Ralph and Grace

It's the beginning of a new week. We had golfed planned with the six of us at Wachesaw. When we got up we found that the temperature was sitting at -2c. It was a cold one for golf and the temperatures didn't get above 10c. I must say that when the sun was shining it actually felt quite nice but the wind was very cold. We still all had fun. Sadly Teresa only played half the round on Monday as it was cart path only and her knee couldn't tolerate all the walking Hopefully it will start to heal up soon.

A very interesting early morning sunrise.

One of the things we like to do each other is to alert via text when we see dolphins swimming by. Grace sounded the alarm on Monday before leaving for golf and they were nice and close to shore but sadly swimming right towards to reflection cast by the sun as you can see on my photos. I thought it was pretty interesting that water on the dolphin reflected back as a sun flare. You can also see that it's cold out by the steam coming off their bodies.

On Tuesday Ralph and I drove to the Litchfield Beach to see if we could spot any Oyster Catchers or Gannets. I think we may have arrived too late as the only thing we saw was pelicans and lots of them flying by. I never realized what a beautiful beach it is and it would be great to go there on a warm day and collect shells and walk. It's very flat and really long making perfect for walking.

From Litchfield we went back to Huntington. The sun was shining making it nice for walking around. Ralph ended up walking from the causeway to the straight road in search of Cedar Waxwings. I wasn't aware that he was doing that but figured he just wanted to get some extra steps in. I met up with Lawrence and Teresa who were also there enjoying the day. Even though it was cold, there still was a nice variety of birds to be seen and enjoyed.

Little Blue Heron

Cardinal

Splish splash I was taking a bath - Greater Yellow Legs

Reflections - Great Egret

Great catch - Great Egret

Great catch - Great Blue Heron

Belted Kingfisher

When Ralph returned from his walk he shared with me that he had seen some Waxwings. Oh boy was I every excited to hear that. I love the Cedar Waxwing and their beautiful muted colours. We walked down the straight road and the closer we got to them the louder the noise became. There was so many of them. They were mixed in with Robins and Red Wing Blackbirds. The noise was incredible. I could feel my adrenaline surging as I heard the chatter. We rarely see the Waxwings so this was such an awesome discovery. I sure was hoping that they would stay for a while. As we were photographing them, all of a sudden all the chatter stopped. You could hear a pin fall. Not one bird moved or made a sound. This lasted for about 5 minutes until the "all clear" was raised and the chatter started again. Ralph and I think that the Eagle must have flown over. We were able to get some good shots before it happened again. The next time the "all clear" was sound, like a rush of air they all left the tree's and flew away. It was quite an experience to hear the loud wing flaps and then nothing.

Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwings

During our walk back we heard a lot of noise in the pond. It's that time of year again where the males start strutting their stuff trying to impress the females. This time it was the Guillemot's that were doing the courting. Another first for us to witness.

Guillemot (also known as water chickens)

The day ended with a beautiful sunset for us all to enjoy.

On Wednesday we decided to stock up on a few essentials in the event that everything gets shut down because of the forecasted freezing rain. They are expecting it to last 3 days with on and off rain and colder weather.

Afterwards we headed back to Huntington Beach. It was surprising at how quiet it was. I had read once that birds can sense when the weather is changing and I suspect that this is what is happening at the park. We stayed quite a while and walked a good distance looking for more Waxwings but none could be found. We still had fun and enjoyed the quietness of the park and the birds we were able to see.

Redhead Duck

Osprey

Reflections - Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Wilson Snipe

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Virginia Rail

Juvenile Ibis

Tree Swallow

We played a round of golf on Thursday all together. Our game was at Parkland which is one of the Legends courses. This was a first time for all of us. Because the weather was nice, the course was busy and the round was very slow. We had a fourth person put in with us for our round. His name was Joe. He was very friendly and talked nonstop. When he wasn't talking he was whistling or singing. You never know who might be added to your group (especially on a busy day) so we were thankful that he was pleasant and didn't use course language.

On Friday, Ralph and I decided to go to Brookgreen Gardens ahead of the rain. They forecasted rain for later in the day (it didn't happen) although we did get a few drops while we were there. The aviary was closed sadly because of incidents of Avian flu so they were being very cautious. That made sense to us. It's a really beautiful park with lots of sculptures and a zoo where they rehabilitate injured animals and where possible release them back into the wild. They have a variety of birds, otters, foxes, red wolves and even alligators on their property.

Red-tailed Hawk

Caracara

Gray Fox

Gray fox

Otter

Sandhill Crane

Ruddy Duck

Northern Pintails

Rosette Spoonbill

One of our favourite exhibits is the Red Wolves. I copied this information off the Fish and Wildlife site which explains more about the Red Wolf. The Red wolf is the world's most endangered wolf. Today there are about 15-17 red wolves that roam in their native habitats and approximately 241 that are maintained in 45 captive breeding facilities. Slowly more and more wolves are being released into their native habitats. Wolves mate for life and with the help of the breeding facilities that exist more and more will be able to roam once again through the Eastern and South Central USA. During our visit the wolves started to howl. It lasted for over 10 minutes and was so cool to experience. We both had goosebumps up our arms after hearing them. They have 4 at this facility and their hope is that they will successfully mate this spring.

After we left Brookgreen Gardens we went to Huntington Beach State Park again. It was just down the road so we thought we would take a quick visit. We went in search of the Waxwings and luckily we were successful in finding a group near the Juniper Trees.

I went for a walk on Saturday on the beach. The wind was blowing quite strongly. I dressed warmly in anticipation of the colder temperatures although it didn't get as bad as they were calling for. I went in search of shells but didn't find many. I figured I should get out for a while with all the bad weather being forecasted.

On Sunday it was interesting to see the mist on top of the ocean. It was -1c when I woke up with freezing rain forecasted but it never arrived. I was able to get out later in the afternoon and went in search of shells and sharks teeth. It was very wavy with them rolling in from the north. They brought in many broken shells but nothing really work collecting. I did eventually find some nice sharks teeth.

Mist over the ocean.

Sharks teeth

This wase a first for me - 2 teeth on the root.

The good news we received late this afternoon is that the Winter Storm Watch has now ended for Myrtle Beach. It will still be colder but the expectation of snow and freezing rain has passed.

It's nice that we're all back together again. The golfing will get started with the two threesomes. Men and ladies. Our first round together will be this upcoming Thursday. We're all looking forward to that. The temperature on Monday morning was 1c. What a change from the last week. They are calling for a high of 9c today and slowly through the week it should start to rise again. We originally had plans to go to Huntington again but it's too cold for the birds to be out.

The week itself was on the cooler but it was still nice for golf if you were dressed appropriately. I had a few layers on and wore my winter gloves. It was nice when the sun was shining but the wind was pretty cold.

We ended up playing two rounds this week. We played at Heritage on Tuesday and at Crown Park on Thursday. We also managed to get to Huntington two times this week. Both visits were very enjoyable with us seeing a variety of birds. We also went to the Winter "Meet and Greet" hosted by the Caribbean. There certainly isn't many people staying this year for the winter period. My guess was that there was maybe 15 couples that attended. Two of them (not including us) were from Canada. It most certainly is a different year.

The following are a few shots taken on Wednesday and Saturday. Sunday turned out to be a day filled with rain. A good time to read and work on a puzzle between services.