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.