# INTERESTING DOINGS...



## oldguy

Red maples down the street in bloom the week before Christmas. Atamasco lilies, little wild white "Easter lilies" (early Spring bloomers) blooming in the yard now and have been all fall/winter. Been seeing spent yellow jessamine blossoms on the ground in the woods. Spend a lot of time driving through swamp land, hunting in and around swamp land fishing local waterways, and haven't seen a single hornets nest all year. Been several years now actually. Used to find a couple big pretty ones every year. Got some red salvia growing in pots planted in May still blooming. What y'all seeing in your out and abouts?


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## westcobbdog

Lows in the 50s this am point to that big storm system back to the west having the fuel it needs to fire up Sat afternoon. 
Nearly any green leaf within 4 ft of the ground has been eaten by now.


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## Gary Mercer

Got some cherry trees blooming around.  My Encore Azaleas are confused and are trying to set blooms.  Loquat trees are blooming.(Still)  Thought I saw a Scotch Broom blooming. (Forsythia)
And the Sand Hill Cranes haven't been seen or heard up here for over a week.
Same forecast as WestCobbdog.


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## oldways

Starting to see Japanese magnolia budding up and nothing really looks like the frost hurt it I'm thinking purty seriously about putting a few taters in the ground


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## Twiggbuster

I too saw the Jasmine yellow trumpets on the ground in deer woods last weekend.
Really startling to see color in what should be the bleakest time of year.


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## Swamprat

My fig trees are trying to bud out....worried about a freeze and it sets them back. Did it two years ago and not many figs. Last year was warm and I had a bumper crop.

Canna lilies are trying to sprout back up.


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## oldguy

We've been discovered this morning!
First gold finches of the season at the feeders.


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## Cmp1

Nothing blooming here,,,,? ? ? ?


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## oldguy

Seeing vaccinium (high bush blueberries) blossoms 'bout ready to open.
Next week temperature might put the quietus on that!


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## Crakajak

My Bermuda never went completely dormant  yet..Maybe next week.


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## Swamprat

Saw tadpoles in our little retention pond at work today.....tadpoles....mid January.

Noticed late 2018 going into this year I have seen butterflies in every month. You use to never see them in the winter.


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## creekrunner

This one was out today, you can bet snakes are out too, but calling for 20’s here next week


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## Swamprat

Have seen several turtles and snakes on the dirt roads the past few days, they will be in for a shock next week for sure.

Looks like we might get some high 20's for lows and low to mid 50's during the day here in NW FL next week as well.


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## oldguy

Just now (7:00 a.m.) sitting on the screen porch eating breakfast and waiting on the deer to come out, I saw movement on the ground out in front of me. Looked and low and behold it was a toad hopping along! It's been amphibian weather down here (SOWEGA) for a week or so - warm and wet "... I ain't seen the sunshine, in I don't know when..."


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## Nicodemus

oldguy said:


> Just now (7:00 a.m.) sitting on the screen porch eating breakfast and waiting on the deer to come out, I saw movement on the ground out in front of me. Looked and low and behold it was a toad hopping along! It's been amphibian weather down here (SOWEGA) for a week or so - warm and wet "... I ain't seen the sunshine, in I don't know when..."




I just came back inside right before that quick rain shower and had a couple of toad frogs hopping around. Not what you expect to see in January.


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## Cmp1

oldguy said:


> Just now (7:00 a.m.) sitting on the screen porch eating breakfast and waiting on the deer to come out, I saw movement on the ground out in front of me. Looked and low and behold it was a toad hopping along! It's been amphibian weather down here (SOWEGA) for a week or so - warm and wet "... I ain't seen the sunshine, in I don't know when..."


It's rare to see the sun up here in the tundra,in the winter,,,,


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## oldguy

Where's the tundra you speak of?


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## Gary Mercer

I'll bet the peach farmers are celebrating.  They had to be getting close to another early bloom disaster.  This cold should put a damper on that.


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## buckpasser

I mowed my yard yesterday. This is my first needed mowing for January in seventeen years here. As I mowed, I realized the St Augustine, Bermuda, and centipede were almost completely green. This morning my lawn looks great. For many years I killed my first turkey of the season within days of the first mowing. Speaking of that, turkeys are gobbling pretty good the past few mornings I’ve been out early, toad frogs are out, and armies of grasshoppers are flying out of my controlled burns. We need some cold to square things back up.


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## oldguy

buckpasser said:


> I mowed my yard yesterday. This is my first needed mowing for January in seventeen years here. As I mowed, I realized the St Augustine, Bermuda, and centipede were almost completely green. This morning my lawn looks great. For many years I killed my first turkey of the season within days of the first mowing. Speaking of that, turkeys are gobbling pretty good the past few mornings I’ve been out early, toad frogs are out, and armies of grasshoppers are flying out of my controlled burns. We need some cold to square things back up.


THIS AUGHTA' DO IT!


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## NCHillbilly

17 here this morning with a frigid wind and snow piling up on the ground. Back to reality.


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## Gary Mercer

Only green up here in NWGA is rye or Fescue.  Mine is a lovely shade of brown.
No need to get out the John Deere yet.


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## creekrunner

Got little dusting of pollen here in Coffee County


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## oldguy

creekrunner said:


> Got little dusting of pollen here in Coffee County


Friend in Mitchell County told me same thing yesterday!
Saw a crotalaria still blooming in Sumter County over the weekend. Next few days'll probably put a stop to that.
Flock of palm warblers landed right amongst us trappers skinning stuff at the GTA competition yesterday. Pretty little bird.


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## dwhee87

Was sitting in my deer stand in NE Paulding Co on the last day of the season, and the frogs were croaking in the creek behind me.


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## oldguy

Saw mayhaws blooming in two different spots while out checking traps this morning!


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## oldways

Dang the mayhaws did that same thing last year bloomed early.  I did mange to pick up a enough to make one batch...I better go check the swamp in the morning Thank you for the heads up


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## Nicodemus

About mid afternoon, as I was out at the barn I noticed a lone robin winging its way to the west. One solitary robin.


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## Gary Mercer

One is all it takes, Nic.
I've got daffodils blooming in sheltered parts of the yard. 
And, I too saw a robin yesterday on my walk with Jack, the Wonder Dog.


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## NCHillbilly

Nicodemus said:


> About mid afternoon, as I was out at the barn I noticed a lone robin winging its way to the west. One solitary robin.


A couple days ago, there was a flock of robins in the end of my driveway, not liking the snow.


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## oldguy

Don't know about timing but in Thomas County yesterday saw fields red with sour dock. Seems early to me.


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## Nicodemus

Mayhaws haven`t tried to bloom around the house here yet. There are 9 rice birds out there right now. I use to see them in flocks of a thousand or more.


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## Nicodemus

And there`s about a good mess of robins out there foraging around now.


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## Cmp1

Nicodemus said:


> And there`s about a good mess of robins out there foraging around now.


Nice,,,,


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## NCHillbilly

Nicodemus said:


> And there`s about a good mess of robins out there foraging around now.


Had a flock came through here Monday. They didn't look like they liked the snow much.


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## NCHillbilly

Nicodemus said:


> Mayhaws haven`t tried to bloom around the house here yet. There are 9 rice birds out there right now. I use to see them in flocks of a thousand or more.


What is a rice bird, Nic? A bobolink?


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## Nicodemus

NCHillbilly said:


> What is a rice bird, Nic? A bobolink?




It`s a cedar waxwing, here in South Georgia. Over in the Low Country where my Paternal ancestors are from, it is the bobolink. 

Interesting enough, I`ve never seen but two bobolinks in my life. Back in the early 1960s at the homeplace in Wheeler County. There were only 2 of them. It was during a really bad cold snap. Never seen one before or since.


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## NCHillbilly

Nicodemus said:


> It`s a cedar waxwing, here in South Georgia. Over in the Low Country where my Paternal ancestors are from, it is the bobolink.
> 
> Interesting enough, I`ve never seen but two bobolinks in my life. Back in the early 1960s at the homeplace in Wheeler County. There were only 2 of them. It was during a really bad cold snap. Never seen one before or since.


OK, gotcha. I don't reckon I've ever seen a bobolink. We've still got plenty of cedar waxwings here in the mountains. It's just about time for the big mixed flocks of waxwings and robins to start going around stripping all the holly berries.


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## trad bow

My flowering quince is blooming. Looking at the trees all the tip of limbs are starting to show color.


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## oldguy

On a wildlife zoology trip from UGA to Sapelo Island we were riding in the car with a hard core birder/ornithologist (this guy had a pad on the seat beside him and recorded every bird that flew across the road!). I asked him about bobolinks and shortly thereafter we saw flock beside the road. He stopped the car and let us get the binoculars on them. Don't remember seeing any since then, but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some in the big mixed flocks of "blackbirds" we see.
What your birds doing Nick? At a feeder or just hanging out?


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## Nicodemus

oldguy said:


> On a wildlife zoology trip from UGA to Sapelo Island we were riding in the car with a hard core birder/ornithologist (this guy had a pad on the seat beside him and recorded every bird that flew across the road!). I asked him about bobolinks and shortly thereafter we saw flock beside the road. He stopped the car and let us get the binoculars on them. Don't remember seeing any since then, but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some in the big mixed flocks of "blackbirds" we see.
> What your birds doing Nick? At a feeder or just hanging out?




Mostly loafing right now. I figure they`ll hit the feeder full of black oil sunflower seed a little later on. Feeding up before that rain hit later this evening.


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## oldguy

I spend a good bit of time in and around swamps, beaver ponds, flat ponds and other wet weather sites. In the past these have been fairly reliable places to see/collect hornets' nests. Been a few years since I've seen one. Is it just me or others seeing the same thing?


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## NCHillbilly

Plenty of hornet nests still around here. And yallerjackets by the trainloads.


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## Nicodemus

oldguy said:


> I spend a good bit of time in and around swamps, beaver ponds, flat ponds and other wet weather sites. In the past these have been fairly reliable places to see/collect hornets' nests. Been a few years since I've seen one. Is it just me or others seeing the same thing?




Last one I saw was in 2008. They used to be everywhere, and I would collect one ever once in a while. I wonder if all the spraying insecticides nowadays has something to do with it? I know it`s hurt the resident wild honeybees.


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## oldguy

Nicodemus said:


> Last one I saw was in 2008. They used to be everywhere, and I would collect one ever once in a while. I wonder if all the spraying insecticides nowadays has something to do with it? I know it`s hurt the resident wild honeybees.


I was thinking about it today and wondered if maybe the spraying didn't kill the hornets out right but killed off the larvae (caterpillars) that they fed their young. Don't reckon we'll ever know. What's a hornet anyhow? Don't you hate it when folks ask what good is an organism? Most of them or their ancestors have been on the Earth way longer than humans. Might as well ask "What good are humans?"!
Saw a plum bush blooming at our place in Terrell County while ago.


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## au7126

Nicodemus said:


> About mid afternoon, as I was out at the barn I noticed a lone robin winging its way to the west. One solitary robin.


Have a yard full of big Robins last couple weeks, Never saw them this early


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## Nicodemus

au7126 said:


> Have a yard full of big Robins last couple weeks, Never saw them this early




They`ve started piling in around here in the last day or so. They are some good eating. Or used to be.


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## DSGB

oldguy said:


> I spend a good bit of time in and around swamps, beaver ponds, flat ponds and other wet weather sites. In the past these have been fairly reliable places to see/collect hornets' nests. Been a few years since I've seen one. Is it just me or others seeing the same thing?



There's one in a field I pass on my way to some property I hunt about 20 minutes from the house. It's only about 3-4 feet off the ground in a little clump of saplings.


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## oldguy

Well today I checked an old peach tree at our place in upper Terrell County to see if the buds were swelling. Heck the thing is blooming! Then on the way home in Sasser I saw an old timey pear (sand pear I think) in full bloom.


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## Gary Mercer

Cherry trees are blooming, and the daffodils are too.
Now we need to get the fish biting, and life will be good again.


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## oldguy

Gary Mercer said:


> Cherry trees are blooming, and the daffodils are too.
> Now we need to get the fish biting, and life will be good again.


Got a new fly rod for Christmas. Many more day in the 70s gonna' have me looking for some warm shallow water!


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## Swamprat

This time of year I would see a few dozen or so robins in a flock, this year have just see a couple birds or just a single bird.

Daffodils are close to putting on a flower.


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## oldguy

Looks like Spring time around all the old home places around the country with all the daffodils blooming!


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## NCHillbilly

The skunk rut is in full swing here now. Having to dodge two or three every morning coming out before daylight. They're laying all over the roads.


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## fishfryer

I heard some Sandhill Cranes Monday,never did see them,or the direction they were headed.


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## oldguy

Yesterday saw whole mayhaw ponds in full bloom. One I planted on the high ground in NW Terrell county starting to open. Picked a handfull of King Alfred daffodils for the missus. Farmers running harrows and sub-soilers - dirt smelt good!


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## oldguy

If we get the rain they're calling for might hear spade foots tonight! I hope so.


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## oldguy

Just pulled out some old journals to look at Feb. 6 in years past.
Here's what I found.
'02 40s rain'
'04 40s rain
'06 30 & clear
'14 35 & clear
'15 30 & clear
'17 51 & partly cloudy
Today 73 & cloudy

In '06 made a note that the King Alfred daffodils were blooming in the yard.

Anybody else got any thing?


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## fishfryer

I just planted a few pecan trees yesterday,I'm pretty sure they liked that 1.8 inches of rain we got last night.


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## oldguy

3"+ rainfall so far today. The spade foots are cranking up in the wet weather pond South of the house!


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## NCHillbilly

About time for the wood frogs to start breeding here.


