Wonderful Long Weekend

Everyone needs a few days off--and it's sad to see so many people forgoing time off in order to get just a few more things done at work. So, for mental health reasons ;) my husband and I took last weekend off and went up to Sea Level, near Beaufort, NC.

I'm so glad we went.

We packed up all the dogs and drove to the coast. The weather was just about perfect: nicely cool and sunny. (Cool is important to me these days as I'm plagued by hot flashes which are a lot worse than they sound. Ha, ha. I know you're laughing, but believe me, they are no joke and I totally dread the summer.)

The first thing we did was to get the martin house up. I cleaned it two weeks ago, so it was all ready, but I needed my husband's muscles to get it in place. We were so pleased when the very next day, two males and a female started buzzing the house. The day after that, we saw over a dozen birds checking out our house and our neighbor's. Last year we had almost full occupancy and this year, I'm hoping the offspring come back, along with their parents, to fill all the holes.

We just love our Purple Martins--they are so cheerful and the house is visible from our bedroom. One of my favorite things is to wake up to the chirping of Purple Martins swooping through the yard, scooping up mosquitoes. They are our prime mosquito control mechanism.

One of my neighbors told me that she had heard that some folks in Sea Level had also had Painted Buntings

at their feeders! That is a little far north, but I know they are in Wilmington so maybe they are working their way up the coast. I put up a feeder because that's one bird I somehow have never managed to see. I'm really hoping that this summer, I can see some interesting guests at the feeder. The picture at the right is a Painted Bunting, and the photo was taken by Ralph Barrera. Isn't it a beautiful bird? It is so colorful that it almost looks fake.

Wish me luck in my quest to see my first Painted Bunting.

And, as I mentioned, we took our dogs and the little beasts begged for us to go on a boat ride, so we took a swing through Salter's Creek into Core Sound. The dogs had an absolute blast and so did we. It was a perfect day to be out on the water.

I was surprised when even our Jack Russell Terrier, Daisy, took to the water with our lab and chessie, just like she was born to it. And she had a blast riding at the bow of the boat with Molly, our Chesapeake Bay Retriever. The two dogs are inseparable. Daisy is constantly following Molly around, trying to emulate her. The "big dog," Rowdy, our lab, just kind of does his own thing, but we were glad to see him enjoying himself, as well. He's getting older and has hip problems, but when it comes to boats and wading out in the ocean, he thinks he's still a pup.

 Going back to birds, while we were out boating, we saw several long strings of diving ducks. My husband and I counted over 700. Some of the ducks we saw included scoters and scaup. I also saw a number of grebes, mergansers, and herons along the shoreline, as well as the osprey that normally nests on one of the channel markers in Nelson Bay (Daisy and I kayaked there last summer to watch the osprey and I hope we can do the same this year.)

The loons are unfortunately gone.

Now that we are home again, I'm getting my feeders prepped for the hummingbirds as they are sure to show up soon. Our Fed Ex and UPS delivery folks have been asking us about the "hummers" as we normally have literally swarms of them during the summer. Some years there are so many of them that you take your life in your own hands just to come up on the porch where the feeders are. They are not afraid of anyone or anything and will swoop at you to keep you away from the feeders if you annoy them too much.

So--if you've been putting off taking a few days off--stop it. Take a couple of days to relax and get back in touch with the natural world around you. You won't regret it.

Winter Birding

My favorite time of the year for bird watching (birding) is winter. You don't have to contend with the heat and insects and you can see everything much better since leaves don't get in the way so much. When I ended my career as a computer specialist on Dec 31st in favor of writing full time, one of the things I hoped to do was to get back into doing more birding.

Thankfully, I have and here are a few of the glorious birds I've been seeing in our walks to the mailbox with the dogs and rambling through the woods (okay, swamp) behind the house.

Northern Harrier - We've had both male and female Norther Harriers working the fields in front of the house. When I first spotted the male "gray ghost" he was hovering low over the winter wheat before starting to glide back and forth dissecting the field in his search for rodents. The brown female has been here less, but one or the other is always working the fields.

American Kestrel - Every winter, an American Kestrel takes up residence on our phone line, right above the mailbox. From that position, he has a good view of four fields and it must suit him because he's there every day until late spring.

Red-tailed Hawk - A pair of Red-tailed Hawks lives near our house and this time of year, we hear them calling almost all day. They seem to like to hunt the fringes of the fields along the tree line.

Red-shouldered Hawk - In addition to the Red-tailed Hawks, we have a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks. We hear (and see) them a little less frequently, but at least once a day I hear them calling. They seem to like to cross over the entire expanse of fields, going from one swampy woodlands, over the fields, and then entering the woods behind our house.

Honestly, with all these predators, I don't see how the rodents have much of a chance in the area, but we still see a lot of voles, cotton rats, and mice, so I guess they aren't putting too much of a "hurtin/" on the population.

