Category: Birding

Kayaking on the Potomac River at River Bend Park, 20090823

Posted on by chappyshi

I met my friend Garrett “Buz” Shea at River Bend Park on the Potomac River in Great Falls, MD, to paddle  on Sunday.  I have been to the park a few times with my uncle to hike and bird watch but never to paddle and rarely in the summer.  The park seemed so totally foreign to me since I’d been there mostly in the winter time.

We had a great paddle.  The day was mostly clear and not too hot but fairly humid.  Buz likes paddling up through the rapids so he can float back down through them so that is what we did.  We paddled up the north side of the river and on the way back down tried to cut across to the south side at a cut through an island.

We almost made it but the current was such that after I watched Buz try to get up through this cut a couple of times, I found a way to get through that, albeit twisty and turny, was relatively calm.  Unfortunately, that left us down river from another set of rapids that Buz wanted to run.

We broke down, got out of our kayaks and toted them over a set of rocks so we could be upstream where we wanted to be.  Buz noted that that was the exact spot where he broke his toe on the rocks last year.  He now doesn’t wear an open toe shoe while paddling…

Once back on the water, we paddled further upstream to about the point where Seneca Creek comes into the Potomac from the north and there is a forbidding set of rapids that we would have had to portage to get past.  We decided to turn around and float back down river to our entry point.  That was perfect for me.  I wasn’t tired but I was ready to head back.

Buz said he got quite the good work out.  He hadn’t paddled since we shot down the Shenandoah near  Front Royal twice in two days over Memorial Day weekend while camping out at a friend’s place on the river.  I can’t believe that it is that time already but we’ll be up there next weekend for the Labor Day festivities.

Kayaking on the Potomac River, Brunswick, MD 20090816

Posted on by chappyshi

I drove up to Brunswick, MD, to paddle on 16 August.  It is about a 45 mile drive and longer than I would normally drive for an afternoon paddle but I hadn’t paddled up there so I figured WTF, eh?  The river, though low, seemed to be running fairly well by my estimation.  It took me a good hour plus to get upstream a couple of miles.

I got up to a point where I could see Weverton Cliffs which is a vantage point on the Appalachian trail that I have hiked to from both the north and south.  The view from there to Harper’s Ferry and the junction of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers is awesome!

Bird Sightings

Posted on by chappyshi

I have not been doing much active “bird watching” recently though I always have my eyes and ears open for them.  While in Vermont last week I saw numerous Opreys and Great Blue Herons while kayaking and heard and saw numerous Red-winged Blackbirds and Goldfinches in general.  I’ve never seen so many Goldfinches as I did on that trip.

Anyhow, I had a couple of good sightings today on my walk which surprised me.  I saw a Downy Woodpecker and what I think was a Red-shouldered Hawk.  It was either that or a Cooper’s Hawk.  I was so surprised to see it I didn’t get the features down real well.  I should have been able to though since it was only about 25 feet away from me in a tree about 12 feet up.  I had it in view for about 10 seconds before it went deeper into the woods.

Paddling in Burke Lake Park

Posted on by chappyshi

I had a real nice paddle in Burke Lake a few weeks ago.  It was just an awesome day with perfect weather and not too many people on the water.  I did the circuit pulling all the way into all the little coves exploring and seeing wildlife.  Mostly all I saw were blue herons.  I’ll often see a green heron out there but didn’t see any this trip.

200905 Vacation in Salvo, NC.

Posted on by chappyshi

Thanks to my sister Kim and her husband Don, I got to spend last week in Salvo, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  We ate well: beef tenderloin, Caribbean Jerk chicken, bratwurst and hotdogs, Talapia with mango, habenero, and tequila sauce, Chicken Divan (an old family favorite), shrimp, and pizza.  We drank Margaritas, Pina Coladas, Mojitos, and beers, including a very good Bell’s Brewery IPA called Two Hearted Ale.

It was a pleasure to share the house with, at various times, Kim’s  ex-husband’s sons, Brian and A.J, and Brian’s wife Sarah as well  as AJ’s girlfriend Tina.  Kim’s ex-husband’s first wife,  Judy, who is a beach fanatic and the mother of Brian and AJ, joined us on Sunday and stayed the night.  That was good since she could be with her two sons for Mother’s Day.

I must say I enjoy the company of all  these people.  The relationships are very comfortable even though not blood  kin by any stretch.  I’ve known everyone for so long that the are like cousins, nieces, and nephews I never had.  I look forward to the time when my blood nephew Henry and niece Ava can hang out with us all.

The house was cool and within easy walking distance of the beach.  I must admit, that since it was early in the season, we didn’t spent too much time on the beach.  The house had a pool and a hot tub which we made good use of.  The water in the pool was a bit chilly but quite refreshing.  The ocean in contrast was much colder and rougher.  The waves and the undertow were intense.  Any time spent in the water would have involved a struggle and a swimsuit packed with sand.

We did bring the Cornhole  boards down and get some good action going.  Tina was very competitive.  She and Julie did their best to dominate the men but AJ and I were able to fairly consistently come out ahead.