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## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> About time for the wood frogs to start breeding here.


Yep, here too. There's a ditch at our "farm" (46 acres) that holds water. It had dried up before yesterday. 45 this morning but when it warms up a bit there'll probably be a chorus!


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## fishfryer

Along with the 1.8 inches yesterday,I poured out 2.35 inches this morning. Those trees should be good for a couple of days.


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## oldguy

fishfryer said:


> Along with the 1.8 inches yesterday,I poured out 2.35 inches this morning. Those trees should be good for a couple of days.


Yep, watered in good!


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## Nicodemus

Carolina wrens are checking out nesting spots. Don`t leave your boots outside.


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## fishfryer

Nicodemus said:


> Carolina wrens are checking out nesting spots. Don`t leave your boots outside.


My bride reported one this morning with green twig in it's mouth.


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## oldguy

Checked out an old mail-box that I put on the side of my storage shed. Got a three-quarters finishe nest in it! Wrens are easy to satisfy, they use it every year. Sitting on the screen porch right now and there's a bluebird calling. Started 4 new boxes yesterday to put on local WMAs. A way of giving back to places I get so much enjoyment out of.


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## oldguy

Red buds a'blooming, buckeye leaves open, and marsh marigold blooming, No sheds found but did find some shed winter hair (deer).


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## Gary Mercer

Japanese cherries and tulip trees are blooming.  IF the rain would stop, we might catch a fish or two.


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## oldguy

Gary Mercer said:


> Japanese cherries and tulip trees are blooming.  IF the rain would stop, we might catch a fish or two.


"How high's the water Mama? Said it's 5 feet high and rising."
"Looks like we'll be blessed with a little more rain..." 
                                                                      Johnny Cash


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## oldguy

Big flock of sandhill cranes over the house about 5:30pm yesterday. Heading north. Love to hear that call!


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## Gary Mercer

Hey Oldguy, my Sandhills are flying East.  You think they are headed to some kind of flyway near the coast?  Or are they just trying to confuse this old guy?
A number of large flocks, one was at least 50+ birds.  Love that sound in the Spring.  (Not so much in the Fall.)


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## oldguy

No telling what them long necked critters 'er up too.
You ever see one do the mating dance? Saw one at the local zoo. Pick up a stick in his mouth. Hop up off the ground. Spread his wings. Bow. Very intertaining. He was all by himself, no female to impress!


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## fishfryer

I'm still looking for Purple Martin scouts here. This is the latest in over 40 years of having Martins that they've arrived. The Purple Martin Conservation people's scouting report for Georgia shows them all around,I saw some yesterday at Kathleen,but not here. Hopeful they'll arrive when the rains clear out.


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## oldguy

fishfryer said:


> I'm still looking for Purple Martin scouts here. This is the latest in over 40 years of having Martins that they've arrived. The Purple Martin Conservation people's scouting report for Georgia shows them all around,I saw some yesterday at Kathleen,but not here. Hopeful they'll arrive when the rains clear out.


Keep us posted.


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## Gary Mercer

Dang, everything is starting to bloom.  My tulip trees are in full bloom, and Forsythia, Quince, Cherries are all showing out.
Got my first red wing blackbirds yesterday.  Pretty birds, but will eat you out of house and home.


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## westcobbdog

NCHillbilly said:


> About time for the wood frogs to start breeding here.


If those are what make a racket at night near water they are crazy loud this year with all the water.

Guessing the bugs are about to come out with a vengeance, too.


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## Gary Mercer

What's a "Wood Frog??"
Is that what we call tree frogs?


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## NCHillbilly

Gary Mercer said:


> What's a "Wood Frog??"
> Is that what we call tree frogs?


No. They are medium-sized  brown frogs that live out in the woods. You usually only see them when they are breeding in late winter.


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## NCHillbilly

Two firsts for the year here today:

The red-winged blackbirds came back.

Peep frogs (spring peepers) are hollering. It's supposed to snow tomorrow night.


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## oldways

Suppose to get cold down here too I got taters out of the ground they might get nipped.


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## oldguy

Checked the wren nest this morning. Mama wren flew out but no eggs yet.


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## NCHillbilly

It'll be about a month and a half before I see any wren nests here. It was 24* with two inches of snow. I was in 4wd on the interstate going to work.


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## Geno67

Pretty sure the wrens are nesting here. I have seen a pair in the yard but not the nest yet. I always put a little box or gourd out for them but they never use it. I'll find the nest when I'm cleaning something out and spook them all over the place I'm sure.


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## Geno67

I did get me a wireless bluetooth speaker that connects to the laptop inside to play the purple martin dawn song on a 6 hour loop starting at 4 in the AM. It works real nice. Someone either wandered off with the old boom box I was using last year or put it up for me in a good place.

I have bluebirds nested under my neighbors porch awning and that's about it. They use my gourd rack to hunt off of - whew - I was worried they might try to take the gourds over again. Hard to get them to take to something else when they get their mind set on it.

Have not seen a tree swallow or a barn swallow yet. Usually see both before the spring gets going good.


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## oldguy

Geno67 said:


> I did get me a wireless bluetooth speaker that connects to the laptop inside to play the purple martin dawn song on a 6 hour loop starting at 4 in the AM. It works real nice. Someone either wandered off with the old boom box I was using last year or put it up for me in a good place.
> 
> I have bluebirds nested under my neighbors porch awning and that's about it. They use my gourd rack to hunt off of - whew - I was worried they might try to take the gourds over again. Hard to get them to take to something else when they get their mind set on it.
> 
> Have not seen a tree swallow or a barn swallow yet. Usually see both before the spring gets going good.


I asked a landowner one time about putting a blue bird house on his fence post. He said OK but not up near the house as he had martin gourds and a male bb wouldn't let the martins use them! He shot the bb so the martins could nest in piece.
Watched two male bb fight over a box once - I thought they were going to kill each other! Like a couple of game roosters wallowing around on the ground, I broke up the fight before somebody got hurt. Viscious little buggers
I've seen a few bb checking out boxes but doubt there's any nesting going on yet. Let the cold get past and warm weather serttle in and they'll get busy.


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## Geno67

Not only will they fight like Mike Tyson with the martins (and each other), they're real hard to evict. You have to take the martin set down and put up other housing and then they may leave it and return to the martin set as soon as you reopen it. The only way to be sure is wait for an egg in the other housing and then it's too late for martins.

Just closing off the entrances will not work - they'll sit in front of it and defend it like it's their house. LOL


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## oldguy

Geno67 said:


> Not only will they fight like Mike Tyson with the martins (and each other), they're real hard to evict. You have to take the martin set down and put up other housing and then they may leave it and return to the martin set as soon as you reopen it. The only way to be sure is wait for an egg in the other housing and then it's too late for martins.
> 
> Just closing off the entrances will not work - they'll sit in front of it and defend it like it's their house. LOL


We live in the woods and have never had martins but we do get blue birds.
I enjoy building and putting up bb houses all over the place. Put up 2 new ones today. That makes 7 so far this year. Got about that many more spots that need houses. The local Audubon Society has Dougherty County about covered but there's lots of blank spots around. I tell folks if there were enough bb houses bb would be as common as sparrows.


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## NCHillbilly

We have wuite a few bluebirds here, but I don't think I've ever seen a purple martin.


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## Geno67

Surely you've seen a martin out somewhere else. They like open spaces so if you're in the woods, they won't be around. They swoop and dart and fly around catching bugs all day. They're all over the lake/big pond banks.



oldguy said:


> I tell folks if there were enough bb houses bb would be as common as sparrows.



The bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters too so they have to find suitable housing to nest/lay/fledge and they can't excavate their own hole.


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## NCHillbilly

Huge flocks of cedar waxwings coming through here this morning stripping all the berries off the holly trees.


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## Nicodemus

Mayhaw trees are starting to bloom around here. That 27 degrees this morning might have bit them some though. Saw some Carolina jessamine blooming in the Kinchafoonee swamp yesterday. 

Also, took a severe cussing from a hen wren yesterday who is gonna take over the green house as her own nursery for a while, it seems.


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## oldways

Yep I saw mayhaws cranking up around here and dewberries blooming even saw a Cherokee rose blooming coming out of Thomasville yesterday


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## oldguy

oldways said:


> Yep I saw mayhaws cranking up around here and dewberries blooming even saw a Cherokee rose blooming coming out of Thomasville yesterday


Yep, same things around here as well. I don't think I've ever seen yellow jessamine blooming so prefusely and for what seems like such a long period. First mentioned it in op 20 January.
Roaming in the booger swamp Wednesday I came across what I think were a couple of Carolina Silverbells (Halesia carolina). One had just one flower, which is what attracted my attention. Will take the book and go back for a closer look.
Saw a purple grackle on the feeder awhile ago - first of  the year.
Still no eggs in the wren nest yet.
Four bucks out back well before dark yesterday evening. Antlers as white a bleached bone.


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## Gary Mercer

My house bucks here in Peachtree City don't know it is time to shed.  That big twelve is still in "full horn."
My azaleas are trying to bloom in the shelter of the big oak and the Camellia bushes.
And my nose was running this afternoon in the yard.
What in the world is going on??


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## oldguy

Gary Mercer said:


> My house bucks here in Peachtree City don't know it is time to shed.  That big twelve is still in "full horn."
> My azaleas are trying to bloom in the shelter of the big oak and the Camellia bushes.
> And my nose was running this afternoon in the yard.
> What in the world is going on??


The Solstice is just around the corner!


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## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> I asked a landowner one time about putting a blue bird house on his fence post. He said OK but not up near the house as he had martin gourds and a male bb wouldn't let the martins use them! He shot the bb so the martins could nest in piece.
> Watched two male bb fight over a box once - I thought they were going to kill each other! Like a couple of game roosters wallowing around on the ground, I broke up the fight before somebody got hurt. Viscious little buggers
> I've seen a few bb checking out boxes but doubt there's any nesting going on yet. Let the cold get past and warm weather serttle in and they'll get busy.


The part about shooting a bluebird so that Martins could nest,We have bluebird nest all over our property,sometimes I see 8 or 10 lined up on the fence. We have had a 96 gourd Martin colony for many years no problem between the two birds,starlings and sparrows,different story.


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## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> Roaming in the booger swamp Wednesday I came across what I think were a couple of Carolina Silverbells (Halesia carolina). One had just one flower, which is what attracted my attention.


Could also be Halesia diptera (two-winged silverbell.)

Our second snow of the week here this morning. About 2" more overnight and still snowing, in the 20s with a brisk north wind. Barely got above freezing yesterday. Good morning to stay in and watch the swarms of birds at the feeder.


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## oldguy

oldguy said:


> The Solstice is just around the corner!


Whoa! I didn't mean Solstice -I meant Equinox. Equinox! The Equinox is just around the corner!


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## fishfryer

oldways said:


> Suppose to get cold down here too I got taters out of the ground they might get nipped.


Pinestraw,wheatstraw,hay,old blankets,feed sacks,etc. etc.


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## Geno67

*https://www.outdooralabama.com/flycatchers-shrikes-and-vireos/eastern-phoebe*
Our Eastern Phoebe showed up today and went right back to the light fixture she used last year. She is roosting on it now. I had to take her nest down to change a light so she'll have to build again. All this time I've been calling her a gnat catcher. I learned a new species today when I looked her up.


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## oldguy

Woods full of atamasco lilies. Dogwoods on the verge of blooming. Fixing to be a pretty time of year around here!
On the way back and to Camp LeJune in the late 60s and early 70s we used to pass through Frances Marrion NF. In the spring the dogwoods would be blooming in the wiregrass under the longleaf pine. Beautiful sight/memory. Dang hurricane wrecked it all in the late 80s early 90s I believe. Ma Nature rearranging the furniture...


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## oldguy

Keep forgetting to mention the blackhaw viburnum is in full bloom in the woods. I see the Indian pink I potted last year is leafing out too.


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## oldguy

While I was putting up a blue bird house this afternoon I was also talking to a friend on the phone. He informed me that he already had blue birds in the house in his back yard! I thought it was mighty early but left there and checked a house a mile or so away - news nest. Checked two more in the neighborhood and one of them already had a new nest in it. Seems some are are getting an early start.


----------



## Nicodemus

Bluebirds have been doing home inspections on my boxes over the last few days. The boss wren is still fussing, cussing, and letting me know where I stand in the scheme of things, turkeys are gobbling in the swamp, and life around here is going well.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Wow, it's mid-late April until the dogwoods bloom here. The red-winged blackbirds have been paying me back for the birdseed with some fine singing this afternoon.


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> Wow, it's mid-late April until the dogwoods bloom here. The red-winged blackbirds have been paying me back for the birdseed with some fine singing this afternoon.


Well the dogwoods ARE blooming here!


----------



## oldways

fishfryer said:


> Pinestraw,wheatstraw,hay,old blankets,feed sacks,etc. etc.


Yes sir I strawed them they did fine


----------



## Nicodemus

I wrote this for a young man who is doing research on the old ways of the past in the lower South. One of the many tales told to me by my Elders when I was a youngun. Plus, I wanted to put it in print since I seem to be getting forgetful, especially so in the last year or two.


