) of Charleston was a longtime and colorful political figure as a South Carolina governor and U.S. senator. 

Among the features is the Grove Plantation house that was built in 1828 by George Washington Morris (1799-1834), grandson of Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The late Federal-style structure is one of the few antebellum mansions in the region to survive the Civil War. Today it serves as offices for U.S. Fish and Wildlife staffers who maintain the vast property. 

The front of the house faces toward the Edisto River. Back then the river was a key mode of transportation and transport so when friends, family, or business associates arrived by boat they would see the front of the home. 

New Bird Feeder Camera is Busy This Fall!

This weekend Baltimore Orioles have been frequenting my feeder that has a small dish of grape jelly just for them.

See the little pop of orange in the feeder? That’s an Oriole. 

Here’s a better look at the vibrant, beautiful male Baltimore Oriole and a better look also at the camera feeder I purchased in October. 

My first camera feeder was a gift last Christmas from my son Joseph. What a great surprise that was and I quickly got into seeing the daily short video clips it recorded of a wide variety of birds we have in the Charleston, S.C. Area. 

But that device stopped charging last summer. I finally bought a new one last month and I’m glad I did. Here is what I acquired. I’ve shared this link with a few folks who have asked after some bird video posts I’ve made on our neighborhood’s Facebook site. 

Here’s a fun screenshot I made today from an Oriole video. 

And below is a 15-second video recorded today. I like the picture and sound quality.