Kelly is going to Paris

Traveling is good for expanding our horizons. Before you know it, your children are traveling overseas by themselves. (If you have children). I can understand Kelly's excitement. I was doing the same thing at her age and getting all excited about it. Now, it's her turn. She has already visited Togo, Canada, and the Dominican Republic. She has many more trips ahead. Leah is following right behind.

Kelly is in the 1st picture with a friend from Bangladesh, studying abroad. "Abroad" here is the US. And she is going to Paris in the same French program too. How cool is that? I wish for their small group to see a lot, experience a lot, have fun, and grow in maturity. I believe traveling makes a person more mature and more humble. You know your backyard is not the end of the world.

Alligator at the Ocmulgee

After checking on a property early this morning, I stopped by the Mound on my way back to the office.
Conveniently, the Park is on my way back. 
It was early, and it was cool. Birds were out including the Great Crested Flycatcher, several Great Egrets and one lonely Blue Heron.  I don't want to bore you with all the birds in this post.  Trust me, they were out, and they were vocal.

I was hurrying back when I saw, just lying on a log, a little alligator.  You can easily miss him but I always check those logs because that's where the big water moccasins use to sunbathe.  I guess they got evicted by the alligator.

I just saw a man on the trail a few minutes earlier.  I've seen him around here before.  I carry my binoculars, he carries his camera with powerful zoom lenses.

Well, I shared my find with him and he sent me three pictures of the alligator.  He also shared the snake he saw and I missed.  A long black Rat Snake in a branch above the trail. The tree branches form a canopy in that area and you can just walk under.  Very convenient when it gets hot.  Pretty too. Well, I walked right under the snake and didn't see him. I think that snake knows me by now and I recognized him too. We've met a few times before. Last year and this year. We just never got the chance to properly introduce ourselves.  Hey Rat Snake, if you ever read this blog, my name is Andre and you must be Blackie, right? 

Isn't nature just beautiful?  Alligators are photogenic, black snakes are pretty and friendly, birds say hello to you and sing you pretty songs...Get out every chance you get. Miracles are all around you. If you wait till you're old, you can't walk as good, you can't see as good, and you'll wish you've done it earlier.

Spring birdwatching at the Ocmulgee

We went this morning for some birdwatching at the Ocmulgee National Monument.  No two birdwatching trips are ever the same!  You always have a different experience even if you go back to the same areas again and again.

The Indigo Buntings are out.  They are pretty blue birds with beautiful songs.  They like to sing.  We saw Bluebirds too, with a bright blue color.  The usual birds were there such as the Great Blue Heron, Great Egrets, (some were flying and were so gracious!), Cardinals, Phoebes (singing their heart out!), Killdeer, Titmice and Chickadees.  A Red Shouldered Hawk was perched on top of a tree and watched us walk by. Did you know black birds could be pretty too?  Red-Winged Blackbirds, Rusty Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and Brewer Blackbirds.  They're all out in our area now. 

The Great Crested Flycatcher is visiting, and the Eastern Kingbird was begging to be seen by singing as loud as he could.  Sparrows and Wrens are always around too here.  So many birds when you start looking!

We were rewarded by observing a male and female Summer Tanager playing around like teenage birds in the foliage. The unique thing about the male Tanager was that he was not fully red. When we checked it out later at home, we understood that his red with yellows were the colors of a Summer Tanager in his first Spring.  Interesting that these birds have girlfriends so early.  We recognized the female immediately from our last camping trip when they were hanging around the campsite.

Chipmunks are out, as well as turtles, and the deer.

We also heard two Barred Owls hooting loud in plain daylight, then barking at each other.  Fun, just fun to be out.

So, why do we do it?

We just came back from a camping trip two week-ends ago. And there we go again. Another camping trip this week-end. So, why do we do it? Why do we keep going any chance we get?
Look at Debbie in this first picture and you'll get your answer. IT MAKES US HAPPY. People line up in a crowded place like Disney to enjoy a few minutes of entertaining or relaxing scene. People travel long distances to be at the beach and soak in the pleasant experience of the waves crashing on the shore. Why do you need to fight a crowd just to have a singular experience, unique to you?
Maybe if money was no object we'll go scuba diving in the Great Barrier, then go to Fiji or the Seychelles Island, go for a zip line experience over some forests in Costa Rica or the Amazon in Brazil, and...stop for breakfast in historic Paris before coming home. Right?
Otherwise, you drive 45 mins to an hour from home to a quiet and peaceful forest, camp where the birds will come visit you, see some unique creatures we still can't find in books or on line, and come back home. The inner being tastes the same repose, same unique and adventurous experience, and is totally refreshed...and it only costs one hour worth of gas in your vehicle (no, 2 hours, you have to come back). But gosh! it's peaceful, tranquil, restful.
So, why are more people not doing this?
Bugs-we don't like them either. Debbie won't go on the trails when the bugs are out. And we bring repellents. This time we even brought a can of "outdoor camp fogger". We used the whole g.d. can! The gnats were out, and we shielded our site. But we couldn't go on the trails this time. (We still saw over 20 different bird species just around the camp site).
Isn't it sinful to like nature so much then go in and spray chemical for your own cocoon? Hum, I guess so. May God forgive us then. and we just lost a few hours in longevity with all the bug spray this week-end. True, but we've also been adding years by new habits. net result? still ahead by a few years, not to worry. Keep drinking that wine, baby! and eat all those organic vegetables from our own garden. We'll be 100 years old in no time anyhow. Then we'll find a way to die, like snorkeling with the stingrays. Who knows. (The wine part was a joke guys!)
Other reason people won't camp-snakes, bears, mountain lions, and other ferocious attacking creatures. Hum... hard, very hard to find any of those. Even the snakes. Very hard to find. But again, we're not looking. These creatures hear you a mile away and go their way. And we go ours. You're not prey for them and you're not competing for the same food.  We found a turtle with a yellow head and yellow legs. Do you know the name? A weird creature came to visit us at the campsite. It looks like a squirrel but totally black and much bigger than a squirrel with a white face that looks flattened. He can climb trees super fast.
Wanna go camping? Let us know. We'd love company.