Daddy said that there were a lot more robins back then than there are now. This time if the year he said the flocks of robins would number in the thousands. They would roost in the bay down below the house where it dropped off into the swamp. They would cut long limber switches, fuel up the lantern, and make lighter`d knot torches, and croker sacks to put the birds in. They`d do this on the dark of the moon nights. After dark they`d ease down into the bay, light up the lantern and torches, and commence to knocking robins off the roost. The younguns would grab em soon as they hit the ground, finish em off if they were still alive, and sack em up. They`d get birds by the croker sack fulls. Since it was generally cold, the birds could be stored for a while, what wasn`t eaten in the next few days. Daddy would also use some for trap bait, for coons and possums. He said he`d even catch an otter from time to time using them for bait. This wasn`t hunting, so to speak. More like gathering, and the method was called "thrashing" . Not sporting, but you did what needed to be done in those days to put food on the table. I`ve read that this same practice was used to procure passenger pigeons back in their heyday. I myself remember when Mama would make bird pies from whatever kinds of birds I brought in, when I was youngun. It was a another, different world back then.


----------



## fishfryer

Nicodemus said:


> I wrote this for a young man who is doing research on the old ways of the past in the lower South. One of the many tales told to me by my Elders when I was a youngun. Plus, I wanted to put it in print since I seem to be getting forgetful, especially so in the last year or two.
> 
> 
> Daddy said that there were a lot more robins back then than there are now. This time if the year he said the flocks of robins would number in the thousands. They would roost in the bay down below the house where it dropped off into the swamp. They would cut long limber switches, fuel up the lantern, and make lighter`d knot torches, and croker sacks to put the birds in. They`d do this on the dark of the moon nights. After dark they`d ease down into the bay, light up the lantern and torches, and commence to knocking robins off the roost. The younguns would grab em soon as they hit the ground, finish em off if they were still alive, and sack em up. They`d get birds by the croker sack fulls. Since it was generally cold, the birds could be stored for a while, what wasn`t eaten in the next few days. Daddy would also use some for trap bait, for coons and possums. He said he`d even catch an otter from time to time using them for bait. This wasn`t hunting, so to speak. More like gathering, and the method was called "thrashing" . Not sporting, but you did what needed to be done in those days to put food on the table. I`ve read that this same practice was used to procure passenger pigeons back in their heyday. I myself remember when Mama would make bird pies from whatever kinds of birds I brought in, when I was youngun. It was a another, different world back then.


This narration is probably true throughout the states of the old confederacy. Subsistence farmers/sharecroppers used any resource they had to stay alive. I get mad and disgusted sometimes when I watch Antigue Roadshow, the contrast between what we had and what the north had in the late 1800s,is startling. Reconsruction was a terrible retribution on the Southern people.


----------



## oldways

I have often wondered what kind of chaos there would be if folks had too go back to living off the land and feeding there families out of the woods and garden. We live in a very wasteful world.


----------



## Nicodemus

oldways said:


> I have often wondered what kind of chaos there would be if folks had too go back to living off the land and feeding there families out of the woods and garden. We live in a very wasteful world.




Some of us would be just fine.


----------



## oldways

Yes sir I still live off the land as much as possible but I do enjoy store bought toilet paper..


----------



## NCHillbilly

I can remember grandpa and grandma talk about making and eating snowbird (junco) gravy a lot when they were growing up.


----------



## NCHillbilly

50* and drizzling here tonight. The spring peepers are serenading me.


----------



## trad bow

Growing up we called robins “redbreast”. Ate more than my share. I grew up in a rural area that did not have many people living there in the sixties. At ten years old I would camp out by myself and lots of times I’d have a half dozen robins precooked by mama along with a couple biscuits and two pieces of fat back. Them were good times.


----------



## oldguy

trad bow said:


> Growing up we called robins “redbreast”. Ate more than my share. I grew up in a rural area that did not have many people living there in the sixties. At ten years old I would camp out by myself and lots of times I’d have a half dozen robins precooked by mama along with a couple biscuits and two pieces of fat back. Them were good times.


Man, I like the sound of that!


----------



## oldguy

Any you fellars from the 50s & 60s have rock or dirt clod wars? We had a little compound of "fox holes" with connecting tunnels in a vacant lot called it "Rebel City". Had a home made flag and everything. Planted a big sturdy chinaberry fork in the ground and tied on innertube rubber. Could heave brick bats with that thing! 50s & 60s were the time to be alive. .Feel sorry for any kid ain't never dug a fox hole.
Every time I see a classmate of mine from school she recollects how my brother and I went barefoot to school - right up through 6th grade. Can you imagine a kid showing up barefoot for school now? I still go bearfoot more times than not.
Here's something else from that era you don't see anymore, those big red ants that made low mounds in the sandy soil. Could sting/bite the living daylights out of you! And another thing 6-lined race-runners. Our vacant lot got paved over and a bank built. Then torn down and replaced by some other modern "convenience". Reckon that's what happened to our ants, race-runners, robin flocks, cedar wax-wing flocks - the buffalo and the Indians...


----------



## oldways

Yes sir it ain't same world we grew up in me and brother rambled all over the woods growing up as long as the chores were done. we had cow patty wars you had to be careful not to get one that was still green..


----------



## trad bow

Dirt clods, cow patties and corn cob wars. The one thing that hurt the worst was sweet taters. As the ten thru thirteen age period of my life I had the fortune of being sent south to help uncles harvest sweet taters. After field was picked us kids were turned loose to pick up what we could and sell. Not much money in that as we spent most of the time chunking taters at each other. Man them thangs HURT. Green plums and chinaberries out of a sling shot could be bad for you if the other kid knew how to shoot


----------



## oldguy

trad bow said:


> Dirt clods, cow patties and corn cob wars. The one thing that hurt the worst was sweet taters. As the ten thru thirteen age period of my life I had the fortune of being sent south to help uncles harvest sweet taters. After field was picked us kids were turned loose to pick up what we could and sell. Not much money in that as we spent most of the time chunking taters at each other. Man them thangs HURT. Green plums and chinaberries out of a sling shot could be bad for you if the other kid knew how to shoot


WOW! Sweet tater upside your head- that's gotta' hurt!


----------



## oldguy

Oh, yeah we had close up fighting throwing sand spurs - OUCH!


----------



## oldways

yes sir sand spurs will stick. I can remember when I was a kid making a gun out of about anything. And counting my shotgun shells at night those were prized possessions we didn't waste shotgun shells.


----------



## Nicodemus

Don`t forget green pine burrs. Those longleaf burrs were heavy artillery.


----------



## Gary Mercer

In the early sixties, I was digging fox holes in a far off place....
Just sayin......


----------



## trad bow

Gary Mercer said:


> In the early sixties, I was digging fox holes in a far off place....
> Just sayin......


And I thank you for your service Sir.


----------



## oldguy

Gary Mercer said:


> In the early sixties, I was digging fox holes in a far off place....
> Just sayin......


Yeah I know. Me too. I was thinking about that as  I posted. Maybe early training? Those in a "far off place" weren't near as much fun as those in the vacant lot!


----------



## oldguy

Nicodemus said:


> Don`t forget green pine burrs. Those longleaf burrs were heavy artillery.


Sweet taters and green LL burs - heavey artilllery sure enough!


----------



## oldguy

oldways said:


> yes sir sand spurs will stick. I can remember when I was a kid making a gun out of about anything. And counting my shotgun shells at night those were prized possessions we didn't waste shotgun shells.


I can remember counting 'em too, and actually feeling good about having near a whole box left .... at the end of the season!


----------



## Nicodemus

Yellow hammers are still here, and rice birds are passing through headed north. One lone robin out there taking a bath in one of my new high water ponds.


----------



## oldguy

Nicodemus said:


> Yellow hammers are still here, and rice birds are passing through headed north. One lone robin out there taking a bath in one of my new high water ponds.


Hey Nick, my towhee just said to tell you.... tow- HEE!
Pretty bird he is.


----------



## Gary Mercer

I have what looks to be a pair of Towhees that showed up near  my feeder yesterday.


----------



## NCHillbilly

I was sitting on the porch this morning watching snowflakes blowing around and heard a turkey gobble over on the ridge. 
Winter weather advisory here for tonight again. I'm headed south this afternoon, looking forward to seeing some springtime.


----------



## oldways

water in the woods is high but the weather is purty today and warming up if garden will dry out enough for me to stand up on I'll get my green beans and some sweet corn in the ground maybe few yellow squash...


----------



## oldguy

Saw whisteria (Asian non-native invasive) blooming today, first. Squaw root peeking up above the leaf litter. Snow white drifts of atamasco lilies all out through the woods. Poison ivy greening up. Swamp maple blooming. Buck-eye will be blooming (open) next week. Several grackles in the yard.


----------



## Jrpc16

Here in wc fl saw my first swallow tailed kite and noticed that the Parula  warblers are starting to show


----------



## NE GA Pappy

Nicodemus said:


> Don`t forget green pine burrs. Those longleaf burrs were heavy artillery.



and they hurt your hands nearly as bad throwing them as they did when they hit you


----------



## oldguy

Jrpc16 said:


> Here in wc fl saw my first swallow tailed kite and noticed that the Parula  warblers are starting to show


The Parulas will likely pass through here. The swallow tail kites will probably stop short.


----------



## oldguy

Picked up a shed at the corn trough out back! First in 20 years of feeding! Thank you Mr. Buck.
 Went for a short ramble saw buckeye already blooming, squaw root up (first of the year). Saw where deer had been browsing cherry laurel heavily. Guess new leaves aren't toxic. Beautiful sunny but cool and breezy morning.


----------



## Nicodemus

Right down from the house the mayhaws have as fine a crop of blooms as I`ve seen ever. Might have to make some jelly again this year.


----------



## Gary Mercer

Let me know when the jelly is ready, Nic


----------



## oldguy

Sawtooth oak in back yard covered up with blooms!!


----------



## westcobbdog

Dont miss my backyard I just moved from, had 3 big sawtooth's along my fence that rained acorns onto bermuda grass prolifically, plus the leaves aren't easy to rake either.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Yellow jessimine starting to bloom here halfway down the SC/GA line.


----------



## Nicodemus

The usual crows are making a nest just about where they had one last year, and the year before. Might not be the same crows, but they building this years nest right where the others have been. Fun to watch when they trying to be so sneaky about it.


----------



## oldguy

I forgot to mention Jack-in -the Pulpit up in the woods yesterday.
Nick I thought crows were so sneaky about their nesting they wouldn't let you see where they put it! Pretty lucky to be able to see that. All the mayhaw ponds sure are pretty like you say.


----------



## Nicodemus

oldguy said:


> I forgot to mention Jack-in -the Pulpit up in the woods yesterday.
> Nick I thought crows were so sneaky about their nesting they wouldn't let you see where they put it! Pretty lucky to be able to see that. All the mayhaw ponds sure are pretty like you say.




They are sneaky, big time. Yesterday was purely comical. I was out at the barn piddlin` around when I saw a crow coming across the field with a stick in its beak. As soon as it cleared my patch of longleafs, headed to my neighbor`s pine patch, I stepped out so it could see me. that crow immediately made a hard left turn and lit in the top of one of my longleafs. It then cocked its head and started watching me. I stayed out in the open, still piddling around, but every few seconds I`d look it dead in the eye. Distance was about 40 yards or so, and we could see each other good. For a good ten minutes this went on. Finally I stepped back in the barn and hid behind my big boat where it couldn`t see me but I could see it. after about a minute, that crow flew and went straight to where I expected, planted that stick in the nest like it wanted, and took off in search of more nesting material. 

It`s a lot of fun to mess with them varmints like this. Little things amuse little minds, I reckon.


----------



## fishfryer

That Coopers hawk got my yard Mockingbird yesterday.


----------



## Big7

oldguy said:


> We've been discovered this morning!
> First gold finches of the season at the feeders.


Fast forward to March. We are covered up with finch- a bunch of different finches.

Robin Redbrest are flat wearing out some earthworms in the "new" grass regrowth.

And.. Should have got more than I did with season still in through February- squirrels are tearing us up. Boss Hen keeps he Nissan in the garage, my truck is either inside the fence or in the driveway. Starting to get a little concerned about wires and hoses.

Fixing to put out some tomato and pepper plants. I'm sure the Mockingbirds will love those tomatoes. Might even put a few select plants inside the unused dog pen with a net on top..

I love springtime. Every plant and animal are in high gear this time of year !!!?


----------



## Gary Mercer

Big flock of Sandhils just went over, headed the other way.  Maybe they're confused by the time change.


----------



## Nicodemus

Gary Mercer said:


> Big flock of Sandhils just went over, headed the other way.  Maybe they're confused by the time change.




Mr. Gary, some sandhills nest and raise their brood in Florida now.


----------



## oldguy

Coming back from down in Baker County awhile ago almost had to stop for a doe that wandered out and stood in my lane. Watched as she ran off the right hand side of the road with several other deer. One was a buck with both antlers. Looked back on the other side of the road three or four more were running back the way they had come. At least one of those was a buck still holding.
Beautiful moon this evening!
Sorry 'bout your mockbird Fishfryer. Everybody gotta' eat. 'nother mocker'll be along directly to take his place.
Nick playing games with a crow. Now that's funny!
Critters can sure be entertaining.


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> Coming back from down in Baker County awhile ago almost had to stop for a doe that wandered out and stood in my lane. Watched as she ran off the right hand side of the road with several other deer. One was a buck with both antlers. Looked back on the other side of the road three or four more were running back the way they had come. At least one of those was a buck still holding.
> Beautiful moon this evening!
> Sorry 'bout your mockbird Fishfryer. Everybody gotta' eat. 'nother mocker'll be along directly to take his place.
> Nick playing games with a crow. Now that's funny!
> Critters can sure be entertaining.


Thanks for the deer report and for the thought about the Mockingbird. You are correct about the Mocker,another will take his place,and just maybe the new one won't leave his droppings on the gate opener,the rain guage,etc etc.