Loggerhead Shrike - We are very privileged to host the occasional Loggerhead Shrike, which upon first glance I often mistake for a Mockingbird with "something just not quite right" about it. The shrike has a favorite perch on a telephone line near a small stand of trees at the edge of our property. I've only seen him twice in the last week, but he does seem to be hanging around the area.

Belted Kingfisher - A very noisy, female Belted Kingfisher has decided to take ownership of our catfish pond. She gets highly indignant when the dogs or one of us humans takes a walk and dares to go near the water. She's a chatty little thing and she's a gorgeous sight swooping low over the water on her way back and forth over the pond.

Turkey - As part of his job, my husband worked on the reintroduction of Turkeys here in North Carolina and his work was a brilliant success. We now see large flocks of Turkeys wandering the fields and I've had to stop short in the car several times to avoid hitting them!

Bobwhite - A small covey of Bobwhite hung around after breeding season and when we walk to the mailbox, we flush the occasional one out of the weeds at the sides of the roads. We've been trying for years to get the farmers to stop mowing the hedgerows, or at least only mow one side. This year, we've still got one side of weedy cover and I'm hoping they don't mow it anytime soon because it's always full of all kinds of birds.

Gosh, I can see I need to stop doing a paragraph a bird or this blog is going to drag on. So what else are we seeing?

Meadowlarks, American Robins, and Eastern Bluebirds are all over the fields, as well as flocks of blackbirds and grackles (mostly Common Grackle and Boat-tailed Grackle). The hedgerows that the Bobwhite like are also full of Chipping Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, with occasional visits from Fox Sparrows and White-crowned Sparrows. Near the feeders we also get a few American Tree Sparrows and Field Sparrows. We also have a few Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtle Warbler), Eastern Phoebes, and Pine Warblers hanging around the pecan and pine trees near our mailbox.

Pileated Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Flickers, and Hairy Woodpeckers are having a banner year because we've had several trees fall in the woods, creating snags that are full of insects. I've also spotted a Hermit Thrush in the woods behind the house, busily at work kicking up dead leaves.

On our porch, we've had Cardinals and Carolina Wrens peering into our front window, particularly when we've dared to let the feeders get a little low on food. The Carolina Wrens are also in the habit of stealing dog food if they think they can get away with it during the dog's feeding melee.

Our garden is home to Mockingbirds, Gray Catbirds, Brown Thrashers, Tufted Titmouse, Rufous-sided Towhees, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, Cardinals, and a few Goldfinches.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some birds that I've seen this week, but it's a joy to have the time to go out walking with the dogs and my binoculars. You just never know what you will see next!

The List

As mentioned in my previous blog, I've retired from my day job to be a full time writer. Yippee!
And that also means that everyone has been asking me what I will do, now. In fact, no one can quite believe that I would "give up a career in information technology" just like that. While I'm still trying to figure out if I need to renew my Microsoft Technet subscription, I think in the end I will be able to give up work in IT because my problem is not a lack of interests, but far too many interests to explore in a single lifetime.

I've spent 36 years exploring computers and IT. I'm ready to move on and while I don't really believe in "bucket lists" per se, I do have a lot of things I want to do. Here are just a select few.

1. Train the Dog - we just got a new Jack Russell puppy and am spending a lot of time with her. She's really good at fetch and I'd like to train her to do a few things - it will keep both of us active outside and she'll be all the happier for it.
2. Write - I have several books in first or first/second draft stage. I need to finish those and get them "out the door". My first hardcover mystery, Whacked!, is out and while most authors will shake their heads in disgust at me when I admit this, I need to get a second manuscript to my publisher. (I should have already sent them one, but I'm a very slow writer.) A Fall of Silver - a paranormal romance, should have been published, but is still going through last minute edits, so... Work, work, work.
3. Birding  - I've neglected my bird watching over the last few years and I really want to get back to that. I've even forgotten some of the calls. This spring I intend to do a lot of birding around North Carolina.
4. Gardening - The gardens are a mess. I need to get them back into shape. Some, I may have to eliminate so that I can keep the rest of them weeded, etc, during the hot summer months. I way overdid it in creating lots of gardens and I got overwhelmed. It's time to correct that. In fact, I need to clean up the kitchen garden and start planting cold weather crops before it's too late.
5. The House - The old log home has been neglected far too long. It's time to pull up some of the nastier bits of carpeting and put down flooring that can withstand the four-legged creatures running around here. We also have a junk room that I've sworn to clean up and turn into a library. Oh, and let's not forget doing actual housework. :)
6. Classes - I'd like to take some classes, and to ease into that, I'm looking at ordering some of the Great Courses. I'm particularly interested in Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works  although it is fairly pricey. It strikes me that it would be useful if I continue to write mysteries. I've always been interested in forensics and this one sounds interesting. I'd also like to take some of their history classes and some fun ones like cooking.

That's enough to get me started, I think.