Spring Bird Roundup

I have been more active in recent weeks with my bird photography in my backyard area,  nearby parks and other places. Here are some recent favorites. 

Wood Duck family

I have seen this flight of Wood Ducks on the big pond at the former Kings Grant golf course. 

In sharing some of these photos on social media I learned that the strikingly colorful male of this species doesn’t stick around to help mama raise the youngsters. 

Other research revealed something else I did not know- that Carolina Duck is another name for this duck. 

Proud Professor of the Year!

It has been quite a busy school year and now that it has ended I'm still catching my breath! 

Boosted I'm sure by the publication of my fifth book, I was voted by fellow faculty at South Carolina State University to receive the Department of English and Communications 2022-2023 Professor of the Year. 

It is a great honor and one I was always cherish! Alesia took this photo in our office prior to a speaking engagement I had earlier this week. Tilly is happy for me too! 

The plaque is amazing! We had an end-of-the-school-year lunch in Orangeburg at Ruby Tuesday's last week.

I was given the plaque then but quickly noticed Harwood was spelled Hardwood! Whoops! That frequently happens with my students when they email me. 

A colleague, Dr. Margaret Morris, took care of having the error corrected. 

Patience and Perseverance Lead to Mystery Reveal- Great Crested Flycatcher

 

I’m no expert at recognizing bird calls but my “birdar” (bird radar) does ping when I hear an unfamiliar one. 

For weeks outside my house, I had noticed a high-pitched song from above. Every time I looked to see what was making the sound but could not spot the source. At one point I was able to take a photograph but it wasn’t very good or clear so I was unable to identify it. 

But then I struck gold! About three weeks ago around 6:30 p.m. the vocal and the view converged. On my driveway, I stood and took several pictures of the mysterious visitor. 

I like this capture showing fanned tail feathers. When I examined my photos on a large screen inside I realized this was not a lifer for me. 

This bird has a distinctive look with its yellow breast colors, brown head, and tail feathers. 

I needed only to walk to our downstairs powder room to recognize (see below) that this is a…drum roll…Great crested Flycatcher. 

All About Birds describes this species as large "with a broad-shouldered and big-headed look...Great Crested Flycatchers are sit-and-wait predators, sallying from high perches (usually near the tops of trees) after large insects, returning to the same or a nearby perch. Their clear, rising reep calls are a very common sound in summer."

This is my “Birds of Dixie Plantation”  canvas print. Dixie Plantation is a property owned by the College of Charleston along the Stono River and Intracoastal Waterway near Hollywood, S.C. In the 2012 summer, I hiked Dixie’s trails several times and took photographs of more than 30 types of birds. It was here I saw and captured my first Painted Bunting. 

Here I also photographed my first Great crested Flycatcher. 

By the way, several years ago the name Dixie Plantation was changed to Stono Preserve (ie political correctness). 

See my post from 2015 about this special place. 

This is the hoot I took around April 21 of the Yellow crested Flycatcher. Glad I got better ones a few weeks later! 

Chicago Busker Photo a Winning Entry

 

When opening the Sunday newspaper yesterday I had a good feeling! The previous Sunday upon seeing the Charleston Post and Courier’s next contest topic was “Musicians” I thought I might have a winning entry. 

In December 2018 Alesia and I flew to Chicago to visit our son Justin. We stayed at a nice hotel downtown not too far from the city’s famous Magnificent Mile shopping district along N. Michigan Avenue. 

On our walk on a rather gloomy, foggy day we encountered this gentleman playing his saxophone for tips. A noble busker indeed! 

I gave him some cash and asked if I could take his picture. He was good with that so I popped off a few shots. 

I really like the contrast between the dreary background with the tall, foreboding (though iconic) Chicago buildings and the pops of color from our musician with his golden sax and red Santa hat. 

I like this image so much that not long after that Chicago trip I had a large print made and framed. It’s on the wall in our TV room, just over my right shoulder as I write this blog post. 

In July we are returning to the Windy City to see Justin. As you see in this post from other Chicago visits you know I’ll be taking lots of pictures! 

2021 Chicago Visit

2012 Chicago Visit

My “Birds of Magnolia Cemetery” Book Gets Renewed Attention!

 A few months ago I was contacted by Megan Parak from My Book Printer who wanted to interview me for her company’s “Author Spotlight” in May 2023.  Click here to read the story. 

The interview was about my first book, "The Birds of Magnolia Cemetery: Charleston's Secret Bird Sanctuary," which I self-published in 2011. Learn more about this book here. 

We did a phone interview a while back and as promised her piece dropped today. I couldn’t be happier with how she put it all together. And she put it on the company’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter sites. 

My Book Printer has printed several of my books over the years. I definitely recommend this Detroit area company to fellow writers. Charleston-based Palmetto Publishing is also very good. 

the article is in the Q&A format. I actually teach this interview format in my SC State feature writing class. I have a new high-quality example to share with my students! 

The piece includes this photo from my book. It is of a Yellow-crowned Night Heron flying low over one of the ponds at Magnolia Cemetery. Three years after publication of "Birds of Magnolia Cemetery," I put out a follow-up book titled "In the Arms of Angels: Magnolia Cemetery- Charleston's Treasure of History Mystery and Artistry." 