----------



## Gary Mercer

Nic, these Sandhills seemed to be heading up the dirty side. (North)


----------



## oldguy

Big7 said:


> Fast forward to March. We are covered up with finch- a bunch of different finches.
> 
> Robin Redbrest are flat wearing out some earthworms in the "new" grass regrowth.
> 
> And.. Should have got more than I did with season still in through February- squirrels are tearing us up. Boss Hen keeps he Nissan in the garage, my truck is either inside the fence or in the driveway. Starting to get a little concerned about wires and hoses.
> 
> Fixing to put out some tomato and pepper plants. I'm sure the Mockingbirds will love those tomatoes. Might even put a few select plants inside the unused dog pen with a net on top..
> 
> I love springtime. Every plant and animal are in high gear this time of year !!!?


And unlike you action at my feeders has greatly deminished. Mostly regular locals feeding  these days. Only new birds are three or four purple grackles. Towhee has returned and actually visits the feeder from time to time. Several blue bird houses have new nests in them and others have eggs. Most are unoccupied.


----------



## Nicodemus

Horse guards (carpenter bees) are back, staking territory and drilling holes.


----------



## fishfryer

Nicodemus said:


> Horse guards (carpenter bees) are back, staking territory and drilling holes.


Wish I could go back in time to my avatar picture and see chimney sweeps around that house again.


----------



## Nicodemus

fishfryer said:


> Wish I could go back in time to my avatar picture and see chimney sweeps around that house again.




There will be a couple around here every evening through the summer, but not anything like the numbers were when we were younguns.


----------



## oldways

I noticed carpenter bees out and bout around the barn


----------



## oldguy

Yeah I saw carpenter bees a couple of days ago too. Have lived in houses with chimmney sweeps in the chimmney. I liked it.
Poke weed is up about a foot and the American beauty berry is starting to leaf out. Two very good berry producers for the birds. Throw a handful of 10-10-10 around American beauty berry and stand back! It'll rival "Jack and the Bean Stalk"! L-O-T-S of berries too.
Saw a sign at an allergy clinic "Happy Pollen Season"!


----------



## oldways

yep the pollen is in full swing I told the wife this morning her car is yeller for a while. I think I'm going to set out some maters this weekend weather is lookin purty good..Shouldn't be long the bream and shellcrackers will be getting to bed.


----------



## Geno67

Our Eastern Phoebe decided to build her nest right on top of one of the light bulbs instead of on the fixture this year. Had to leave the light on for several hours to let it get as warm as it was going to and then climb all the way to the top of a 22' extension ladder to check on the heat generated. It's the perfect temp to help her incubate her eggs and no danger to the house.

Cheated death yet again - pretty sure I'm going to die from a ladder fall.


----------



## oldguy

The moon looked like a bull's eye on a target this morning about 6. Big bright moon behind the cloud cover. Reflected light around it and further out a perfect halo. I was tempted to fling an arrer. I believe I coulda' hit it!


----------



## oldways

That ring around it usually mean we got a little rain headed our way. Bout like those red skies in the morning.


----------



## oldguy

Got a little shower last night, just enough to freshen things up. (<.1")
Fig tree leafing out. Swamp maples in full bloom. The atamasco lilies look like snow in the woods! It's sure enough a pretty time here in Southwest GA.


----------



## oldways

Yes Sir it is!  I tell folks I'm a Perry man I ain't going pass Perry Ga or Perry Fla.. I Thank the Good Lord for putting me in Sowga..


----------



## Nicodemus

oldways said:


> Yes Sir it is!  I tell folks I'm a Perry man I ain't going pass Perry Ga or Perry Fla.. I Thank the Good Lord for putting me in Sowga..




I like that concept.


----------



## fishfryer

As you come in my backdoor you are in a little covered stoop/back porch. There is a big iron hook on a stud there, where I hang my work hat. Well my wife discovered this morning that Mrs. Wren decided that my hat was a good nest site. That pitiful looking cowboy hat is now the designated bird nursery for the near future.


----------



## au7126

Had one build a nest in my hunting boot. Had to buy new till they hatched. Put the boots away and they built inside helmet sitting on seat . No riding for a while.


----------



## oldguy

Scooted a big mocassin out of the road this morning with a stick. Couple hours later and several miles away I saw another one sitting in the road. Would'a been hazardous to ,MY health to try to save this one. He was on his own. Both were in the 3.5 - 4 foot range. They likin' this sunshine!


----------



## oldways

Good job on movin the one they are enjoying the warm temps I had a few skeeters buzzin around this morning I still ain't seen a pecan tree or a grape vine buddin yet when they do cold weather is gone..


----------



## oldguy

oldways said:


> Good job on movin the one they are enjoying the warm temps I had a few skeeters buzzin around this morning I still ain't seen a pecan tree or a grape vine buddin yet when they do cold weather is gone..


You're exactly right about tha! Everything else can rush ahead to be first. Pecan hangs back and takes it's own sweet time.


----------



## fishfryer

Y'all may remember my post about not having any Purple Martins yet this year. They are here now,came back from a funeral and two are circling the gourds. Like I stated before,this is the latest ever for their arrival.


----------



## oldguy

Sittin' on the porch this morning I hear a bull frog callin' in the pond across the road, and can hear both a great horned owl and two barred owls calling. Haven't heard a GHO in some time.


----------



## Milkman

Floating pollen on Sinclair yesterday


----------



## oldguy

oldways said:


> Good job on movin the one they are enjoying the warm temps I had a few skeeters buzzin around this morning I still ain't seen a pecan tree or a grape vine buddin yet when they do cold weather is gone..


Went by the spot yesterday where the one was I couldn't stop for. No greasy spot so I guess he  made it. Rescued a young common (I hate calling anything "common") snapper out of the highway yesterday - maybe 8" long. Car zoomed right over him while I waited to pick him up. Had to grit my teeth!
Had a bunch of turtles in the classroom. This time of year I'd catch tiny crawdads to feed them. Kids called it "Crayfish Mania" when I'd put the crawdads in the tanks. The snapping turtle was named "Crusher". They'd cheer him on when he went into his feeding frenzy!


----------



## NCHillbilly

fishfryer said:


> Wish I could go back in time to my avatar picture and see chimney sweeps around that house again.


Still quite a few of them around here. It'll be about another month before they come back, though.


----------



## oldways

I saw a grape vine buddin out this weekend got my maters in the ground and a row of yeller squash I think we'll see a little cool air right at Easter but I think the frost is gone. I get tickled at all these folks and this talking about staying away for each other I've been doing that all my life stay away from folks...


----------



## trad bow

Milkman said:


> Floating pollen on Sinclair yesterday View attachment 1007126


Hope that pollen doesn’t pile up by your place. Smells like a hog pen when it ferments but it will draw the catfish and carp in.


----------



## westcobbdog

perhaps it will continue to rain 3-4 days per week and really knock down the pollen to a tolerable level unlike the typical spring where it is visible in yellow sheets.


----------



## Milkman

trad bow said:


> Hope that pollen doesn’t pile up by your place. Smells like a hog pen when it ferments but it will draw the catfish and carp in.



That was Saturday evening. Sunday morning it had floated away.


----------



## Gary Mercer

I saw signs of the "Yellow Death" on the hood of my truck this morning.


----------



## fishfryer

My truck has been sitting under carport about a week. Rode off this morning,used the wiper spray and it looked like yellow paint running down the windshield.


----------



## Swamprat

Pollen is bad....don't know if folks have the beer virus or allergies.


----------



## Lilly001

Swamprat said:


> Pollen is bad....don't know if folks have the beer virus or allergies.


Yes. My throat has been scratchy all week.
That's normal for me this time of year but it gives me pause.


----------



## Swamprat

Lilly001 said:


> Yes. My throat has been scratchy all week.
> That's normal for me this time of year but it gives me pause.



Sure for a lot of others as well. A bunch of us were talking the other day and we all seemed to be in agreement that the pine bloom at least in our area was shorter than normal, right now we are dealing with the oaks and in a few weeks the pecan trees will start.


----------



## oldguy

Pines still releasing copious amounts of pollen around here in SOWEGA. Cutting limbs yesterday prior to tractor mowing and dust filled the air! Walking the 3-D course at the archery shoot Saturday turned everybody's boots yellow.
I don't believe I've ever seen the yellow jassamine bloom as long nor as prolifically as it has this year. Started noticing flowers in the woods in January and still going strong everywhere you look.
Noticed the leather flower clematis has greened up in the woods.
Got to go do some more mowing -  "I work ten hours on a John Deere tractor..."


----------



## Ocmulgee44

I believe it is here. Hard to fool the old ones.


----------



## fishfryer

Ocmulgee44 said:


> I believe it is here. Hard to fool the old ones.


The only tree that puts out leaves later than pecan is black walnut. When them bad boys leaf out it's sprang!


----------



## oldguy

Yep, and mine's just sitting there  - no sign of life.


----------



## oldguy

HAPPY VERNAL EQUINOX!
Enjoy your 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness!


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> HAPPY VERNAL EQUINOX!
> Enjoy your 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness!


Thank you very much,I will. Gonna hang some new Martin gourds today,evict some Starlings.


----------



## Gary Mercer

Did me a little bass fishing.  10 Bass and 1 Jack.  Great afternoon.
Saw a bunch of Honkers, a few Ducks, and more Cormorants then I ever want to see.


----------



## oldguy

Catch the jack on top water? Devil's Horse used to be my favorite jack medicine!
Had a big old (100 + years_) blavk water mill pond in SC I could fish in. Loaded with bass and jacks! Wish I could go there now with my fly rod. That was over 30 years ago.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Does anyone have humming birds at the feeders yet?


----------



## fishfryer

When all this Chinese flu is over come pick me up"I'll show you the fine points of catching jackfish.


----------



## oldguy

fishfryer said:


> When all this Chinese flu is over come pick me up"I'll show you the fine points of catching jackfish.


Man I'm ready!
Where we going fishin'?


----------



## oldguy

GeorgeShu said:


> Does anyone have humming birds at the feeders yet?


Not yet in Albany. 
Maybe social distancing & sheltering at home?


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> Man I'm ready!
> Where we going fishin'?


South Carolina with you!


----------



## oldguy

fishfryer said:


> South Carolina with you!


Like I said that was over 30 years ago.
Pond was way out in the country at the end of a sandy dirt road. Last time I was in that area I tried to take my wife by  to show her the pond. You couldn't get there from here! Roads closed/changed. I bet the place has houses on it now and the folks don't even fish! Oh well I got me some GREAT memories - caught a 9 pound bass on a big broke back Rebel in the heat of the middle of the day during the summer! And many, many, many jack fish. Any way thanks for the offer!!!!


----------



## oldguy

Had a marsh hawk (northern harrier) fly across the road in front of me in Terrell County today. Surprised me, I thought they'd be gone by now.
Looked in a blue bird house and found 3 about to fledge! Checked another box down the way and first batch was already gone! Cleaned out the house for the second nesting.
Trees all leafed out - evapotransporation picking up and surface water levels dropping. Saw two pivots running today. Lots of corn going in the ground. Be more running as time goes by.
Been seeing lots of snakes dead on the road - red bellied mud snake, more than one black snake (racer) & others.


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> Like I said that was over 30 years ago.
> Pond was way out in the country at the end of a sandy dirt road. Last time I was in that area I tried to take my wife by  to show her the pond. You couldn't get there from here! Roads closed/changed. I bet the place has houses on it now and the folks don't even fish! Oh well I got me some GREAT memories - caught a 9 pound bass on a big broke back Rebel in the heat of the middle of the day during the summer! And many, many, many jack fish. Any way thanks for the offer!!!!


I was just messing with you,that's way to far to drive to go fishing. Old places make nice memories don't they?


----------



## oldguy

fishfryer said:


> I was just messing with you,that's way to far to drive to go fishing. Old places make nice memories don't they?


YEAH THEY DO!
My reason for not visiting a reservoir, distant river or whatever is - I don't like driving past good water to get to water.
Keep catching those jacks!


----------



## oldways

GeorgeShu said:


> Does anyone have humming birds at the feeders yet?


Yep I hung my feeders this weekend and have 1 so far


----------



## oldguy

Late yesterday afternoon, between 6 & 7 my wife and I were out riding in the country on a paved county road when turkeys came running off of a plantation on our left and out into a field that until recently was a pasture but is now cultivated. Three hens and a gobbler in hot pursuit! He actually stayed in a half strut position as he ran across the road. Hit full strut once across the road. For whatever reason he was particularly interested in one of the girls and chased her where ever she went. I swear it was like watching a rutting buck after a hot doe. Across the field and into the woods they went. That particular corner of that field has always attracted strutters. Right beside the paved road.


----------



## oldguy

Went out to check four blue bird houses on public land today. Two with nests two without. At 11:00 AM heard a turkey gobble. Hooted. No reply. Yellped with my voice and he gobbled again. Not a turkey hunter just like to hear 'em sound off. Coming out of the woods later I saw him running out of a dirt road. Found where he'd been strutting. Saw a black racer on the way back to the truck. Beautiful Spring day to be out and about!


----------



## oldways

Yes sir they are looking love this time of the year


----------



## oldways

Mayhaws should be starting to form up I'm going to check a couple places this weekend my blueberries are


----------



## oldguy

oldways said:


> Mayhaws should be starting to form up I'm going to check a couple places this weekend my blueberries are


Mine planted on the high ground is covered with berries. But sadly they look afflicted. Many have brown spots covering most of the fruit.


