Summer Tanager Surprise

 

Hello yellow! A fall visit by a female Summer Tanager was not on my October calendar, but it happened and I couldn’t be happier.  Let me know next time, and I’ll make sure the jelly dish is full. 

The camera on my feeder recorded video at around 7:30 in the morning on Oct. 9. When I later reviewed the day’s birds, I knew this wasn’t one of the usual suspects. The bird identification app I use called Picture Bird said Summer Tanager when I entered these two screenshots from the video. 

Here’s the read out from Picture Bird. I knew this was a female of the species because I have, on a few occasions photographed the all-red male Summer Tanager. 

Here’s a male Summer Tanager I encountered in June 2021 at the Hollings National Wildlife Refuge in the ACE Basin south of Charleston.

Here's my post from that excursion. 

Dump Scows, Hydrofoils, Pedal Kayaks, and More!

 

Well this was a first for the many, many times I’ve been to the beach at Sullivan’s Island. 

No, not her…

Him! What is he riding so ably along the shoreline? Never seen one before.

Earlier we walked past it. I stopped and went back a few steps to snap this photo. Why? Because, like I said, I had never seen one before. What is it! 

Meet the Waydoo Electric Hydrofoil Board. List price: $4,899-$6,499. Expensive toy! 

The novelty caught the eyes of many other beachgoers too. The rider can almost walk on water! 

Waydoo is the brand of the “efoil Evo.” Evo, I just learned, is short for evolution, a marketing word that suggests a brand or model is advanced, upgraded, or cutting-edge. 

I’m pretty sure he’s holding a device to stop the board should he fall off and it speeds away.  

I saw another unique watercraft that is more my speed. This pair pedaled by as we lounged in our beach chairs. 

Have to chuckle seeing this guy’s socks. Looks like he has a walkie-talkie to communicate with his partner. I like the red flags. 

Hooded Warbler Surprise!

I was recently reminded why I need to be vigilant about the bird camera in our backyard. Now that I’m back in the school routine, it’s easy to go days without checking the Vico Nature app on my iPad. A couple weeks ago when I checked the cameera and found the battery had died a few days earlier and needed to be charged. I’ve have had this bird cam for almost two years.  Before that I had another model. 

To go some days without recording bird activity can mean missing something new, different, and/or unusual. Well, it was all of the above at around 7 a.m. on Sept. 14, the day the battery would die. 

What I saw on my iPad in the app stunned me. I knew right away that this was a new bird for me, a lifer bird right here in my backyard. Another app I use, Picture Bird, told me this is a Hooded Warbler. Well named he is for the black coloring around his face. This still shot comes from this video clip. The brief video is next...

The Hooded Warbler is common to the Southeast United States, but for me this is the first time. And I haven’t seen one since, with my bird cam charged and recording many birds in the almost three weeks since this visit. A friend says he has seen them in the area at the Francis Beidler Forest Sanctuary west of Charleston. Happy for the visit, Hooded Warbler! Come back anytime for the grape jelly you seem to like. 

A few days after the Hooded Warbler first-time, one-time visit, the bird cam recorded another surprise, a Baltimore Oriole. For several years now, Orioles have become regulars during the fall season. The surprise was how early they have started coming for the jelly. 

Improvements at Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery!

 

It had been an unusually long time since I had been to Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston’s grand necropolis and subject of three of my books. Last Sunday, Aug. 30 we drove there for the first time in 2026, I believe. 

I’ve been wanting to visit after receiving a latter in July from the cemetery touting the restoration of three landmarks. One involves the entrance pillars. They look like they’ve been repainted and perhaps some repairs and stabilization work was done too. 

The letter also says the gatehouse and bell tower seen here were restored. The gatehouse received a new door, shutters and paint. The bell display was spruced up as well. 

The doors of the old shop were replaced and some roads were improved with crushed recycled asphalt that a donor provided at a discounted rate. 

We also checked on our spot that I purchased for us a few years ago that will last us eternally (literally). 

Yep, it’s still there. I added our names for this photograph. Some people have their names and birth years engraved on their gravestones while they are still alive. We may opt to do that down the road. 

Summer Sensations- Plants Thriving in the Heat

 

While I regularly wilt in the recent weeks of high heat and humidity, plants and flowers outside our house have never looked better. They are stimulated by what many humans find oppressive. Lots of rain in recent days has helped them too.  

Our many sago palms are in full glory. July and August seem to be their time to shine, though look consistently good year-round. 

These two sago palms are new to our yard, as is the bigger one below. Neighbors did some landscaping work and decided to dig them up and not keep them. They posted on our neighborhood Facebook site that they were free to whoever wanted the trio, and I snatched them up. I replanted the two small ones in a pine straw bed in front of our house and put the large one in the back. Hopefully they will flourish in these new digs. Pun intended. 

Dog Days of Summer Best Spent at the Beach!

 

When it’s the dog days of summer, the beach is the place to be!  This pair of pooches would probably agree. 

Heat indexes have been in the triple digits for several weeks now. Relief and relaxation can be found at the beach.  