I sell all of my books on Amazon and will sign and sell books directly. If interested, see my Amazon author's page or email me at birdseyeviewspublications@gmail.com.  

All Hail Azaleas!

It has been that time of the year! The beautiful azalea 🌺 plant has been in bloom bringing the South Carolina Lowcountry a late winter bounce. 

The azaleas in my yard started to sprout in late February. I took this photo on March 3. These buds were poised to pop!

I do love this time of year! It’s a harbinger of spring which began officially today, March 20. 

All the next pictures I took on or around our property. 

Landmark: 200,000 Pageviews!

 

A few weeks ago I noticed that the counter in the right column of my BirdsEyeViews blog was creepiing toward the 200,000 mark. I figured I would do a short post like this as I did in April 2017 when it hit 100,000. 

Well, a couple days ago during a class I was teaching (my feature writing class for a travel/destination piece assignment- I was showing a few of my travel posts) I was surprised to see the counter had suddenly surpassed 200K. Later, checking Blogger's "stats" feature I found out what happened. 

I'm calling it the Murdaugh Effect. For six weeks Alex Murdaugh was on trial in Walterboro, S.C. for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul at their vast Moselle hunting property that straddled Colleton and Hampton counties. 

On this blog in December 2021 I wrote a post titled "The Murdaughs of Magnolia Cemetery." I didn't really promote it that much after the cemetery's superintendent asked me not to share it on social media, which I took to mean Facebook and other platforms, particularly the popular Facebook site "Charleston History Before 1945." So I just put it on my blog and that was about it. 

Well, as you see in the graph above in March many people somehow, some way came across my "Murdaughs of Magnolia Cemetery" research. The graph shows a peak on March 3 with 1,090 pageviews of the post. The 6,740 figure represents the number of overall page views of my blog for the past one month period. 

As I look at the statistics today, March 16, the number of pageviews of this post since Dec. 10, 2021 is 5,771. 

What are pageviews, you ask? According to Google Analytics, a pageview (or pageview hit, or page tracking hit) is an instance of a page being loaded (or being reloaded) in a browser. Pageviews is a metric defined as the total number of pages viewed. 

What a splashy way to hit this landmark 200,000 figure. But, alas, it is so sad what happened to Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on June 7, 2021. The Walterboro jury did convict Alex of their murders and Judge Clifton Newman sentenced him to consecutive life sentences. Alex still faces some 100 financial crimes. State prosecutors have said they do plan to pursue these cases. 

Hilton Head island Weekend Getaway

 

“Spring Break” for college students (and their professors) is a bit of a misnomer. The weeklong midterm break comes when it’s still winter. Spring begins on March 20. My SC State Spring Break began March 6. 

For me, the break began even earlier on March 3 when we headed a couple hours south to Hilton Head Island. The proximity isn’t a “staycation” but it’s not far from it. 

The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa is a great for a weekend getaway any time of the year.

I woke up Sunday morning at 6:40, just in time to catch the sunrise from our third floor room (above).

The frame of our balcony made a nice composition for the dawn of a new day. We were blessed with nice weather all weekend! 

The oversized beach chair (left) welcomes visitors to the Westin Hotel and the beautiful Atlantic Ocean beckoning in the background. 

Update on New Book Presentations

 

This new year is off to a really good start as far as things happening with my new book, "Stories from the Underground: The Churchyards of Charleston." 

So far I have given two presentations and several more have been set up for the months ahead.

This selfie is from Feb. 10 when I spoke to the fine folks at the Waring Senior Center in the West Ashley part of Charleton. 

Here are some of the center members who attended my talk. Afterwards, I signed and sold a bunch of books.

On Jan. 27 I presented at the Lowcountry Senior Center on James Island. That event was also fun and well attended. 

Both facilities had really good audio-visual equipment. I greatly appreciated this! 

Here are more upcoming presentations:

• Monday, March 27, 3 p.m.- Bishop Gadsden Episcopal Retirement Center, Charleston
• Wednesday, April 12, Noon- Mt. Pleasant Rotary Club (this will be in the Fellowship Hall at Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church
• Thursday, April 13, 11 a.m.- Bishop Gadsden (but a different part of it)
• Sunday, May 21, 2:30 p.m.- S.C. Genealogical Society
• Friday, June 23, Noon- Bethany United Methodist Church, Summerville 

Please contact me if you are interested in my books and/or interested in me speaking to your organization. My email is birdseyeviewspublications@gmail.com. Thank you!  

Winter Bird Count

 

Baltimore Orioles 

Christmas Eve became extra joyous when my grape jelly feeder in the backyard was visited throughout the holy day by a few beautiful Baltimore Orioles! 

After snapping some photos through the window, I moved upstairs and quickly and quietly opened a bathroom window that overlooks our array of feeders. 

What a color scheme has this fine feathered fellow! 

Orioles crave the jelly, so I try to it out for them, especially in the fall and winter.

The weather was very chilly on this day, in the upper 20s-low 30s. A knowledgeable friend who owns the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Mt. Pleasant, after I posted some of these photos on Facebook, said the cold temperatures make Orioles and other birds more active (and hungry I reckon). 

Female Baltimore Orioles came by too on this day. I didn’t get any photos of the lady Os. That’s a Pine Warbler in the middle of this pix. 

Here are some more of my special Christmas Eve Orioles!