----------



## oldways

I wondered about them we got that little cold snap right around time they were blooming


----------



## oldguy

Heap a'stuff going on. Yesterday and today I saw moccasin #3 & 4. Big 'uns again 3 - 4 feet. Number 3 was swimming slowly up a roadside ditch and number 4 was in the road this morning. Haven't seen a rattler yet. I rather see a rattler than "The Silent One"!
Sassafrass, fringe tree (Grantsy gray beard), white native crabapple, and what I'm tentatively ID ing as American Snowbell (will take the book and confirm) all blooming. I want to try air layering several pieces of the snowbell.
Got two swamp chestnut oaks I started from acorns then transplanted going great guns! Gotta' get some more acorns this fall.
Not finding shed antlers but am finding patches of shed winter hair.
From the looks of the poison ivy, smilax, privet and honeysuckle the does and the fawns they're carrying should be getting lots of good nutrition.


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> Heap a'stuff going on. Yesterday and today I saw moccasin #3 & 4. Big 'uns again 3 - 4 feet. Number 3 was swimming slowly up a roadside ditch and number 4 was in the road this morning. Haven't seen a rattler yet. I rather see a rattler than "The Silent One"!
> Sassafrass, fringe tree (Grantsy gray beard), white native crabapple, and what I'm tentatively ID ing as American Snowbell (will take the book and confirm) all blooming. I want to try air layering several pieces of the snowbell.
> Got two swamp chestnut oaks I started from acorns then transplanted going great guns! Gotta' get some more acorns this fall.
> Not finding shed antlers but am finding patches of shed winter hair.
> From the looks of the poison ivy, smilax, privet and honeysuckle the does and the fawns they're carrying should be getting lots of good nutrition.


Keep the reports coming please,I like to read them very much.


----------



## oldways

Yes sir the woods are greening up pretty good I saw a nice box of big shellcrackers yesterday some fellers caught. Spring is doing its thing..


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## Nicodemus

This was interesting this morning about 7:45 AM, about 30 yards from the Kinchafoonee Creek here in Lee County.


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## oldguy

Nick, I bet it was a pretty scene along the creek at sunrise.
Then in walks the crowning jewel!
WAY TO GO!!!!
Over rhere in the Turkey thread where they're asking where did all the turkeys go - it looks like they're at home in folks' freezers!


----------



## Ocmulgee44

In spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love...and old men's to turkey gobblers. I took this picture at 7:52 the same Friday morning a few hundred yards from the Ocmulgee river. I see I need to up my photography game. That is a nice shot Nicodemus.


----------



## Nicodemus

Ocmulgee44 said:


> In spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love...and old men's to turkey gobblers. I took this picture at 7:52 the same Friday morning a few hundred yards from the Ocmulgee river. I see I need to up my photography game. That is a nice shot Nicodemus.View attachment 1009560



That bird looks like an old time Osceola turkey. Congratulations!

I made the picture larger for you.


----------



## Ocmulgee44

You got me scratching my head a little. I don't really know much about the Osceola. I did notice that this one had blacker wings than some. In fact I saved his right one thinking I might try to fletch some arrows with them. His spurs were not all that long, barely over an inch, but they were some kind of sharp. They were located more on the inside of his legs than usual too. Here are a couple more pics if it helps. I'd like to know more about the old strain turkeys. This area I shot him in has always had turkeys. I am in my late sixties and I remember seeing them when I was a very young boy hunting squirrels.


----------



## trad bow

I’ve shot several gobblers down in the Ocmulgee River swamp just like that but rarely ever weighed more than twelve to thirteen pounds. I’ll try to find the thread that Nic and I discussed this very same thing. Believe it was in the traditional archery forum a few years back.


----------



## oldguy

WOW!
Beautiful bird.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Right now on the hill across from my house:


----------



## oldways

Nice birds fellers, Hillbilly whatcha got them sacks hanging on the fence for.


----------



## j_seph

oldways said:


> Nice birds fellers, Hillbilly whatcha got them sacks hanging on the fence for.


Poor mans corn feeders


----------



## j_seph

or so he doesn't get lost in the field


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> Right now on the hill across from my house:
> 
> View attachment 1009963


Needs trees!


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## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> Needs trees!


They're there on around the hill. That is a cow pasture below the fence, and a hayfield above it. Hard to cut hay around trees.


----------



## Nicodemus

I saw a hen harrier (marsh hawk) yesterday hunting the field in front of the house. This is the latest I`ve ever seen one around here. She should have done been headed back north by now.


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldways said:


> Nice birds fellers, Hillbilly whatcha got them sacks hanging on the fence for.


Not mine, I don't know. I think the neighbor put them there to keep his mules from standing there at the fence trying to pick through to the hayfield.


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## Ocmulgee44

trad bow, thanks for the heads up about the other threads on Osceolas. I searched and found some. No need in beating that horse any further. Lumpers vs splitters kinda resembles the Hatfields vs McCoys! There are definite differences in the turkeys in Georgia though and it is mighty interesting all the same.


----------



## trad bow

Yes I think the birds we are speaking of are a subspecies of eastern or Osceolas. Either way great bird.


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## trad bow

Out for a walk this morning with my shorthair and came across a brown thrasher removing a snake from its nesting area.


----------



## oldguy

Went for a short ramble in the woods yesterday. Hoping to find a shed from the big guy I've been feeding for three years. No luck. Did encounter several patches of Jack-in-the-pulpit. Saw the pretty blue leather flower clematis with its reflexed petals and wild phlox blooming. The buck-eyes are about passed, but the coral honey-suckle is coming on strong. The air is perfumed with the smell of Japanese honey-suckle (memories of childhood). Stepped over a colorful box turtle almost hidden in the grass.
When someone on here asked about hummingbirds awhile back I hung a feeder and told my fishing partner in Camilla who hung one as well. Yesterday he saw two. None here yet (Albany). Been seeing two or three cow birds feeding among the doves and few remaining chipping sparrows. Wish they'd sit long enough for me to fling an arrow!


----------



## trad bow

I’ve had Humminbirds around yard for past three days. Hung feeders yesterday afternoon and had two on them within fifteen minutes.


----------



## fishfryer

We have a Red Bellied Woodpecker pecking on the roof vent and the car shelter. After shooing him away for two days,I think he decided to quit. He still like to eat sunflower seeds from the feeder though. Saw a juvenile gray rat snake near the fig tree in the sun, day before yesterday.


----------



## NCHillbilly

fishfryer said:


> We have a Red Bellied Woodpecker pecking on the roof vent and the car shelter. After shooing him away for two days,I think he decided to quit. He still like to eat sunflower seeds from the feeder though. Saw a juvenile gray rat snake near the fig tree in the sun, day before yesterday.


My resident pair of red-bellies are about to send me to the poorhouse with their suet addiction.


----------



## northgeorgiasportsman

NCHillbilly said:


> Right now on the hill across from my house:
> 
> View attachment 1009963


Too bad you ain't got a .17hmr...


----------



## NCHillbilly

northgeorgiasportsman said:


> Too bad you ain't got a .17hmr...


I got a .22 mag that shoots just as flat with 30-grain V-Max.  

Two more weeks.


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> My resident pair of red-bellies are about to send me to the poorhouse with their suet addiction.


Had a pair of rhwp at the suet feeder way up into Spring. They'd make repeated trips to the suet. Grab a mouthfull, fly away and be right back. I told my wife they were raising their young on suet and the little guys wouldn't know what to do with a bug! Sure enough when they fledged here came the immatures straight to the suet feeder.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Oldguy, the hummers have shown up here in Bulloch County. Have had at least three different males over the last four days. Nice having them back. Hens will be here soon enough.


----------



## fishfryer

trad bow said:


> I’ve had Humminbirds around yard for past three days. Hung feeders yesterday afternoon and had two on them within fifteen minutes.


We have our first hummer of season this morning. Ruby showed up(male of course) and went to feeder.


----------



## oldguy

40 something this morning. There's a fire crackling burning "good oak". Sitting here rereading Sand County Almanac for the umpteenth time. There's trouble in the World but here life is good!


----------



## NCHillbilly

That, and his Round River, are two books that never get old. About freezing here at daylight.


----------



## trad bow

Sand County Almanac should be required reading in all high schools.


----------



## NCHillbilly

trad bow said:


> Sand County Almanac should be required reading in all high schools.


And when somebody signs the deed when they buy a piece of land.


----------



## trad bow

I let my older brother read it. He didn’t get it. I said let me explained it in simple terms. You have a fairly unproductive farm. It is nothing but fescue and sweet gums. Remove both and plant native plants, trees and grasses and then don’t overgraze your pastures if you decide to put cows back on it. Your property will then be in harmony with nature.


----------



## oldguy

trad bow said:


> Sand County Almanac should be required reading in all high schools.


I've said that a thousand times! When we were working with teachers during summer workshops I'd give them assigned readings each evening to discuss the next morning. The belly aching, moaning and groaning, and general reluctance beat any group of school kids you ever saw! You can lead a horse to water...


----------



## oldguy

trad bow said:


> I let my older brother read it. He didn’t get it. I said let me explained it in simple terms. You have a fairly unproductive farm. It is nothing but fescue and sweet gums. Remove both and plant native plants, trees and grasses and then don’t overgraze your pastures if you decide to put cows back on it. Your property will then be in harmony with nature.


As the Man said "A thing is right..."


----------



## oldguy

trad bow said:


> I let my older brother read it. He didn’t get it. I said let me explained it in simple terms. You have a fairly unproductive farm. It is nothing but fescue and sweet gums. Remove both and plant native plants, trees and grasses and then don’t overgraze your pastures if you decide to put cows back on it. Your property will then be in harmony with nature.


I should have added that I don't get folks who don't get it!


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> And when somebody signs the deed when they buy a piece of land.


And in hunter education courses!


----------



## Nicodemus

*"A thing is right when it tends* to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it *tends* otherwise. "

One of my favorite sayings of Mr. Leopold.


----------



## cramer

We are seeing many of those large mosquitoes  this  year around here.
anyone else ?


----------



## Nicodemus

cramer said:


> We are seeing many of those large mosquitoes  this  year around here.
> anyone else ?




Are you talking about crane flies?


----------



## cramer

Nicodemus said:


> Are you talking about crane flies?


Yep, that's  what they are. I just looked them up.


----------



## oldguy

Yesterday I thumped a green bot fly on the screen of the porch. It fell dead on its back on a 2x4. In a minute I watched as a mosquito crawled over and stuck its probosis in the fly. Skeeter stayed busy for several miniutes. When my wife came out I showed her what was going on. She said "gross"! I said "fasiinating!"
Now just outside the screen on the upright 2x4, just inches from where ysterday's drama unfolded there's a pair of anoles locked in coitus!
This morning I was lookink at an Indian Pink I potted last Fall. It's about to bloom, so I went to look at others in the edge of the woods and low and behold I discovered a trillium in bloom! Didn't even know it was there or where it came from. Welcome!


----------



## oldguy

cramer said:


> Yep, that's  what they are. I just looked them up.


Yep, we got lots of crane flies to. They came out early.


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> Yesterday I thumped a green bot fly on the screen of the porch. It fell dead on its back on a 2x4. In a minute I watched as a mosquito crawled over and stuck its probosis in the fly. Skeeter stayed busy for several miniutes. When my wife came out I showed her what was going on. She said "gross"! I said "fasiinating!"
> Now just outside the screen on the upright 2x4, just inches from where ysterday's drama unfolded there's a pair of anoles locked in coitus!
> This morning I was lookink at an Indian Pink I potted last Fall. It's about to bloom, so I went to look at others in the edge of the woods and low and behold I discovered a trillium in bloom! Didn't even know it was there or where it came from. Welcome!


I'm glad to know that there are other people who think all of nature is interesting. I like to think I can mostly identify plants and animals around me. There are people on this forum who are way ahead of me in this ability. When I see something I can't identify,I grab a reference book,ask someone that may know,Google it,or use the forum.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Saw and heard a crested fly catcher in the yard yesterday. Loud creatures....


----------



## oldguy

fishfryer said:


> I'm glad to know that there are other people who think all of nature is interesting. I like to think I can mostly identify plants and animals around me. There are people on this forum who are way ahead of me in this ability. When I see something I can't identify,I grab a reference book,ask someone that may know,Google it,or use the forum.


I've got shelves full of guides/keys to all sorts of organisms.  Books are good! I've been wanting to make this particular recommendation, so now's as good a time as any. Since there are so many posts asking about snake ID EVERYBODY NEEDS a copy of "Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia" edited by John B. Jensen, Carlos D. Camp, Whit Gibbons, and Matt J. Elliott. Clear photographs of every critter, plus descriptions, and maps of distribution. No need to wonder anymore!


----------



## westcobbdog

Up fishing the Toccoa yesterday and near Coopers creek store a powerful wind storm knocked over hundreds of old growth white pine and hemlock, they are strewn every where, some enormous trees. Destruction looked to a few months old.


----------



## oldguy

westcobbdog said:


> Up fishing the Toccoa yesterday and near Coopers creek store a powerful wind storm knocked over hundreds of old growth white pine and hemlock, they are strewn every where, some enormous trees. Destruction looked to a few months old.


Hate to hear it!


----------



## trad bow

90% of the books I have deal with nature. I have an old WW2 canvas shoulder bag that I’ll keep books in on my walks. I’ll take a small stool and sit down and try to identify everything within my circle including insects


----------



## oldguy

trad bow said:


> 90% of the books I have deal with nature. I have an old WW2 canvas shoulder bag that I’ll keep books in on my walks. I’ll take a small stool and sit down and try to identify everything within my circle including insects


Doesn't matter how much you know or think you know there's always more to learn!


