Poinsett State Park

Yesterday was a gorgeous day and Kevin suggested we check out Poinsett State Park. South Carolina has the prettiest parks! I was excited to find out they rent out cabins at this park. Really cool cabins that were built in the 1930s. I hinted to Kevin that it would be a nice birthday weekend retreat. Hopefully he takes the hint.
We went to the park and walked the Coquina trail which was a little over one and a half miles. They have several trails and I can't wait to go try another. This park is only about 10 miles from our house.
There are alligators at this park. I thought I saw one, but can't be sure. That was scary. The funniest thing happened this morning. Kevin and Katie were on their way out the front door. He was taking her to school. They were surprised to see a hummingbird that seemed to be disoriented and kept bouncing off the ceiling of the porch. Kevin tried getting her to go off the porch, but she wouldn't. He was late leaving and had to go, but before he left he gave me a branch and told me to try and get her to land on it and then move her off the porch that way. So, I tried it and it worked Poor little thing. She probably had a pretty good headache after that. I didn't get any pictures, but here is a some pics of one of our little hummingbirds from this week. We also took a pic last week of these 2 hummingbirds on the back deck. THey were acting quite strange. And kept hitting eachother's beaks. And then one seemed to be sitting on the others' head. Kevin actually snapped a pic of it from the back door.
Not sure what that was about. Silly birds!
Brian and Alli are coming to visit in 2 days! I am beyond excited!!!
Blessings!

Our Wildelife...

I've had a couple of pretty cool things happen this week I thought I would share.
On Tuesday morning when I woke up there were 5 deer in the backyard. It's very unusual for us to see them in broad daylight and the sun was already out. I took a few pictures from the picture window in the kitchen. They aren't very good because I didn't want to scare them away, so I didn't get too close to the window. You can see they were watching the house pretty closely.

Then yesterday I heard a thump on the window and went to the deck to see which of the birds had the collision. I was surprised to see a little female hummingbird laying flat on her back. We've had all sorts of birds hit the window and sadly, even had one fatality. But, I've never seen it be a hummingbird that ran into the window. They can stop in midair so I didn't expect that at all. I picked her up and placed her in a shoebox so a cat wouldn't happen upon her for his midday meal. I was surprised at how soft she was!!! She was breathing very heavily, but was conscious. I grabbed my camera for a picture. After a few minutes, I went inside to get her a drink. Katie was holding the box and while I was inside, Fiona (as we fondly call her) found the strength to fly away when another hummingbird flew by.

As you can see, I've really been trying to update more lately.
I want to thank you so much for visiting.

The Mourning Dove & The Picture Window

Kevin had a base event to go to last night and Katie and I decided to have a girl's night. We had just settled into watching a chick flick (Made of Honor) when we heard a large thump and looking out the back door saw feathers just a' flying!We both ran to the door and saw this poor little mourning dove just laying on the deck. He was breathing really hard and looked so scared. We went out to check on him and he moved onto his legs more, but he couldn't fly. We got him some food and water and Katie got onto the Internet to see what we could do. We thought at first that he had broken a wing.
I started calling veterinarian offices to see if they could help me and one of them gave me a number to a lady here in town. She was an older lady who used to be a Federal Bird Bander and she was so sweet. She told us to wrap him in a towel and place him in a box for the night and she was going to try and find a place to take him. But, when we went back out to get him, he was able to fly away.
I am so glad our story had a happy ending!
I do love the picture window as I am always taking pictures from inside the house and they turn out pretty good. But I think we're going to have to get some stickers or something to put on the window to stop the birds from trying to fly in! We've had only one fatality so far. We buried a little sparrow a couple of weeks ago. A funny coincidence...it was raining that day too.
Have a great weekend... thanks for visiting!

The Chickadee and the Tissue

Sounds like a good story title, huh?
Kevin bought me a cute little birdhouse for Christmas.
He hung it up for me shortly after.
Recently, we've been watching a pair of Chickadees go in and out.
They are the cutest little birds.
Kevin thought he'd do the little guys a favor by placing some tissues inside for their nest.
The next morning when we woke up there was a tissue hanging from one of the tree branches. Then I noticed the Chickadees working very hard at something. It soon became apparent that they were trying to get another tissue out. They would go inside and bring enough of the tissue to the hole so they could pull and pull to get it out. Kevin let them get it so far and then he went out and pulled it the rest of the way. He then threw the tissues away.

But, now we think just maybe the Chickadee wanted the tissue- just not inside the birdhouse. They still haven't started nesting inside.
On another note... does anyone have any ideas on how to hang my suet feeders so that the raccoon doesn't get it and eat the entire thing? I have to find the suet cage first I guess. He actually ran off with it this time. We had it hanging from a small outside branch where we didn't think he could get to it without breaking the branch. I haven't surveyed the actual damage. This is the 4th suet he has ate.... dirty little rascal.

A Wordless Wendesday Blue Jay!

A Wordless Wednesday Junco!

