Wildlife – Page 14 – Wandering Dawgs

Backyard Wildlife

August 26, 2016Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Georgia, Nature, WildlifeTagged Black Swallowtail, Diamonndback Terrapin, Gulf Fritillary, Horned Owl, Monarch, monarch caterpillar36 Comments

I never know what I might see when I walk out my back door.

One day a juvenile horned owl stopped to search for a tasty morsel in the marsh.

Another day this diamond back terrapin took a wrong turn into our back yard.

The ruby throated hummingbirds come by for a drink every day.

It’s been a constant battle keeping the aphids off my milkweed but I have had an occasional Monarch stop by.

I spotted my first caterpillar of the summer on August 24!

All the butterflies love the Mexican Sunflowers I planted this year.

And the bees love it, too.

Celebrating Ten Years of Wandering

July 15, 2016Posted in Lighthouse, Road Trip, RVing, Sunset, WildlifeTagged black bear, Enchanted Rock, Fifth Wheel, Split Rock Lighthouse, Yosemite Valley33 Comments

What an amazing ten years! Each marker on this map represents a place where we camped in our RV.

Ten years ago, on July 1, 2006, we spent our first night in an RV park in Tampa, Florida. Two weeks later we left Georgia with no reservations anywhere and a bucket list of what we wanted to see. You can see highlights of that trip at Looking Back on our First RV Trip. Last year I posted a few of our most memorable experiences from our first nine years at Celebrating Nine Years of RVing.

Many of our trips revolved around either visiting family or attending a special event such as a wedding or Titanium Rally. Sometimes we traveled just for the fun of seeing new places. No matter where we were going, we always took the long way around to get there.

We discovered beauty in every state and province we visited. Sometimes the everyday things were the best.

I love watching the changing landscape and seeing the many farms and ranches.

I love seeing the farms as we drive along

We always enjoy seeing lighthouses.

Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota's North Shore — Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota’s North Shore

Seeing wildlife is always a treat.

Black Bear beside the road in British Columbia

And of course we loved visiting many of our National Parks.

Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View Overlook

Sometimes we enjoyed watching the sunset from our campsite.

Mount Redoubt sunset in Ninilchik, Alaska

We did a few amazing hikes.

At the Summit of Enchanted Rock in Texas

Chilling by a camp fire is always fun.

Now that we have ten years of RV’ing under our belt, our priorities have changed. Of course, we are ten years older and it is more difficult to make long trips. When we started our wandering, we only had two grandchildren. Now we have four and we want to spend as much time with them as we can. Going on long trips takes us away from them for too long.

Our wandering days are not over. There are still many places we haven’t seen in and near our home state of Georgia so from now on we will travel a little closer to home.

Back Yard Painted Buntings

May 6, 2016Posted in Birds, Georgia, Nature, WildlifeTagged backyard birds, Georgia birding, Painted Bunting16 Comments

We’ve been watching painted buntings come to our feeder in the back yard for the last couple of weeks. For several days every time I set up my camera to capture these beautiful birds I scared them away. They are very skittish and fly off when they sense the slightest movement.

I never gave up trying and my patience finally paid off when I was able to get a few shots of a pair at the feeder.

The male kept on eating after the female flew off.

After she left he came around to my side of the feeder so I could get a good look at him. The food must be better on this side!

Nesting Birds at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge

April 25, 2016February 24, 2018Posted in Birds, Georgia, National Wildlife Refuge, Nature, WildlifeTagged day trip, geocaching, Georgia birding, Great Egret, Harris Neck, roadside attractions, Smallest Church in America, tri colored heron, wood stork, Wood Stork Nesting9 Comments

Wood storks, egrets, and herons build their nests every spring in the trees of Woody Pond at the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. Located in Georgia just a few miles from I 95 in between Savannah and Brunswick, it is a great day trip from our home.

Woody Pond at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge

Wood storks were placed on the Endangered Species list in 1984. After almost 30 years of conservation efforts to increase the wood stork population, their status was upgraded to Threatened in June, 2014.

A path along the dike beside Woody Pond provides a great place to view the birds. The wood storks and egrets shared the trees.

Nesting Wood Storks and Great Egrets at Woody Pond

Many of the wood storks were working on their nests. None of their eggs had hatched yet.

As I took photos, Henry used the spotting scope and pointed out a mother egret with chicks that I would have never seen. The nests were a long way from where we were so the picture isn’t the best but it gives you an idea of the size of the baby egret.

In the shallow water at the edge of the pond a tri-colored heron entertained us as he searched for food.

Tri colored heron

Tri Colored Heron gets his catch

After leaving the refuge we stopped at the Smallest Church in America to take a look and do a little geocaching.

An arsonist burned this church in November, 2015. The church is being rebuilt through the efforts of volunteers and the work is almost complete.

Smallest Church in America, Townsend, Georgia

Smallest Church in America

After finding the geocache hidden near the church we headed for home.

Into the Okefenokee Swamp

April 22, 2016February 24, 2018Posted in Birds, Georgia, National Wildlife Refuge, Nature, RVing, WildlifeTagged Alligators, cypress trees, Okeenokee Swamp, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Snowy Egret, Stephen C. Foster State Park6 Comments

We enjoyed walking around the marina and going on the nature trail at Stephen C. Foster State Park in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge but we wanted to be in a boat to really experience the swamp. On one of our visits a few years ago we rented a canoe to paddle into the swamp and another time we rented a boat to venture even farther into the swamp. On our most recent trip in early spring we decided to take a ranger guided boat tour.

As we glided through the man made canal our guide pointed out the baby alligators and their mother Sophie who was keeping a close watch on her babies. Her mate Zeke was no where to be found.

As the boat exited the canal we entered the big water of Billy’s Lake where we were about six miles from the headwaters of the Suwanee River. The water here gets up to six feet deep, much deeper than the average depth of two feet.

It was a beautiful day to be on the water and we saw a few other people out on the water.

A kayaker goes around the bend deeper into the swamp

Our guide took us through the narrow waterway toward Minnie’s Lake. In some places the water was barely wide enough for the 24 foot Carolina Skiff. As we ventured farther into the swamp it was as if we had stepped back in time to a prehistoric age. We were miles from civilization in this incredibly wild place.

Boats had to navigate around this cypress tree

It is estimated that the alligator population in the swamp is about 20,000. We saw quite a few as we went along. It was mating season and I wondered if this gator was trying to attract a mate.

Another gator was behind a huge cypress tree.

Do you see the alligator behind the Cypress tree?

And there were young ones sunning on a log.

There are many species of wildlife besides alligators. While we didn’t see any raccoons, opossums, turtles, or bears, we did see a few birds out searching for food.