Touring Savannah: Ogeechee Canal

Several weeks back, our travels took us to the Savannah-Ogeechee Barge Canal. I guess it's a good thing that David shares my passion for all things historical. And if we got a little bird watching in, then that would be icing on the cake (Spoiler alert: no birds of note were spotted, which was disappointing).

The canal was constructed back in the 1820s and served as a channel to move lumber, cotton, and other wares through the Savannah area. You can read here for more information on the canal.

It wasn't the prettiest of days and after lots of rain, some of the trails weren't very accessible. However, we still got to see most of what the canal had to offer.

It was a very beautiful walk down by the canal. However, when we got to the end we hit a bit of a problem:

 The last little part of the trail that leads you to a viewing point of the Ogeechee River was underwater.

Here is David's sad face when we couldn't go get a good look.

However, we eventually found another trail that we could access the river.

We encountered some wildlife on our hike that I would have preferred not to.

This little guy about gave me a heart attack. He's just a red-bellied water snake and harmless, but still. I don't do snakes.

David spotted this frog just hanging out. I can handle him. The snake, not so much.

After exploring the canal, we wandered over to the gopher tortoise habitat.

We have these at my parent's house, and I've always loved these slow moving guys

He wouldn't come out of his hole, but we still got a little glimpse of him.

Well folks- that wraps up the riveting trip to the canal. We are making our way around Savannah, one park at a time!

Weekend Adventures: Birding at Pebble Hill Plantation

Due to popular demand- I have been asked to post about my recent birding adventures. Granted, I couldn't tell if the request was made sarcastically or not, but ask and you shall receive!

This weekend, David and I had the opportunity to join a group out at Pebble Hill Plantation for a birding tour led by Dr. Jim Cox from nearby Tall Timbers Research Station. Tall Timbers does extensive research on the Red Hills Region of SW Georgia/NW Florida concerning timber, land, and wildlife management. Dr. Cox studies the song birds of the region and the impacts of land management on them.

On to the event- it was so very interesting to learn about the birds that make the pinewoods their homes. We all gathered on Saturday morning. It was the perfect day and the sun was shining bright, I just wished it had been a smidge bit warmer.

All smiles as we loaded up on the wagon to begin!

The horse stables @ Pebble Hill

The first stop we made, was at the location of some Red-Cockaded Woodpecker trees. These woodpeckers prefer longleaf pine trees of at least 90+ years of age to nest in. Most pine forest these days are no longer long-leaf and are grown as tree farms and most don't go past 30 or so years of age. So, these woodpecker's habitat is quite small and why they are now endangered. However, Thomas County plantations have some of the oldest natural stands of long-leaf pines, so these special woodpeckers make their home here. If you are ever riding past a pine tree stand and see a metal or white ring around a big pine tree- that probably means that tree has been identified as a red-cockaded woodpecker home. Here's another tell-tell sign:

You can see the hole that is bore into the tree, but also all of the pine sap that has dripped down the tree as a result. It takes several years to excavate the cavity in the trees and these homes are usually passed down from generation to generation, if possible.

Sadly, we didn't spot one of these rare little guys, much to my disappointment. But we sure did call and look for one!

I told David to pose for me, but then decided that didn't look "birdy" enough.

Ahh- much better :-D

 

The real excitement was when we were able to catch and band a few wintering sparrows. The first little guy we were able to band was a Henslow's Sparrow. This was an exciting find, because they aren't commonly seen around!

He was caught using a mist net

Getting his band

Beak measurements taken

Beautiful little sparrow!

Jim explaining what scientist do with the data they collect from banding and how it helps them better understand these little guys.

 It was really interesting to learn how birds are banded and how they use that information. It made David want to get a mist net to catch little birds. It was fun! But we will leave that to the professionals for scientific purposes.

 

The second sparrow we were able to band was a Bachman's Sparrow.

This little guy's markings remind me of pine bark- which naturally is perfect

Measuring his wings
 

It was a great day and we really enjoyed learning all about the native (and wintering) species of birds in our area! I was able to add several new birds to my life list, which is always a plus!

 

 

Fun Discoveries

I guess I could write a post about what David and I did for Valentine's Day. But that would be about two sentences and not very interesting since we decided to boycott heart day this year. It  was a low-key weekend with my boys, just how I like it!

On Saturday, we went downtown just to get out and about some. All of the shops were having a sidewalk sale, so needless to say it was super busy. Um- dislike. It's good for the local businesses, but it makes shopping in those tiny shops a little troublesome. I have now lived in Thomasville for 7 years. In those 7 years, I have never been in the little antique shop A Different Drummer. I saw a commercial for this shop, and I was wondering where on earth it was downtown and how I could have missed it! So I dragged David down to go shop and for once, we both agreed that this shop was the bomb dot com.

