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First Day Hike, 2024

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I found out about this “first day hike” thing just yesterday. Seemed like a Good Idea, and there were lots of these at South Carolina Sate Parks. I picked Calhoun Falls, since I hadn’t been there before. And since I hadn’t really done any group hiking, I thought this might be an opportunity sample that.

As it turned out, it was a very small group, just the Ranger and me. So an even better way to get into this group hiking thing.

These hikes are generally aimed to accommodate beginners, so this was a pretty easy trail to navigate.

“My” Ranger pointed out things of interest, like this Resurrection Fern growing on a tree. These ferns can almost completely dry out and shrivel up, but come to life when water returns (hence the name).

And how a lot of these gullies running through the park are the result of poor agricultural practices in past. Nature can fix things, but it takes time.

The park is on the shore of Lake Russel.

This little backwater lagoon looked like the sort of place I’d expect to find water fowl or wading birds.

The day had been mostly overcast, but after a while the clouds began to thin out…

…leading to a lot more blue.

I actually made three rounds on this little 1.7-mile trail. The first Ranger-led (with just the two of us, I’m not sure who led more), then I went back to pick up my footprints, and then the sun came out and I took that as a cue to keep going.

Strava link for the solo hike: https://www.strava.com/activities/10475513815

Creature Feature 2023 #3

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Happy Independence Day to my US viewers! Here’s a few pics from my last couple of trips out on the lake.

I like to start our early, so here’s a nice sunrise picture.

And at sunrise, birds have a lot to say (light was too bad to ID this one):

The Deer like to come out to the lake too:

I was tracking the Beaver in the background when the one on the right, that I didn’t see, sounded the alarm:

Canada Geese in the early morning sun:

Ducks and geese hangin’ out together:

Gathering of the wading birds in a tree:

Door Dash at the Osprey nest?

Here’s the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture, on the hunt for breakfast:

Not close enough for a good picture, but as this is the Fourth of July, here’s a Bald Eagle:

Creature Feature 2022 #5

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I was planning a bike ride this morning, but there was just a bit too much fog in the area for my tastes, or risk analysis. A quick change of plans got me out on the lake instead.

Some Double-Crested Cormorants are still hanging around:

Great Egrets are around this time of year, but this isn’t one of them. This is actually a juvenile Little Blue Heron (fool me once…):

The Geese are, of course, here year-round:

These Geese might have been migrating, but I suspect they were locals out practicing migration formations:

This Osprey seemed to be just playing around in the wind. I’m sure, though, that if he spotted a fish, play time would have turned quickly into lunch time:

Now here’s the Great Egret:


And, of course, the Great Blue Heron picture. This one was standing on top of a duck house at the end of a backwater and didn’t seem concerned at all about my approach.

This one was hanging out near the Cormorant and decided to head off into the fog:

Memorial Day, Creature Feature

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First off, let me wish my US readers an enjoyable and significant Memorial Day Holiday, and ask that everyone keep in mind that “memorial” means “remembering”, and today is all about remembering something Very Important: all those who gave up their lives in service to this country. Regardless of what you may think about the circumstances that lead to these sacrifices, you have to respect that these people did what was asked of them and gave it everything they had, literally. So let’s take a moment here to reflect on that.
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Ok, back to today’s creature feature, which is 2022’s #2 if you’re keeping count.

First I’ll start close to home. Or office. Well, really those are the same thing these days, but at the time I was using my back porch as my Big Conference Room when this guy came by to zoom-bomb us. However, he didn’t seem much interested in what we were doing in the data center, so he moved along.

Now out onto the lake. By the way, if anyone is curious, the track is on Strava. This link might get you there, but you’ll need an account, which is free, except for the hassle of creating Yet Another “free” account. I wondered if by posting there I’ll be giving away all my secret favorite little places, but, heck, you’re not getting into them with a bass boat.

I found where these little blue dragon flies were busy. Unfortunately they’re really small and hard to even see, much less get a picture of. This is the best I could get:

Back out on the main part of the lake, the geese and their geeselets were enjoying a family outing:

The Osprey were making good use of the platform the humans put up for them near the dam. Don’t worry, I’m not getting any closer…

while your partner is out hunting…

um, I’m not a fish.

Neat how the landing gear stows away so neatly:

A Black Vulture was soaring up high:

Sometimes a camera just isn’t the right tool to capture wildlife. I know there was at least one Kingfisher in these trees, I could hear them clearly.

I saw a bunch of these little birds darting around. I was surprised I managed to capture a picture of one in flight.

Turtles were out in numerous places. That one did some serious climbing to get up there.

And Mallards were foraging along the shore. um, I think those are mallards…

Yup, MR Ducks!

