Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Visiting with Connie and Duane in Decatur

We stopped by Connie and Duane on our way to the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau last week.
They got a new home in Decatur and we wanted to see it.
The home was beautiful.  We also wanted to spend some time with family...and play games, grill outside, chat, be together.  We did all that.  It was pleasant.
They must like to spend time with us too, because they came to join us on the second week-end of our vacation in Tennessee and that was awesome.
Connie and Duane
Debbie and Duane
 Family is important.  Come see us sometimes!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Camping and Birding near the Georgia Coast

Camping is great.  Birding is great. Camping and Birding ...super great!
We spent 3 nights and 4 days camping and birding last month (March).  We were at the Gordonia Alatamaha State Park which is a full facility campgrounds State Park.
 By "full facility" I meant a campground with water and electricity at the site and bathrooms with hot shower.  The above picture shows our bathroom.  Debbie's bathroom is on the left and mine is on right.  Funny I'm writing this but since we were the only campers with tents, everyone else having RVs or motorhomes, we had the bathrooms all to ourselves.
Debbie holding a Cherokee Rose. 
This State Park was close enough to the coast so we were able to visit and bird many coastal birding spots.  In the above picture, Debbie is by a Cherokee Rose bush at the Skidaway SP near Savannah.  No, she didn't pick the beautiful rose.  It's always better to leave beauties in nature alone for all to enjoy.


The above pictures are taken on Tybee Island, North Beach, where flocks of Black Skimmers, Gull species, and Terns were resting.  The North Beach at Tybee remains the unspoiled part of the island.
Harris Neck
Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge became one of the top birding spots for us in Georgia along with the Altamaha Wildlife Management Area.  If you love nature, this place got it!
Baby alligators at Harris Neck

Baby gators at Harris Neck
Altamaha WMA
Harris Neck NWR
These little alligators should be afraid of us, right? Didn't seem like they were at all.  Pictures were taken with a camera phone so that tells you how close these gators were.  They were literally on the banks of the trail.
Skidaway SP
Debbie at Tybee Island
As tired as Debbie was that day, she still looks happy.

Turned out to be a great camping and birding trip with over 120 birds species encountered in four days.  We had the benefit of a very wide variety of birds' habitats.