----------



## oldguy

Back several years ago I recognized my deficiency in wildflower knowledge. Decided to take pictures (slides) and ID what I was looking at. Wound up buying books (lots of 'em) on wildflowers and of course you can't take (good)pictures without knowing what you're doing so that led to more books on outdoor photography! Oh yeah, and that led to lenses, filters tripods, tripod heads...etc. This was before digital so was taking slides, which led to projector, screen, veiwing table...etc. An extension tube and a macro lens opened a whole new world! I loved looking at stuff through a TTL 35mm camera! And I learned alot. Got left in the dust by digital, too much $$$$. The old guy at the camera shop was a WWII Marine Vet and an MIT grad! Gone now but bless his heart he thought digital was a fad!


----------



## NCHillbilly

trad bow said:


> 90% of the books I have deal with nature. I have an old WW2 canvas shoulder bag that I’ll keep books in on my walks. I’ll take a small stool and sit down and try to identify everything within my circle including insects


If you really want to drive yourself crazy, start on grasses, sedges, mosses, liverworts, and such.


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> If you really want to drive yourself crazy, start on grasses, sedges, mosses, liverworts, and such.


Oh I know!
I'm W-A-Y behind on grasses, sedges, mosses, liverworts, and such!!


----------



## oldguy

While out doing stuff in the yard this morning came across a white-oak-runner (GRS) stretched out in the driveway. He made his way over to where the birds feed on the ground and sat for a couple of hours. When I finally went inside I watched as the birds returned. However he wasn't fooling anybody they all steered clear of "that crooked stick" laying amongst the bird seed. Don't know if he's the same one but for a couple of years we had one that would climb up and coil around the base of feeder hanging in a tree. Never saw him catch a bird but he didn't lack for patience. Sometimes he'd spend a couple of days and nights camped on the feeder waiting.
Watched a big one swallow a blue jay one morning while hanging from a pine limb 30 or 40' in the air. Took him 3 hours. At 8 that night he was still laying there on that limb!


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> Oh I know!
> I'm W-A-Y behind on grasses, sedges, mosses, liverworts, and such!!


I know a guy who is the Forest Service botanist for the western NC district. He did his Master's thesis on cellular slime molds. If you walk around in the woods with him, he will show you some pretty amazing stuff in the cracks of tree bark with a 10x hand lens.


----------



## Ocmulgee44

Sensitive Briar.
This stuff is fascinating to me. How in the world does it know to close it's little leaves when disturbed! In the second pic you can see where it reacted to my footstep.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Ocmulgee44 said:


> Sensitive Briar.
> This stuff is fascinating to me. How in the world does it know to close it's little leaves when disturbed! In the second pic you can see where it reacted to my footstep.
> 
> 
> View attachment 1011492View attachment 1011493


It's a fascinating plant.


----------



## Gary Mercer

Guess I'll brew up some Hummer food.  Mine is a traditional mix of 3:1 water/sugar.
Anybody add anything else,  This might be a good subject.


----------



## oldguy

Mine is 4 : 1.
Maybe that's why I don't have any yet!
Sweet toothed little boogers.


Ocmulgee44 said:


> Sensitive Briar.
> This stuff is fascinating to me. How in the world does it know to close it's little leaves when disturbed! In the second pic you can see where it reacted to my footstep.
> 
> 
> View attachment 1011492View attachment 1011493


My first incounter with sensitive briar came in Viet Nam. I peed on it and it closed up! I started showing it to other folks. Tried digging one up from the sand dunes to take to class to show 7th graders. I dug the depth of a 5 gallon bucket and never reached the end of the tap root! Plants are facinating. We used to cut black willow sticks, put them in water and watch them root. The kids loved it. I don't know how many got planted but kids would take them home.


----------



## oldguy

Sitting on the porch enjoying the late afternoon when I heard it. The familiar drone of rapid wings! As i watched the nearby feeder a small female hummer appeared. Our first of the year! Shortly a second bird showed up only to be chased away by the first. I quickly hung a second feeder.
Checked a couple of bird houses at our place inTerrell County this morning. First box had a female chickadee sitting on the nest. When I took the top off to show my wife she left and we could see 3 unbelievably tiny hatchlings and 3 more eggs. The second box had a nest lined with cotton and 5 or 6 more tiny hatchlings. Could be chickadees or possibly titmice or nuthatches. 
The Indian pink in the edge of the woods is blooming as well as the one I potted last fall.
We got .4" of rain here at the house last night but it was a local thunderstorm. Thankful for the rain.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Had a pair of big ravens came through the holler this morning. The crows were after them like they do hawks. You don't realize how big ravens are until you see them side-by-side with a crow.


----------



## oldguy

I don't think I've ever seen a true raven. Guess I haven't been in the right place at the right time.
Dang crows.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Blue birds hatched out yesterday, parents busy feeding.  No female hummers yet but do have two males dicing at the feeders.


----------



## oldguy

Got blue birds in all stages around here: building new nest, laying eggs, feeding new hatchlings, fledglings, and a few working on their second batch. Have seen both male and female humming birds, but only a couple. A male just flew up.
Cut the limbs that formed the squirrel highway from a hickory and sycamore the other day. Now enjoying watching them get to the end and W-O-O-P-S nowhere to go!


----------



## Nicodemus

oldguy said:


> I don't think I've ever seen a true raven. Guess I haven't been in the right place at the right time.
> Dang crows.




I`m not sure if I ever saw a raven when I was plundering and looting in Western North Carolina or not. I did see some in Colorado. I`m seeing more fish crows here now that I ever have. Actually, about the only way I can tell them from our regular crows is the call they make. There`s about 50 or so that roost down by the Kinch right where I like to listen for turkeys.


----------



## 35 Whelen

Got more Goldfinch up here on the mountain than I have ever seen before.  They empty the feeder (thistle seed) pretty fast.


----------



## trents99

Was out burning brush this morning and down near the creek a couple of barred owls were going back and forth when a hawk joined the conversation for a bit.

About 30 minutes later in a small pine about 20 feet from me 3 blue jays were making a big fuss so I walked a little closer and thought I was looking at a big hornet's nest but it was actually one of the owls. Three jays danced all around that owl and it never flinched. Finally one of them had enough I supposed and dive bombed the owl on top of the head, owl barely flinched. 

Was some good entertainment for a bit.


----------



## oldguy

35 Whelen said:


> Got more Goldfinch up here on the mountain than I have ever seen before.  They empty the feeder (thistle seed) pretty fast.


And I don't have any! In the past we've had huge flocks, but it's been probably three or four years since they were here. Glad you have them. They can be expensive to feed but fun to see.


----------



## oldguy

trents99 said:


> Was out burning brush this morning and down near the creek a couple of barred owls were going back and forth when a hawk joined the conversation for a bit.
> 
> About 30 minutes later in a small pine about 20 feet from me 3 blue jays were making a big fuss so I walked a little closer and thought I was looking at a big hornet's nest but it was actually one of the owls. Three jays danced all around that owl and it never flinched. Finally one of them had enough I supposed and dive bombed the owl on top of the head, owl barely flinched.
> 
> Was some good entertainment for a bit.


Hawks and owls put up with WAY more than they ought to!


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> I don't think I've ever seen a true raven. Guess I haven't been in the right place at the right time.
> Dang crows.


We have a lot here in the Smokies and Balsams and Blacks, but they don't come down around the settlements much. They're really wild, and usually stay up at the higher elevations away from people. I've always said that any time I see a raven, I'm usually about exactly where I want to be. Ravens have a totally different personality than crows.


----------



## Big7

creekrunner said:


> This one was out today, you can bet snakes are out too, but calling for 20’s here next week


What kind of turtle is that big one?


----------



## oldguy

Big7 said:


> What kind of turtle is that big one?


The turtle in the picture posted 15 January is a gopher tortoise


----------



## oldguy

Wow! Just looked out at the feeder and there's a red-headed woodpecker! Haven't seen one at the feeder in several years.


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> Wow! Just looked out at the feeder and there's a red-headed woodpecker! Haven't seen one at the feeder in several years.


I've only seen one of those around here in my life. It hung around my yard for about three days, then a hawk ate it.


----------



## oldguy

oldguy said:


> Wow! Just looked out at the feeder and there's a red-headed woodpecker! Haven't seen one at the feeder in several years.


A red-bellied wp just joined him! A piliated was calling earlier. Wood-pecker kind of day.


----------



## Big7

oldguy said:


> Wow! Just looked out at the feeder and there's a red-headed woodpecker! Haven't seen one at the feeder in several years.


We have have a few from time to time.
Don't think I've seen one since last year.


----------



## NCHillbilly

My rough-winged swallows came back yesterday. It's officially spring now.


----------



## oldguy

Cool this morning (50s) so took my wife on a little ramble on Chickasawhatchee WMA. Wanted to show her one of my spots. Found lots of wildflowers blooming - Indian pink, wild petunia, crotalaria, ladies tresses, blue flag iris, etc.  She showed a new found interest and took pictures of the flowers with her phone! Wants to go back and see more of the place. Didn't see any hogs or hog sign. Did see a quail run across the road. Guess the Bob White Quail Initiative is working. Got lots of good burns in some of the newly opened pine areas. Too cool for gators at the Flat Hole.


----------



## Ocmulgee44

One of the things that I love about turkey season is all the flowers that begin to paint the landscape. I know next to nothing about them so please forgive my ignorance but what is this plant I noticed this morning as I was listening? Second pic is same plant but looking down on a flower.


----------



## Nicodemus

oldguy said:


> Cool this morning (50s) so took my wife on a little ramble on Chickasawhatchee WMA. Wanted to show her one of my spots. Found lots of wildflowers blooming - Indian pink, wild petunia, crotalaria, ladies tresses, blue flag iris, etc.  She showed a new found interest and took pictures of the flowers with her phone! Wants to go back and see more of the place. Didn't see any hogs or hog sign. Did see a quail run across the road. Guess the Bob White Quail Initiative is working. Got lots of good burns in some of the newly opened pine areas. Too cool for gators at the Flat Hole.




You hear any turkeys gobble? 

I have several favorite spots there. The Flat Hole is by far my favorite.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Ocmulgee44 said:


> One of the things that I love about turkey season is all the flowers that begin to paint the landscape. I know next to nothing about them so please forgive my ignorance but what is this plant I noticed this morning as I was listening? Second pic is same plant but looking down on a flower.
> View attachment 1012298View attachment 1012299


It's a_ Packera _(ragwort.) Looks like probably _P. anonyma_ (Small's ragwort.)


----------



## oldguy

Nicodemus said:


> You hear any turkeys gobble?
> 
> I have several favorite spots there. The Flat Hole is by far my favorite.


I hooted a time or two but got no response nor heard any gobble on their own. Saw no turkeys and no turkey sign though where we walked was a good place. Drove in at Mud Creek Road and clear through to the Dunn Lot Gate and around to 37 looks like we'd of least seen a turkey. No hogs and no deer either - just the lone quail.


----------



## oldguy

That rhwp is an almost constant presense at the feeder now. Even keeps the ultimate intimidator the red bellied woodpecker, intimidated!
There was a cat bird singing this morning and the barred owl was checking in with singular inquisitive  "WHA?"
What I haven't heard so far this year is a vireo, red or white eyed.


----------



## Hillbilly stalker

Nicodemus said:


> Are you talking about crane flies?


Are those the same as Hawk mosquito's ?


----------



## westcobbdog

3 Turkeys strutting around my backyard on a small ridge this am, let my golden out and he noticed them and chased them off with all the animals making a big racket.


----------



## oldguy

New visitor at the feeder yesterday. Returnee actually (kinda' sorta'). An immature rose breasted grosbeak! We usually have a few each year, males, females and immatures but it's usually around the first wekk of May.
Solomon seal is blooming in the edge of the woods. Been waiting to post it along with the swamp dogwood but the dogwood is dragging its heels. Got buds but haven't opened  -  yet...


----------



## trents99

oldguy said:


> Hawks and owls put up with WAY more than they ought to!



Truth in reality. Yesterday a few trees over from where that owl was perched there was more commotion. Sitting there, just getting pelted was a hawk. He didn't stick around as long as the owl did but in that short time he took some licks.

The day before that I got to watch a couple of pileated woodpeckers in the woods behind the house. Watched them forging on the ground for a bit behind an old downed pine log. Funny to see them pop up and look around like a couple of puppets.


----------



## oldguy

Wife and I road over to Sylvester to visit a pitcher plant bog. Cool site. Has four different pitcher plants - yellow trumpets, hooded, parrott, and a cross between the hooded and the parrott. Also saw purple butter wort blooming. Late summer early fall is when the wild flowers are most prolific. Turned into a ride about that encompassed four counties - Worth, Mitchell, Colquitt, and Baker. Saw a lone woodstork in a roadside cow pond outside of Camilla. First of the year. 7:30 AM now and there are three deer at the corn trough out back.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Pair of blue jays building a nest in the yard the last couple days.


----------



## fishfryer

The Carolina Wren that built in my old cowboy hat on the back porch,her babies flew the nest today. Now I get to scrub the floor,I really like those birds though.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Got to see some drama this morning. A squirrel decided to climb up the tree and check out the blue jay nest. They flogged and pecked that poor critter for ten minutes until he fled up through the cow pasture.


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> Got to see some drama this morning. A squirrel decided to climb up the tree and check out the blue jay nest. They flogged and pecked that poor critter for ten minutes until he fled up through the cow pasture.


He got what was coming!
The wrens here at the house have chosen a new challenge. Apparently vehicles sitting too long have become the new favorite nesting site. I been seeing them fly out from under the vehicles frequently and yesteday my wife drove off in her's and there was a pile of trash under it - wren nesting material! Now they're working under my truck. I think they've chosen the spare tire as the new best place.
Checked several bb boxes that have remained empty yesterday and each had a new nest with five eggs.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Saw first indigo bunting of this season, pretty birds.
still don’t have any female hummers at the feeders yet......