Birds & Weekend Plans

Yesterday I went to a feed store here in town and bought some new birdseed. The birds are LOVING it. I'm going to start posting some of my birdie pics here on my blog. Heaven knows we take enough of them.
Here is a little Titmouse I took a photo of this week. Isn't he cute? These little birds are always on the move and hard to get a still picture of. They are one of our regulars at the feeder.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend. ALL of my Christmas cards are in the mail. What a relief!
We are off to Columbia to hopefully finish our Christmas shopping. We were the blessed recipients of a "Heroes at Home" gift card from Sears. Thank you if you are reading this and contributed. It will come in very handy this year as we are still recovering from our huge loss on our Georgia home sale.
We also won a little cash last night at Kevin's squadron Christmas party. We both had a ticket drawn and got to take an envelope from the "Money Tree". There were 2 -$20 bills in each envelope. Sweet!
Off to shop....

Wordless Wednesday

Lovin' the birds!

Have I mentioned how enraptured I am by the birds here in South Carolina? I have spent countless hours watching them and photographing them.
Today was a great bird day. After quite a lot of rain the last day or two, the birds are all out and about.

Kevin was looking over the propane tank out back and found a nest complete with egg. I have a feeling it belongs to a couple of Carolina Wrens who've been quite active in that vicinity today.
I followed this little crooner and took a few pics of him singing his heart out going in and out of a thicket of branches out back.

It's funny how the bird books will describe their activity down to the details including how they pick mailboxes, coat pockets and weird places to nest. A propane tank, perhaps?
As I was following the birds around the back yard, Kevin went and got the mail. How perfect was it that this sweet little baby bib arrived in my mailbox?

Yes, I'm a bawl baby and burst into tears as soon as I saw it! My friend Shelley is so incredibly thoughtful and I miss her SO much. And the timing on this little gift could not have been better! I just love it!!
I just had to share! Have a delightful weekend!
Blessings~
Angel

A Visit to Swan Lake

Swan Lake is a beautiful park right in the heart of Sumter.
(Click on the name for more info!) We went once before when we first arrived here. Katie has been asking to go again ever since. So, yesterday after church we decided it was a beautiful day for a stroll with the geese, ducks and swans! We came home and picked up an old package of hamburger buns, then went to the park. We spent a couple of hours there although it didn't seem that long!

I never did get a good picture of him, but this Anhinga was fascinating to watch. While Kevin was feeding the ducks and geese in the water, the fish were gathering as well. The Anhinga took the opportunity to go fishing. He swam mostly submerged towards the fish, and then speared one, tossed it up in the air and swallowed him.

Another favorite was the Wood Duck. They look as if they're painted so perfectly. I wonder what God was thinking when he made this one so different from the others!

We were surrounded with geese as soon as we walked in the park with our bag of buns. I quickly handed off the buns to Kevin. Check out this swan. He's so tall! And not afraid to beg for a piece if bread.

They followed us for a bit.

Here are some of the pics from our outing!

Kevin's home for the day, so my menu will have to wait for tomorrow!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Angel

Jackpot!

Have I shared my latest "hobby/interest"? It's birdwatching! Since moving to South Carolina, I have seen more different birds than I've ever seen before! We live out in a wooded area which probably helps. When we lived in Georgia we kept a suet in the tree and would get quite a few different birds to come take a nibble. Kevin replaced the suet often and he also filled the birdbath every day. So, when we moved here we bought another suet cage and put it up. The birds here don't seem to like it as much. Maybe they will when winter comes. We decided to buy a seed feeder. This feeder has a place for a suet on one side, one type of bird seed in the middle and another on the other side. It's like a bird restaurant and we love watching who's coming to dinner! I've been wanting to get some different bird books, but didn't want to pay for brand new ones. I did order a couple of books at bookcloseouts.com. In fact, I found my favorite bird book there.

I highly recommend this book. Although it isn't an extensive bird book, it lists the common birds in each area. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

Kevin had to work this weekend so Katie and I decided to track down some used book stores in Columbia. {There aren't ANY here in our little town.} So we plugged some addresses into Ginger and set off for Columbia. We found 3 of the 5 used book stores there and the last one was a BIG success! All of the books at Ed's Editions that were under $10 were 1/2 off! I found a large selection of bird books and whittled my stack down to these 8.

You may wonder why I got the Pennsylvania Birdlife book. Well, it was full of little treasures the last owner had stuck inside. Bird pictures and clippings from magazines and newspapers. It was so much fun to look through! Most were dated from the 1940s.
Katie also got the rest of her series of books she's been reading. We've gotten her a few of them by trading on SwapTree.com- a great place to swap used books!
We also found a Hobby Lobby in Columbia. It was wonderful to browse through a Hobby Lobby again. And so many things were 1/2 off. *sigh* I did well though and got out of the store without spending a lot of money. But I got some great little treasures there too! And yesterday was World Cardmaking Day and I plan on stamping today away since I was gone all day yesterday!
Have a fabulous weekend and watch for more bird pics. I've taken hundreds of bird pictures so I think I'll start posting one a week. Hopefully a different kind of bird each week. THAT might be a challenge. We'll see.
Bye for now!
Angel

Wordless Wednesday