A shop where they have a merganser on their bags? Obviously this place was going to be my jam. This shop specializes in vintage sports art. Mainly wooden decoys.

There were all kinds of sportsman treasures in there. Beautiful works of art, handcrafted furniture, wooden fishing lures, vintage hunting magazines. You name it- they had it. They also have the cutest garden out back. I have seen numerous pictures of this garden and never knew where in town it was. Now I know!

 

The birder in me of course was in love with all of this! I probably would have left with lots of goodies if I had the mind to! Click on the link above to check out much better pictures of this cute store.

I left with this hunting themed framed needlepoint.

It is now hanging up in my kitchen, that is quickly becoming my "plantation" room. My mother knew I had been wanting to start a collection of Spode Woodlands china, so for Christmas, she gifted me some plates.

All of the white plates are Lenox Butler's Pantry and all of the pewter pine cone serving pieces are from The Gift Shop located in downtown Thomasville. The pine cone wine glasses are from Kevin's Outdoors, also in Thomasville.
My sweet brother gifted me one of the prints that my parents had framed for his birthday.

We always had Springer Spaniels growing up, so this print was super special to me. He kept the German Shorthair Pointer picture, which was the other dogs we always had as well. So my new hunting picture I found fits right in!

Other than Valentine's Day, this weekend was also the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend. This is an annual event that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society does to gather important data on wild birds. It is to help gauge where bird populations are before spring migration. So of course, I had to get a little bird watching in so that I could do my part to help! We had plans to go down to St. Marks so that we could see some ducks and other water birds, but it was a bit too cold on Saturday for all of that. So we hung around the house.

We did go over to Cherokee Lake (which is a local public park) on a whim to see if maybe there were a few brave ducks out on the lake. We got quite the surprise! There were wood storks at the lake. Cherokee Lake is always packed with people, so I was shocked that those storks were just hanging out.  Wood Storks are an endangered species (although they may have been downgraded to just threatened) so it is usually considered rare to get a sighting of these birds. There were 6 of these guys up in the pine trees.

So that was a nice discovery this weekend! It was the first time I have ever been that close to one to get a good picture. We usually only see them flying. I also got to knock a new bird off my list while at the lake- this pretty white-eyed vireo.

It was a relaxing weekend spent with my sweetie with some fun, new discoveries! Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!



Homemade Suet

It's all about feeding the birds today, y'all! During these cold winter months, suet is where its at for several kinds of birds. Suet is basically a mixture of animal fat, cornmeal, flour and seeds/peanuts that many birds love. Because it is made of fat, it should only be fed during the cold winter months, as the fat can melt and get on the birds feathers causing some issues. Plus, the heat could made it go rancid very quickly.

My birds (and squirrels) were going gangbusters on my suet feeder, so I decided than rather buying the premade suet cakes, I could make my own. Thanks to my friend Google, I came across several recipes for homemade suet. It's also a great way to use up any ingredients that you need to purge from your pantry. Here's what I ended up with:

Homemade Suet:

• 2 cups tallow (I couldn't find any tallow, which is beef fat, so I ended up using lard, which is pork fat)
• 2 cups crunchy peanut butter
• 6 cups cornmeal (I ended up using cornmeal mix because that's what I had. It is a mixture of cornmeal and flour. Next time I will probably go with actual cornmeal to help the consistency)
• 1 cup flour
• 8 cups birdseed
• Dried Fruit (optional)

First, melt the lard and peanut butter in a double boiler or the microwave.

Gag....

After everything is nice and smooth, start mixing up the rest of the ingredients.

It was really funny mixing this suet up. It's not every day I cook with lard and/or birdseed! Ok, I've never cooked with birdseed.

Once everything is mixed, put it onto a pan and throw in the fridge to harden up.

I was going to be all fancy for the suet that I was taking to my office and cut out little Valentine Day suet cakes.

I even had red/pink/white string and everything to hang it with but that got nixed because my suet was a little too soft. Hence why all cornmeal would probably work better than the cornmeal mix.

Anyways, after your suet has hardened up just cut it up into rectangles and put in zip-lock bags. Store your suet in the freezer until ready to use. Below is a typical suet feeder.

Yellow-rumped Warbler enjoying some suet

The guys at Birdsong Nature Center have their suet in a cypress stump, which makes me want one really bad now.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-winged blackbird

So go ahead and make some homemade suet - your bird friends will thank you!

{ps -Stacey I can feel you rolling your eyes at the post while I am writing it. Enjoy!}