A little week-end project

Beside some gardening, we did a little week-end project.
Got three old doors out of storage. Spray painted 2 of the doors.
Connected all three.
The tricky part was to prop them up and brace them well so the wind won't knock them down. It all looked so good when we were finished that Debbie added her special decorative touch to it.
And...voila!
A nice little addition to the garden.

A graduating camping test

Finally! We feel we have truly camped. This is the first time we have camped in a place no one has camped before.
I don't mean that no one has camped in the Oconee National Forest before. But you're supposed to camp at designated camping areas. Well, this Forest does not have very many "designated" camping areas. There were brush fires around our favorite spot. Not too pretty. Our second choice was already taken. The next site was too far. This is a big forest!... we had just enough time to set up camp before nightfall and we haven't had diner yet.
Well, we did what any reasonable person would do.
Go back home...hahaha, that would be quite unreasonable. We spotted an abandoned trail and drove our Humvee (actually our Ford truck) around the fallen trees and mud holes and found the perfect camping spot. Perfect, because no one else will dare come here. It was on a dead end trail with enough obstacles to discourage the fainthearted. We cleared "our site" with tools we brought and set up camp.
We got our duties down pack. I was setting up stations left and right while Debbie was making a gourmet meal.  No worry, we brought wine and beer too! 5 Stars camping in the forest, you bet.
It then hit us! We just set up a comfortable camp site in the middle of nowhere. And we were happy like two little kids sent to heaven.
After some quiet moments, the birds started visiting. It was barely dark when the Great Horn and Barred Owls stated hooting like crazy. And the Whip-O-Wills (these are night birds), forget it, they were all around us wipowilling their hearts out! Just makes you smile.
The only unhappy campers we've made were a pack of some wild canines whose path we've inadvertently blocked. They howled, barked, cried, laughed like stupid hyenas in the middle of the night. No dice. It's now our spot for 2 nights! Stay away! When I realized what we did to them, I just smiled and went right back to sleep. We're the kings of the jungle, the humans. Everything else stayed away at a respectful distance. Maybe Debbie didn't see it the same way, but heck she had the loaded gun! I have my childish and naive confidence. I hesitated telling my "Betterhalf" we've blocked the path of those ... whatever they were. Nobody wants to scare his wife in the middle of a forest in the middle of the night! That would be stupid!

All in all we've identified 22 birds including 4 new species we haven't seen before. This does not include the dozen or so we could not identify or the ones we couldn't even see. 

We saw a water spring on one of our walks. Debbie saw it first...at a very Elvishlike setting of the forest.
A baby snake tried to crawl under our tent. I picked it up and threw it back in the woods, sparring his life. I could have just killed that lost soul but I guess I'm maturing now. That was the only snake we saw.  Usually we don't see snakes.  Maybe because they ran for cover when they hear us, or because we're looking up for birds. (Hey, we're not stupid though).
The memorable thing during this camping trip is the amazing serenity and peace of the place. At night, you have a beautiful sky full of stars. Glorious. We feel like just having graduated from camping after this pleasant adventure.

Picnic at Oconee National Forest

What's the next best thing to camping? You're right! An all day picnic in nature. And that's just what we did this beautiful Saturday Spring day.
We found the perfect spot by a running stream and set up our station complete with our own come-along bathroom. Ooooh, the sound of nature, the serenity of the forest, the melody of birds singing in the trees. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed it because everybody looked happy all day. Of course, the pulled BBQ pork sandwiches with macaroni cheese casserole helped. Did I mention chips, beer, all the bad stuff for you? Nah, we worked it off! There was the good ol' iced tea for those who don't drink, of course.
Debbie's Mom was visiting this week and enjoyed all of it too. The one thing you can't experience with these pictures is the soothing sound of the running water. I think that put Kelly to sleep.
Have you ever wondered why I enjoyed nature so much but I usually wear pants? Well, I wouldn't want any bugs crawling on my legs! That's why. And it makes it easier to go deep in the woods.
Oh yes, we did play some Rook games too. As usual, time passed by quickly. But there is another day.