Sullivan’s Island at around noon on Sunday, Aug. 9, had lots of open sand for visitors. It was low tide and just perfect conditions, not too crowded, warm, or windy. 

We kept our eye on these dark clouds to the southeast. Fortunately, the rain stayed away. Partly cloudy skies were fine during the three hours we spent near the old Sand Dunes Beach Club. 

Traffic on the water was on the quiet side until the end of our stay when this long red ship steamed out of Charleston Harbor.

Birds of New England- Atlantic Puffins, Common Eiders, Black Guillemots, Great Black-backed Gulls, Bald Eagles and More!

 

(Note: This post is a follow-up to my July 29 post "New England Vacation- Fireworks, Witches, Lighthouses, Puffins and More!")

During our July weeklong tour of coastal New England, we saw many references to Puffins. Puffins are described as “charismatic small seabirds” found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. They spend most of their lives at sea and come ashore to breed in large colonies on cliffs or islands. Their unique color combination earned nicknames such as “clowns of the sea” and “sea parrots.”

In this post, I’ll share my photographs of Atlantic Puffins and 16 other bird species I saw along the New England coast. I scored seven “lifer” birds, ones I had never seen before. 

An Atlantic Puffin model is in front of a gift shop next to the West Street Hotel in Bar Harbor, Maine, where we stayed two nights. Puffins actually have orange feet. Maybe the color faded on this figure. 

Puffins, of course, are much smaller than this. They are about the size of crows. 

Boothbay, Maine, where we visited a few days before Bar Harbor, offers boat tours to an Atlantic Puffin colony. The birds nest on Eastern Egg Rock, a small island about five miles offshore in Muscongus Bay. 

Puffin souvenirs are available at shops along the northeast coastline. This is one that I bought in Bar Harbor. 

I also came home with a shirt featuring an Atlantic Puffin. I bought this at a Boothbay Harbor shop. 

New England Vacation- Fireworks, Witches, Lighthouses, Puffins and More!

 

Wow, a few days back from our extraordinary vacation along the coastline of New England and the full experience is just starting to be absorbed. 

Note: I added a second New England pictorial post showing the many birds I photographed during our trip. Click here to see it. 

Our trip began July 3 when we flew from Charleston to Boston, rented a car, then drove to the Residence Inn Cambridge. Our two days here included seeing the excellent Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on this very special Fourth of July- the United States’ 250th birthday.

We then traveled up the Atlantic coast, spending nights in Portsmouth, N.H., Boothsbay, Maine, Kennebunk, Maine and Bar Harbor, Maine. We stopped at many places in between in these three states. 

Near Bar Harbor, we visited Acadia National Park where we ascended Cadillac Mountain, the highest summit on the U.S. eastern seaboard at 1,530 feet. This is where we are pictured on July 10. 

Panorama of Cadillac Mountain. That’s Frenchman Bay filled with numerous small islands. 

During the 286 miles from Cambridge to Bar Harbor we saw a lot and did a lot. We walked around the Harvard University campus on Independence Day. That’s a statue of school namesake Rev. John Harvard behind us. More on that visit later in this post. 

Things got a little creepy in Salem, Mass. during our tour of the Salem Witch Museum. 

In Rockport, Mass. we saw this red fishing shack (Motif No. 1 is its official name), an iconic 1884 structure considered “the most painted building in America.” 

Floating Classrooms- All Aboard!

 

U.S. COAST GUARD EAGLE 

The Eagle has landed! In recent weeks, Charleston area residents and visitors have had the chance to deck the halls of seafaring ships. 

Billed as America’s Tall Ship, the  USCGC Eagle was docked downtown for a few days and open to tours.

The vessel was built in Germany in 1936. Then it was called the Horst Wessel. Angela Pilson (keep reading) noted in her post that the Germans also used the ship for training- of Hitler youth! Look at the Horst Wessel link above to see an old black-and-white image of the ship from that period. It's awesome!

After World War II, the U.S. attained the ship as part of reparations, the spoils of war, you could say. It became part of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1946. 

At 295 feet, almost a football field long, the USCGC Eagle is a three-mast barque that serves as a training vessel for future Coast Guard officers. 

A barque is a sailing ship with three or more masts that are square in shape. 

Tours began last Friday, June 12, at 10 a.m. I was in line by 9:30 and was glad I arrived early when the line was short compared to the long line I walked by after about an hour on board Eagle. 

Sunshine and Shark’s Teeth Highlight Hilton Head Getaway

 

Just over a two hour drive from our Charleston area home, Hilton Head Island continues to be a “staycation” favorite of ours. 

With my penultimate school year in the books, this trip was a welcome reward for me, and hard-working Alesia as well.

The Atlantic Ocean glistens under the emerging sunlight. Such a pretty and peaceful setting, well worth our early rush to get outside. 

Below is a short video I made to capture the sights and sounds, the dawn of a new day.

We were able to quickly get to the beach from our lodging, the excellent Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa. We have stayed here several times over the years. 

The Westin’s amenities include multiple swimming pools. I don’t quite understand people who book the oceanside Westin, then sit/lay by the pool all day. Just saying.

Nice pool for sure…