If there was a zombie apocalypse, I would feel safer with the zombies.
It is really sad that you can go to a beautiful place like Holly Shelter and run into 30 cars all of which are toting arsenals and are there to shoot things up instead of enjoy nature for what it is.
So needless to say I was in a foul mood. It was really hard to find the Red-cockaded which is sad because usually it is pretty easy. Several years ago I don't remember seeing any target shooters but now there are so many that I don't ever want to go back to Holly Shelter, or at least the East side.
This Brown-headed Nuthatch was telling me that my kind was ruining his home and that he is hoping the Zombies win.
Then as we were leaving, I spotted an anomaly among the parked Suburbans with AR-15 stickers. A sensible sedan (ford focus or Subaru or something) was parked on the side of the road. A quick scan and I found a pair of birders!!! Another quick scan and I could see they had a flock of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
So I went from a very foul mood to feeling great. We pulled out and a couple miles South on the 17 we spotted a group of Wild Turkey! I slammed on the breaks and did a U turn.
Wild Turkey - somehow all the passing traffic did not bother them but when I pulled over they took off running.
My wife had finished her shopping so we met at Airlie Gardens for a nice walk. Airlie is horrendous any time of the day except 7am or 4pm. Usually the workers and consequently the constant ATV traffic is from 8am to 4pm so if you go before or after it is nice and quiet which is what a garden should be.
Greater Yellowlegs - he was bigger looking but the slightly up turned bill is what made me go with Greater YLs vs Lesser.
Then just before dark hence the bad picture, a Common Gallinule (Moorehen) was spotted where the Wood Ducks usually hang out.
Common Gallinule - bluish gray head and breast, brown back, lateral flank strip and a white rump. I will get a better picture later, once I see this bird at Airlie he usually sticks around.
Margaritas and burritos at K38 ended out the day nicely.
As my homie Ice Cube once said "Today was a good day".
Your experience with ISIS at Holly Shelter reminds me of one I had many years ago with your mom on Nantucket, of all places. We had taken our bikes on the Woods Hole Ferry and had cycled far into the Nantucket countryside, where we took a dirt side road to escape civilization. No sooner had we stopped did 2 target shooters start blazing at beer cans.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course you are spot on about Airlie: a garden is above all about atmosphere, beauty and tranquility, and totally incompatible with the grinding of machinery. But American public gardens put the emphasis on the "landscaping" = brutal trimming during visiting hours. Usually the first thing I do on arriving in an american garden is determine where the most noise is coming from and walk in the opposite direction. The gardens all seem to be run by anti-garden committees.
But there are some splendid birds here.
Your experience with ISIS at Holly Shelter reminds me of one I had many years ago with your mom on Nantucket, of all places. We had taken our bikes on the Woods Hole Ferry and had cycled far into the Nantucket countryside, where we took a dirt side road to escape civilization. No sooner had we stopped did 2 target shooters start blazing at beer cans.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course you are spot on about Airlie: a garden is above all about atmosphere, beauty and tranquility, and totally incompatible with the grinding of machinery. But American public gardens put the emphasis on the "landscaping" = brutal trimming during visiting hours. Usually the first thing I do on arriving in an american garden is determine where the most noise is coming from and walk in the opposite direction. The gardens all seem to be run by anti-garden committees.
But there are some splendid birds here.