I paddled twice in the Pea Island NWR.  That was okay, basically on the Pamlico Sound  side, but there were times when the water was just too shallow and I had to get out of my boot and wade to deeper water.  I had hoped to paddle twice at the Alligator NWR but worries about the weather kept me from going there for a second day.  And of course the weather was fine but by the time I saw that,  it  was too  late.

Overall, the weather was nice, and cool, enough that I slept out on the balconies for four nights!  That was good training for camping  out this holiday weekend at a friend’s  house on the Shenandoah River!

Creatures sighted include:

  • Great Blue Herons
  • Snowy Egrets
  • Great (American) Egrets
  • White Ibis
  • Red-winged Blackbirds
  • Scarlet Tanagers
  • Goldfinches
  • Ducks
  • Brown Pelicans
  • Laughing Gulls
  • Common Terns
  • Tri-colored Herons
  • Plover, Willets, etc?
  • Alligators

I am terrible at identifying shore birds so I can’t be too specific on many of the birds I saw.
Here is an alligator I spotted on Sawyer Lake in the Alligator River NWR.
Alligator from Sawyer Lake

There were hundreds of these butterfly’s feeding on these plants as I drove on the wildlife routes in the Alligator River NWR.

Monarch Butterflies?

Here I am at the end of Sawyer Lake starting my return trip…before I saw the alligator.

Sawyer Lake Water Trail

These are the remnants of a shipwreck on the beach right near our rental home.

One of the Many Shipwreck on the Outer Banks

These are White Ibis’s…many of which I saw in two paddles in the Pea Island NWR.

What I Think Is a Whte Ibis

Inertial Idiocy: Hummingbird in a Car Crash

Posted on by chappyshi

This is kind of a “canary in a coal mine” comparison.  If a hummingbird is in a hover when a car slows down drastically, might it hit the dashboard?  If your head might do so, why wouldn’t the hummingbird?

Some moron in a Washington Post automotive column called “Click and Clack” actually posed the question.  Read more here: “Click and Clack: A Real Humdinger.”  Basic physics should show that the bird, as well as your head, will  keep traveling forward no matter that the car is coming to a sudden stop.

Where Eagles Dare

Posted on by chappyshi

I had a nice time last weekend.  I went down to Suffolk, VA, to see my sister Kim and her husband Don.  Being with Kim and Don was relaxing.  The trip down and the trip back were not.  On the way down I was talking calls from a company that wanted to interview me.  I took the first call  while I was trying to eat lunch and pack to head to Suffolk.  I had little time to spare, if any, but ended up on the phone talking to the HR guy for about 20 minutes.

He said he wanted me to talk with the guy whose position I was interviewing for.  Come to find out I had a window of about two hours to talk to the guy before he left at 4:00 PM never to return.  I found this out on the road.  I scheduled it so I could get off the highway to take a leak and talk to the dude.  I thought that we have a fairly good chat.  The HR dude called me back and scheduled an interview for early Monday afternoon.  More on that in the near future.

Friday night Don was late getting home.  He has a horrific commute from home in Suffolk to work in Williamsburg.  Kim made ricotta cheese filled shells blessed with marinara sauce.   We went ahead and hate since Don was running very late.

Saturday afternoon Kim and I headed off to the Chesapeake Arboretum to walk a bit and hopefully see some interesting flora and fauna but it was not tOo exciting.  It is still early in the spring though.  En route, we stopped at a bead store right near the Arboretum.  Kim makes jewelry and such out of the beads.  I never realized how big this hobby could be.

That evening, I had my first “Blue-ray” movie experience.  Kim and Don had recently bought a 46″ LCD TV and Blue-ray player.  We watched the first Harry Potter movie.  I could definitely tell the difference between the Blue-ray and a regular DVD.  As Don said, it almost looks 3-dimensional!  Combine that with a nice 5.1 music/theater system and you’ll never need to go to the theater again.

On Sunday, we all drove down to look at Don’s  house which he has been trying to sell but has been embroiled in a lawsuit filed by his former fiance so he had to take the property off the market.  He forgot his house keys so we couldn’t see the inside of the house but it is on a large piece of property far out in the country south of Virginia beach.  It looked nice from the outside.  Of note, it looks like the lawsuit will be dismissed and legal fees paid for by the former fiance.  Hopefully they have good luck selling the place.

From Don’s house we drove to the Norfolk Botanical Garden.  Things were a bit slow there, like the Arboretum, due to the time of year.  It was still nice to get outside, stretch my legs, work the knee out, and get some pictures of the plants that were flowering.  Additionally, there was a pair of nesting eagles in the garden that had two chicks hatched, one that day, and another egg in waiting.  You could see mama eagle from an observation tower but mostly only her head.  The best way to view the action is from the Eagle Cam.  All three eggs have now hatched.

View of the Garden HQ from the garden

Norfolk Botanical Garden

A random flower picture

Random Flower

A few more flower pictures from the Garden