----------



## oldguy

GeorgeShu said:


> Saw first indigo bunting of this season, pretty birds.
> still don’t have any female hummers at the feeders yet......


Yep, just started seeing indigo buntings around the countryside. Yesterday I heard the first  red eyed vireos in the woods, and the first parulas. Pretty sure I heard prothanatary warblers in the swamp. Next year instead of bb house I'm gonna' try creating a prothanatary trail of houses in the swamp. I put up a house made from a pastic coffee can a couple of years ago, but it wasn't used - least not last I checked.


----------



## oldguy

Rain pretty much all day. At last look almost 3" in the gauge. At 10:00 PM the spade foot toads were raising a ruckus in the vernal pool in the woods south of the house! I like hearing them.


----------



## oldguy

Wadering around outback this morning encountered a Copperhead at the edge of the woods. Not in a snake killing mood this morning so I just got a stick and flipped him out in the woods. Reckon I better be careful walking around bearfoot at night!


----------



## trad bow

Trimming my azaleas and finding a lot of cicadas


----------



## trad bow

Came across these two


----------



## oldguy

Cool pics!
Thanks for showing 'em.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Saw a kestrel AKA sparrow hawk fly through the yard a while ago. First one I've seen in a couple years around here. They used to be common. 

Heard the first vireo of the year yesterday morning.


----------



## trad bow

First of year.


----------



## trad bow

Last night a chuck will. Tonight a whippoorwill


----------



## oldguy

trad bow said:


> First of year.


GOOD SHOT!


----------



## trad bow

Thank you. The recurve in background just lined up unintentionally.


----------



## Gary Mercer

The only bird we got that color is a cardinal.  Don't recognize that one.


----------



## trad bow

Summer tanager


----------



## oldguy

Don't know that I've ever seen one pose for a picture like that. I usually get a quick glimpse as they fly across a road.


----------



## Gary Mercer

Right pretty critter.


----------



## trad bow

I have two pair nest around the yard every year.


----------



## NCHillbilly

We used to have a lot of scarlet tanagers around here, but you don't see near as many as you used to.


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> We used to have a lot of scarlet tanagers around here, but you don't see near as many as you used to.


My wife and I took a ride about Saturday over some country we used to frequent. Lots of places we didn't recognize. What had been woods was now cleared for a pivot. What had been a field was now in pecan trees. That's the stuff we see and know it has some impact on wildlife here in USA. My brother lives in Guatamala (big birder) and recently was bemoaning changes to habitat down there and the effect on local and migratory bird populations. Anti hunters "worry" about habitat management for game animals and its effect on non-game critters. Fact is something gains and something looses no matter what you do or don't do. Have seen those pictures of what the NC mountains looked like back in the day around the Biltmore House. Scary! I'll sure take what we got now!


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> My wife and I took a ride about Saturday over some country we used to frequent. Lots of places we didn't recognize. What had been woods was now cleared for a pivot. What had been a field was now in pecan trees. That's the stuff we see and know it has some impact on wildlife here in USA. My brother lives in Guatamala (big birder) and recently was bemoaning changes to habitat down there and the effect on local and migratory bird populations. Anti hunters "worry" about habitat management for game animals and its effect on non-game critters. Fact is something gains and something looses no matter what you do or don't do. Have seen those pictures of what the NC mountains looked like back in the day around the Biltmore House. Scary! I'll sure take what we got now!


Yeah, it's a wonder there's anything left here after the big corporate loggers came through in the early 1900s. They cleared half the mountains from top to bottom, burned hundreds of thousands of acres with uncontrolled fires,  silted and poisoned the creeks, and left the bare ground there to erode.


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> Yeah, it's a wonder there's anything left here after the big corporate loggers came through in the early 1900s. They cleared half the mountains from top to bottom, burned hundreds of thousands of acres with uncontrolled fires,  silted and poisoned the creeks, and left the bare ground there to erode.


Were the chestnut trees already gone by then?
Have you ever seen any pictures of the original old growth lonleaf pine forest?
There's a plantation in Thomas County (GA) that has a remnant but managed old growth LL stand. Riding through there with the noted LL pine "ecological forester" Leon Neal (RIP) I asked how old are some of these trees? He replied 400! 400 year old trees!!


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> Were the chestnut trees already gone by then?
> Have you ever seen any pictures of the original old growth lonleaf pine forest?
> There's a plantation in Thomas County (GA) that has a remnant but managed old growth LL stand. Riding through there with the noted LL pine "ecological forester" Leon Neal (RIP) I asked how old are some of these trees? He replied 400! 400 year old trees!!


They cut a lot of the chestnuts, but the blight didn't hit hard here until the 20s and 30s. I have a wardrobe that my grandpa made from a dead chestnut he cut on the farm that I use as a pantry. The doors are single chestnut boards. 

Yeah, I've seen a lot of pics of old-growth longleaf. I'd love to visit one of the remnants.  One of the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth.

So much has been lost in the last couple centuries. The remaining pockets of old-growth hardwoods and pines here in the Smokies are amazing. And it's heartbreaking to see all the giant old hemlocks die from another introduced disease. Seems we never learn.


----------



## oldguy

Raining this evening. The swamp dogwoods have finally started blooming along the driveway. Saw a small (< 18") ribbon snake in the yard this morning.


----------



## Nicodemus

In the last two or three days, I`ve noticed a pair of great crested flycatchers around one of my old bluebird boxes that has been used by the birds in the past. There`ll be a piece of shed snakeskin in it again probably. Chimney swifts are back too, along with the kingbirds. A pair of crows and red shouldered hawks both have nests within a couple hundred yards of my barn. 

Fixing to go see if the creek has dropped out enough for me to get to a particular ridge where the turkeys like to roost.


----------



## oldguy

Nicodemus said:


> In the last two or three days, I`ve noticed a pair of great crested flycatchers around one of my old bluebird boxes that has been used by the birds in the past. There`ll be a piece of shed snakeskin in it again probably. Chimney swifts are back too, along with the kingbirds. A pair of crows and red shouldered hawks both have nests within a couple hundred yards of my barn.
> 
> Fixing to go see if the creek has dropped out enough for me to get to a particular ridge where the turkeys like to roost.


Crested flycatchers are funny in the confines of a bb box and they like that snake skin in their nests don't they?
What did you find at the creek?


----------



## oldways

Creek should be on the rise again after last night a little over 6 inches in the last week 5 last week and 1.5 last night. Turned out to be a pretty spring so far I think them 90's are right around the corner.


----------



## oldguy

Interesting last couple of days. Yesterday was snake day. Started off removing another copperhead from the vicinity of the yard. Later in the morning rescued a solid black hog nose out of the road. He showed his appreciation by covering my hand with musk. That used to smell like money huh Nick? Later on saw a black racer that I was too late to save - still writhing after an encounter with a tire.
This morning had a flock of bob-o-links fly across the road. Only second time in my life I've seen 'em. Got out of the truck to set some beaver traps for a farmer and was greeted by by a hearty "BOB - WHITE!". Then saw him fly. There were at least three calling. Place is managed for quail.
Borrowed a hog trap and set it. Let the killing begin! Might be some BBQ in the future...


----------



## trents99

Copperheads seem to be in the move. Working on the fence yesterday and nearly stepped on a 2 footer that was flattened out with its head in the air.

Shook me pretty good because it was sitting right next to the pile of pickets I had been working from for an hour and if I hadn't looked down my next step was its back.


----------



## oldguy

BIG female beaver in one Conibear yesterday. Down payment on a trip to the landowner's pond! No pigs in the trap. No pigs are good pigs.  Got a bunch of bucks with knobs on their heads but there's one guy with beams long as his ears and starting to branch!


----------



## NCHillbilly

Hummingbirds showed up here yesterday morning. It was 35* when I got up, but it warmed up quick. My red buckeyes are blooming, and a pair of hummers were wearing them out.


----------



## oldguy

35! Yikes! 60 here. Our red buckeyes bloom way too early for the hummingbirds to enjoy. They got here in time to enjoy the coral honeysuckle. Now it's red salvia, society garlic, and sugar water time!


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> 35! Yikes! 60 here. Our red buckeyes bloom way too early for the hummingbirds to enjoy. They got here in time to enjoy the coral honeysuckle. Now it's red salvia, society garlic, and sugar water time!


Most of our trees aren't leaved out completely yet. Just starting to turn green.


----------



## fishfryer

Here's the setup. Tailgate on truck down for working surface,flat of vegetable plants on it, in sun. There's a milk jug half full of water and a recycled French's mustard squeeze bottle for watering plants. As I am pouring water from milk jug into mustard bottle,I notice a spider about as big as a tomato seed has overnight built a few strands of web in mouth of milk jug. I continue to pour water in French's watering bottle as spider is completely under water,I fill squeeze bottle and look at spider,he's just fine. He made motions like he was looking for a towel,and starting inspecting his web. Spider now clean and plants watered.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Just had the pleasure of watching a rose breasted grossbeak at the bird bath. One of God’s finer creations.
A rare visitor, have seen them only twice before. Hope he sticks around for a while.


----------



## creekrunner

Have a pair of House Finches nesting on the side of my shop. Pretty little birds


----------



## oldguy

Turning into a snakey Spring. Rescued a big, close to 4 feet, gray rat snake out of a road yesterday. Today while wandering around at our place in Terrell County looked down just in time to avoid as pretty a canebreak as you'll ever see! Freshly shed and purt near 4 feet herself. Tail end near me head pointing away. 9 rattles and a button. She went her way and I went mine. When I returned to the truck I found a very strange "gift". Laying stone cold dead on the tool box was male indigo bunting! I guess he was flying along and collied with the rear window. Don't know if you've ever held one in your hand but man that's one pretty little jewel! When you see 'em fly up by the road you see that familiar flash of blue but what you don't see is iradescent green on their back. And tiny! I had no idea they were so small.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Saw my first indigo bunting of the year in my yard this morning. And the first green heron of the year down by the creek.


----------



## oldguy

6:09 sitting on the porch in the dark enjoying the peace and quiet and just now a chuck-will's- widow started sounding off! Don't get to hear them much here in town. My wife asks: "Why do you sit out there in the dark like that?"
I was trying to explain to her the other day my effection for native plants in the landscape rather than  non-native, artifical "landscape" plants. My final point was Aldo Leopold's opening line to Sand County Almanac - "There are some who can live without wild things..." . 
Man what a snakey Spring I'm having! Yesterday I saw two black snakes (racers) not 15 minutes apart on two different roads.
Anybody following the posts on thistle either in the trad archery thread or the gradening thread? How you feel about thistle? I like it.


----------



## fishfryer

Saw the first Shrike of the year, aka Butcher Bird today, he or she grabbing insects as I am bushhogging. That's one of my favorites. All the Bluebirds and Mockingbirds joining the party.


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> 6:09 sitting on the porch in the dark enjoying the peace and quiet and just now a chuck-will's- widow started sounding off! Don't get to hear them much here in town. My wife asks: "Why do you sit out there in the dark like that?"
> I was trying to explain to her the other day my effection for native plants in the landscape rather than  non-native, artifical "landscape" plants. My final point was Aldo Leopold's opening line to Sand County Almanac - "There are some who can live without wild things..." .
> Man what a snakey Spring I'm having! Yesterday I saw two black snakes (racers) not 15 minutes apart on two different roads.
> Anybody following the posts on thistle either in the trad archery thread or the gradening thread? How you feel about thistle? I like it.


I like the native ones, hate and despise the non-native invasive noxious ones. As I said in the other thread, I propagate and plant native ones, and kill every bull, milk, or musk thistle I see. If you've ever seen what an infestation of bull thistle can do to a piece of good farmland, it's not pretty.


----------



## NCHillbilly

fishfryer said:


> Saw the first Shrike of the year, aka Butcher Bird today, he or she grabbing insects as I am bushhogging. That's one of my favorites. All the Bluebirds and Mockingbirds joining the party.


I've never seen one of those in my life. Always wanted to.


----------



## Red dirt clod

Rain crows back yesterday [ yellow eyed cuckoo] Whippoorwills came back last week. Baby wrens left the nest last week from our garage, had to leave the door cracked when I left home. 38 this morning, maybe a degree or so cooler tonight. Been a nice spring around here.


----------



## trents99

Finished up a privacy fence the other day and the next morning close to noon eyed about a 2' black rat snake perched on top of the fence catching some sun.

Yesterday the wind had stirred up some termites from somewhere in the woods and they were swarming the open area close to the house. Stood and watched as the dragonflys had a field day with them. They would dart amongst them and then you see just a little termite wing flutter to the ground.


----------



## oldguy

Saw the first butcher bird of the season yesterday and Eastern king birds as well. Elderberry blooming prolifically around the countryside. These 50 degree nights are keeping the water temperatures low - 60s. I  haven't found any bream bedding yet. The fig tree has little "bloom" figs on it. All the mayhaws on our tree look like little porcupines.


----------



## Nicodemus

No shrikes yet, but the chucks, kingbirds, indigo buntings, blue grosbeaks, orchard orioles, summer tanagers, great crested flycatchers, cowbirds, white ibis, Mississippi kites, rain crows, and hummingbirds have returned. My fig tree is gonna have a bumper crop this year, as well as one of my Meyer`s lemon trees.


----------



## Red dirt clod

34 this morning, no frost. Covered tomatoes & peppers yesterday, blueberries are loaded this year. Wrens built a nest in the spare tire of the Jeep again.


----------



## NCHillbilly

32 with snow showers here this morning.


----------



## dank1296

Made a PVC frame and covered my 4 blueberry bushes bout 8-9 feet tall. Then bird netted them, their loaded this year.