And now, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

What the heck, it’s a holiday, have another on the house:

Chau Ram Park, Oconee County, SC

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This past weekend I got a chance to spend some time at the Chau Ram Park in Oconee County, South Carolina, USA.
If you like running water, this is a great place to be:


The trails aren’t long at all, but do involve a good bit of up and down. You can definitely tell you’re close to the mountains here.


Sunday morning I was up early (as usual) and set out at first light to end up at the very top of a hill at a spot marked “scout cabin” on the map. That was a neat place to see the sunrise.

And see the spring flowers getting into gear:


Note well: no martinis on the trails:

At the end of a day of walking up and down, it was nice to have a “room with a view”:

I will just add that, while I did have a good time there, this is a campground that facilitates RVs and such, so good for car-camping, but as a wilderness experience, I think my back yard is probably better.

Plus I missed hearing the geese out on the lake carrying on all night 🙂

Creature Feature 2021 #4

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My plan to take advantage of this holiday was to get out on the lake early. But, the weather continues to be screwy and this morning I awoke to a tempeature of 12C (54F). I decided to wait a bit until it warmed up a some. Even then, it was a cool, overcast morning. In fact, it stayed overcast almost all day, contrary to the forecasts. This was another one of those cases where the TAFs keep getting updated to match the reported conditions.

Even the wildlife seemed to be keeping a low profile under these conditions, but the Geese were keeping watch over their gooselets:

As were the Osprey (well, keeping an eye on their osprats, they wouldn’t care about the gooselets):

This Osprey was soaring way up high under a rare break in the clouds:

From there I made my way all the way up the eastern arm of the lake without much to write home about. Arriving at the northern end of the lake, though, Nature threw me another curve ball. I hadn’t seen Egrets around here until late summer and into early fall, but here was one in late Spring:

I’m always interested in how these large birds get around, in particular how one might do something that looks difficult like landing up in a tree.


Made it! And made it look easy…

Killdeer were hunting around the shallows:

For a while anyway, then time to go!

I didn’t see any turtles on my way up the lake, maybe they figured it was warmer in the water. On the way back though there were a few out.


And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

Fluffy Adametz, circa 2007 – 2021

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Fluffy Adametz passed away today from a malignant growth on her lower jaw. She was believed to be 14 years old and will be missed by many, including, oddly, one bird.

She had been dealing remarkably well with her condition for almost a year, but a few days ago she worsened and finally was unable to eat or drink. After examination by and discussion with her doctor, I decided we had reached an ending. The doctor assured me this was correct, and all expectations had been met or exceeded.

We adopted her in 2012 mainly as a companion for my Dad. It was a hard sell, but we convinced him he should have cat, and it was almost love at first sight (at least for my Dad, cats will be cats).

This is the first picture we got of Fluffy after coaxing her out of her initial hiding place after she moved in with us.

She soon won us over (or, being a cat, maybe took us over).

She enjoyed looking out the windows, and would often be found on the sill of an open window.


The little fur ball….

What, doesn’t everyone like climbing around chair legs?

She had a cat’s balance.

She will be missed, but I know someone who will be happy to see her again: my Dad. As I would often do when my Dad came to visit, as I held her at the end, I told her “go see Daddy!”.

I don’t know how I’m going to sleep now that I can’t just roll over and assume that strange noise in the house was only Fluffy.

B.O.G.

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The title of this post is a take-off on “A.O.G”, or “Aircraft On Ground”, used when an aircraft needs to fly but can’t because of some mechanical issue. Usually it implies some degree of urgency, so rush that parts order and have a mechanic standing by. In this case, it’s “Bird On Ground”.

That’s not what a normal collarbone, avian or human, should look like.

To answer the question I know all the hard-core cyclists out there are wanting to know, the bike is fine. The right brake/shifter got rotated inward a bit, but I can fix that. My helmet has some small dimples on the right side, so I’ll go ahead and replace it. This happened when I went around a corner, heard some small gravel under the front tire, the bike shuddered, and I was on the ground. The whole thing took, maybe, I think around 600ms.

The doctor advised me to keep the arm immobilized as much as possible and just let the bone mend itself. I certainly won’t be doing any kayaking over the next 6 to 8 weeks and I may end up with a bit of a bump on my shoulder. If that happens, I figure then when someone accuses me of “having a chip on my shoulder”, I can point and say “YES, and THERE it is!”

Followup with the doctor is in 3 weeks.

First (only?) snow of Winter 2020

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With nothing else to write home about, I might as well post something about our first snowfall of the winter of 2020. The way the weather has been (6 days ago I was out running in 70F weather), it might be our only snow this season.

The day started out bright and clear,

but turned overcast and around lunchtime quickly went through flurries and into snow. I was out doing errands to the north, where snow did accumulate on the grass and trees:

but farther south by the lake, it was above freezing and melting on contact:

Still, Fluffy seemed as fascinated as anyone about it:

And now it’s all over, about as quick as it started.