This post is dedicated to our recent visits to Sullivan’s Island. On Sunday, deep in the dog days of summer, the beach here was surprisingly sparse. But it was a good surprise, especially when we found a primo parking spot near the Station 17 path to the sand.
The photo below I took as we were leaving the beach.
While many people, including myself, may only go outside in small doses, I have sought plants for the yard, porch and patio that seem to flourish in this kind of weather.
This post features the different types I have acquired in recent weeks at places such as Lowe’s and Home Depot.
Chicago’s many skyscrapers are always neat to see and photograph. The iconic Wrigley Building was adorned with a huge American flag. As this site reveals, the huge flag cost $6,200 and has been flown during the 4th of July period since 2002 as a way to commemorate the 9/11 attacks.
To the left of the Wrigley Building is the 100-story Trump International Hotel & Tower, the city’s second tallest building. The hotel cost a whopping $847 million to build and was completed in 2009.
I received a nice greeting near the gate from this friendly hen that walked up to my car. It seemed to belong to the home situated just outside the preserve.
This had to be an omen that good birding was ahead for me.
I identified this as a Pedresa Chicken using a bird ID app I'm trying out called Picture Bird. I open the app, bring in my bird photo and in seconds it tells me the type of bird. This was helpful in this outing to confirm birds I have seen before and to help with identities I was not so sure about.
Past visits have taught me there are usually some large wading birds here.
And sure enough, I spotted Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons.
I tried out some different photo processing tools in my favorite Snapseed app.