----------



## oldguy

Nicodemus said:


> No shrikes yet, but the chucks, kingbirds, indigo buntings, blue grosbeaks, orchard orioles, summer tanagers, great crested flycatchers, cowbirds, white ibis, Mississippi kites, rain crows, and hummingbirds have returned. My fig tree is gonna have a bumper crop this year, as well as one of my Meyer`s lemon trees.


Send those Mississippi kites down here for a fly over! I'm gettin' a crick in my neck staring up!


----------



## 35 Whelen

Saw a Rose Breasted Grosbeak for the first time ever.  We are just inside their breeding range up here in the mountains, never saw one down in Gwinnett County.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Yesterday I saw my first Mississippi kite and King birds of the year. Today a pretty male orchard oriole gave me a serenade.


----------



## trad bow

Seems to be a very good year for amount of birds and species flying through or sticking around this year.


----------



## oldguy

I agree!
Same with snakes as well. I just added a red bellied water snake to the list this morning Makes 7 different species so far! And I'm not actively hunting them.
I'm STILL waiting on my first Mississippi kite!
Rescued a fledgling Cardinal from the cat yesterday. Stuck him back in the nest. How long he stays rescued is up to him.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Last evening was treated to the sight of a lone wood stork gliding toward his roost area. Neighbor has a nice wooded pond at the back of his farm where they roost from time to time.


----------



## oldguy

GeorgeShu said:


> Last evening was treated to the sight of a lone wood stork gliding toward his roost area. Neighbor has a nice wooded pond at the back of his farm where they roost from time to time.


Look prehistoric don't they?
Working on dropping the water/removing the beavers at a culvert for a landowner. Has created a feeding ground for the wading birds. This morning when I drove up a huge flock of wood ibis flew off, followed by a great blue heron.


----------



## Nicodemus

Saw my first wood stork of the year a little while ago. Also saw these beauties floating on the water. Jelly making time!


----------



## oldways

Yes sir I cooked a boiler of them down and made juice got to get to town and get some pectin or surejell


----------



## GeorgeShu

Oldguy, yup, prehistoric is great description for them. I often use that term to describe my first impression when turkeys come into sight, the way they move, etc. A surreal experience seeing both birds for some reason.


----------



## oldguy

Saw yet another black snake today. More snakes than I can rember seeing in a long time. Mimosa, prickly pear, yucca, and the native wisteria blooming along the roads.


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> Saw yet another black snake today. More snakes than I can rember seeing in a long time. Mimosa, prickly pear, yucca, and the native wisteria blooming along the roads.


Did not know there was a native wisteria until your post. Thanks!


----------



## oldguy

fishfryer said:


> Did not know there was a native wisteria until your post. Thanks!


You're welcome.
It looks the same as the more familiar Asian variety, just not as rampant and invasive. Leaves and flowers are much smaller and it blooms later- now and into summer vs. early spring.


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> You're welcome.
> It looks the same as the more familiar Asian variety, just not as rampant and invasive. Leaves and flowers are much smaller and it blooms later- now and into summer vs. early spring.


I've seen enough asian wisteria take over trees and make a real eyesore that I wouldn't have any. Momma had some several times, it's pretty and smells good,but too invasive for me. I don't hate it as much as bradford pear(doesn't deserve capitalization),but close.


----------



## Gary Mercer

Hey Nic, give me a call when you get a jar or two ready.
Gary


----------



## oldguy

Got wild petunia and St. John's wort  blooming around the house. Transplanted an Indian Pink that I scratched out of the ground with a digging stick in the woods last year. Potted it up. It over wintered and bloomed. Hope to get a colony established in a shady fern bed next to the back porch.
Visited a pond yesterday. "Payment" for beaver trapping. Bass on the fly rod! Fish for supper tonight.


----------



## GeorgeShu

Saw a painted bunting today, a beautiful creature.


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> You're welcome.
> It looks the same as the more familiar Asian variety, just not as rampant and invasive. Leaves and flowers are much smaller and it blooms later- now and into summer vs. early spring.


The native W. frutescens is 100x more well-behaved than the Chinese or Japanese species. It's a good vine to plant on a chain link fence.


----------



## NCHillbilly

GeorgeShu said:


> Saw a painted bunting today, a beautiful creature.


I've only seen those a few times, down on the SC coast. They are indeed beautiful little birds.


----------



## oldguy

NCHillbilly said:


> The native W. frutescens is 100x more well-behaved than the Chinese or Japanese species. It's a good vine to plant on a chain link fence.


Strangely you don't see it cultivated like  the Asian variety.


----------



## oldguy

Actually I think it's strange that the landscape/horticulture crowd spends so much time and effort in "developing" new varieties of cultivated plants rather than focusing on the already "developed" (over thousands of years) native varieties. Clear a new home sight then come in and start planting stuff that doesn't belong there in the first place. The heavy hand of man.


----------



## NCHillbilly

oldguy said:


> Actually I think it's strange that the landscape/horticulture crowd spends so much time and effort in "developing" new varieties of cultivated plants rather than focusing on the already "developed" (over thousands of years) native varieties. Clear a new home sight then come in and start planting stuff that doesn't belong there in the first place. The heavy hand of man.


Most of them have definitely never read any Jens Jensen and his theories about a "sense of place." They come around here all the time and bulldoze down oaks, sourwoods, dogwoods, rhododendron, mountain laurel, and native azaleas and plant crape myrtles, junipers, and nandinas.

I also don't understand the American fascination with monocultures of exotic invasive grass that gets clipped down every time it tries to grow.


----------



## NCHillbilly

Here is a pic I took this morning of native Wisteria frutescens that I planted on a fence several years ago.


----------



## oldguy

We've gotten small showers the last two nights - about .3" each. First rain the month of May. Saturday and again today I backed up and looked at two good gray rat snakes each close to 5' long dead in the road. Also today I passed another black snake dead and then to top it off backed up to examine yet another road kill and found a good solid 4' corn snake (red rat)! Man, if I'd'a been a little earlier I'd be telling you about the corn snake I caught! I don't see 'em much any more and when I do they're dead...
Have a volunteer poke weed in the yard that I let grow and provide seed for the birds. Several years old now and reaching 7' tall!


----------



## fishfryer

oldguy said:


> We've gotten small showers the last two nights - about .3" each. First rain the month of May. Saturday and again today I backed up and looked at two good gray rat snakes each close to 5' long dead in the road. Also today I passed another black snake dead and then to top it off backed up to examine yet another road kill and found a good solid 4' corn snake (red rat)! Man, if I'd'a been a little earlier I'd be telling you about the corn snake I caught! I don't see 'em much any more and when I do they're dead...
> Have a volunteer poke weed in the yard that I let grow and provide seed for the birds. Several years old now and reaching 7' tall!


I knew a fellow from Tennessee that was on one of my ships, who said he used to write his name on his cotton sack with pokeberries.


----------



## Ocmulgee44

I saw a swallow-tailed kite as I passed over Horse creek just outside Lumber City yesterday! I have seen them from time to time soaring gracefully high above the river during the summer but never this early and never down low like this one was. He was obviously hunting just above some low trees and I was impressed with how acrobatic he was for such a large slender looking bird!


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## fishfryer

Saw an Orchard Oriole today, as well as at least two pairs of Phoebes. We have been putting up Bluebird boxes for 40 years or so,Bluebirds everywhere. Did something today that probably should have been done years ago. Pushed open a shallow ditch from the garden into a lower place in orchard,hope that I have no more standing water after a big rain. Maters as big as cupcakes.


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## westcobbdog

Watched a Barred Owl on my fence yesterday who was watching a squirrel eat sunflower seeds and did not attack it, he must of just finished his breakfast.


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## 35 Whelen

Large bear in the front yard this morning!  I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee when I saw him through the front window, not more than 20 yards from the house. Went out on the front porch and he turned to look at me then walked slowly away and disappeared into the fog.


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## Southbow

I ran across these Carrion Beetles working on a dead hawk last weekend on Alapaha WMA. The video shows they're pretty fast at their work.

Video Link


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## Ocmulgee44

I had a beautiful pair of little doves loving up on my pea patch the other day. They could both fly but chose to walk around on the ground with me no more than three feet or so away. These are probably young but it never ceases to amaze me how the same animal can be so different acting in different seasons. We have all probably seen those sly old gray ghost bucks of January turn to red of summer and lose 40 points on their IQ!


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## Ocmulgee44

Probably time to hang up my hoe and pick up my fishing rod!


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## 35 Whelen

Saw a Scarlet Tanager up here on the mountain yesterday,  first one I have ever seen.  

Today, just a little bit ago, I actually put a coat on to go outside.  It is cold and very windy up here on this mountain!


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## fishfryer

Had a pair of Orchard Orioles visit yesterday. This morning saw the male again.


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## NCHillbilly

fishfryer said:


> Had a pair of Orchard Orioles visit yesterday. This morning saw the male again.


I had a pair nest in my yard about 20 years ago, and I haven't seen one since. Those swinging nests are fascinating.


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## fishfryer

NCHillbilly said:


> I had a pair nest in my yard about 20 years ago, and I haven't seen one since. Those swinging nests are fascinating.


I'd like to see a nest for sure.


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## GeorgeShu

It was a good day yesterday. Blessed to see TWO painted buntings!
One flew up on the stop sign at a rural crossroads, another near my tool shed at the property.


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## fishfryer

I saw a wingless red wasp on the handrail from back porch to carport driveway today. She was missing most of both wings just little rough stubs left. The interesting part was she bailed off that handrail and fell an easy 4 feet onto concrete with no apparent harm done. She continued on her way at a fast clip. She was roughly one inch long,and 1/4 inch high,meaning she fell 162 times her own height,there's nothing else I've ever seen do that, and live.


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## Gary Mercer

Well now its Hurricane season. Hope y'all in SOWEGA don't wash away.
Nic, head for high ground.


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## fishfryer

Nic is so tough that the gators would organize a relay to get him to shore,the idea of making him mad would be unthinkable.


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## westcobbdog

saw where the predicted storm surge could raise the sea level 12-15 ft.


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## fishfryer

I bushhogged the garden today,disrupted the cottonrat population, and watched several formations of dragonflies. The humidity is better today but looking forward to lower humidity and temperature.


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## NCHillbilly

For the last two afternoons on the way home, I've seen a cormorant sitting on a rock in the river below my house with its wings spread out. Not something you usually see here in the mountains.


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## Gary Mercer

Batten down the hatches, Boys and Girls, here comes Sally.
Anybody making special preparations?
Y'all stay safe now, Y'hear??
Gary


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## fishfryer

NCHillbilly said:


> For the last two afternoons on the way home, I've seen a cormorant sitting on a rock in the river below my house with its wings spread out. Not something you usually see here in the mountains.


I see them pretty often around here on the lakes. I'm surprised to hear they're in your neck of the woods also.


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## NCHillbilly

fishfryer said:


> I see them pretty often around here on the lakes. I'm surprised to hear they're in your neck of the woods also.


Yeah, I see them by the thousands sometimes down on Clark's Hill, but that's only one of a handful I've ever seen up here in my life.


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## trad bow

See the butterflies are starting their migration out of here. About a month early.  Saw probably a hundred monarchs flying high through out the day


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## oldways

Fall's coming golden rod is blooming corn is getting picked and peanuts dug. I love this time of the year..


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## Ocmulgee44

My old daddy used to say," Dog fennel is blooming. Thirty days till frost." Anybody else ever hear that one?


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## fishfryer

Ocmulgee44 said:


> View attachment 1047337
> 
> My old daddy used to say," Dog fennel is blooming. Thirty days till frost." Anybody else ever hear that one?


No,but I like it.


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## NCHillbilly

Hard freeze here this morning.


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## Resica

44 here today.


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## Gary Mercer

Well, Nic, the Black Gum is through for the year.  But I am still fightin the leaves from all the others, that don't have the courtesy to go ahead and "let's do it all at one time."
Tarnation


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## GeorgeShu

This morning early I let the cat out and walked out to feel the morning temperature.  I could hear an occassional crunching sound. Sounded like pecans being cracked.  Grabbed the flashlight and watched two does under a pecan tree munching on fallen pecans. I knew they ate them but had never caught them in the act before.


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## fishfryer

GeorgeShu said:


> This morning early I let the cat out and walked out to feel the morning temperature.  I could hear an occassional crunching sound. Sounded like pecans being cracked.  Grabbed the flashlight and watched two does under a pecan tree munching on fallen pecans. I knew they ate them but had never caught them in the act before.


I've never seen it in living color,but the evidence is here at times.


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## Gary Mercer

No thing interesting to talk about, but I thought someone should  break the silence.  It's wet and cold, and I am going to the kitchen to start a big pot of chili.
What are all Y'all up to in this miserable time of year. (Winter)
Gary
PS 7 Days until I don my Druid, robes and dance in the moonlight, as the days will start getting longer.  Winter Solstice.  In the old days, we would have to sacrifice a couple of young ladies, but now that is considered "Bad Form."


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## Head East

Gary Mercer said:


> .  In the old days, we would have to sacrifice a couple of young ladies, but now that is considered "Bad Form."




WAIT...WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN???


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## Gary Mercer

Probably over a thousand years ago.


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## Gary Mercer

Days are getting longer, Men.

YEAA!!~!!


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## Ocmulgee44

Nothing like an early start! These have been blooming for about a week now. I think they may be having second thoughts.


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## Ocmulgee44

I have quite a few robins congregated around my house right now also. That seems a little early to me too. Maybe we are going to have a mild February. I hope not. I'm not ready for that just yet. I still have some cold weather stuff to do.


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