In Search of: January 2008

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Saturday, January 26, 2008

About two thirty in the morning in the boat ramp parking lot at the end of
Lake Sutton road,which is a long rough dirt road, a car went by the truck.
In a few minutes I heard the car approach the truck and stop behind it.

The truck shook and it was apparent someone was on the back porch. Pepe
sprung to life, reading himself and finding his direction in amazing quick
time, just moments. Then there was a knock at the door.

I couldn't hear everything but someone was telling me they had a flat tire.
Not being able to see out the back door I didn't open it but rather talked
through it. More discussion came about and I offered to call them help. I
got a mom's phone number and called her to tell her that her kids were
stuck at the end of a long bumpy road with a flat tire.

After confirming what was going on I opened the door, with pepe at hand.
It was a 16 year old kid that was indeed in trouble. I could see the flat
tire on the car. He thanked me and I confirmed I was able to reach his
mom. I bet he had a long night.

A little while later I heard what I assume was a wrecker come pick up the
car.

Sometimes I guess people just need a little help.

On the beach at Ft Fisher

This is as far south as you can drive. South of here is Bald Head Island
and the Bald Head Island Nature Preserve. The inlet is now filled in so it
appears this is all one island now.

Sutton Lake

Our nite spot Friday

At Sutton Lake.

Mike Ponders the ocean

This is on the beach at Ft Fisher, NC. The truck did very good on the sand.

Dinner spot

Here is our dinner spot. I'm not sure if we will try to stay the night
here or not.

The rain finally went away, sun came out and it warmed up nicely. Then,
just a few minutes ago it started raining again.

For dinner we are having Alabama Truck Stop Stew.

Lunchtime

Not anything going on at Sutton Lake except fishing. We stopped by the
battleship and did a quick look for birds but didn't find anything major.
However, we did find a great camping spot onthe Cape Fear. We'll be back
to that spot.

We are at Greenfield Lake now making lunch. This Lake is full of birds,
mostly ducks but plenty of woods birds as well. We just found a black and
white warbler before we stopped.

For lunch we are having potato soup and chicken salad sandwiches. By the
end of lunch the drizze should be finished.

Up

We are up and I've had breakfast. It is raining this morning so we slept a
while.

Wait until you hear the exciting story about last nite!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Arrival

We arrived at Sutton Lake just a few minutes ago. We should've turned the
heat on earlier as it was 33 degrees inside. We are going to have to wait
for it to warm up before bedtime.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Back in port

We are back in port. It looks like we might have winter this year. I'm not so happy about that.

Here is our updated travel map. We've traveled through all these states with the truck camper. Does this make the US seem huge to you?

Lunch spot

This is out lunch spot on Lewis Heritage Nature Preserve.

Only 31 degrees so far today with a breeze so it is chilly.

Not much bird activity either...

a view of our nite spot

Harbor view

Mornin

Another good nights rest. The sun is coming up on the harbor. I wonder
what birds we will discover today?

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Closing time

The tallies are in and it is time for bed. We ended up with 45
hard-earned species today. There really was not many birds around.

We met a few bonehead birders today that were more interested in the glass
hanging around your neck than what birds were out there. Typical...

A fun day nonetheless. It was sunny all day and about 40 degrees. The
wind was out of the north about 10 knots. Tomorrow is supposed to be
several degrees warmer.

See you tomorrow foryet another exciting day.

Dinner

Here is a picture of my dinner. We had salad, shrimp, steak,baked
potatoes,and chocalate cake for dessert. mmmm, yummy. Don't you wish you
had steak and shrimp for dinner?

I had to hookup Mr Power Maker for a while. Mr Sunny was not able to fully
charge Mr Power Storage today. We also didn't travel very far so Mr
Alternator couldn't do much to assist Mr Sunny. We are all charge up now
though.

The waterfront is beautiful on this full moon night.

Supper camp

We are set up for supper camp on the waterfront at Murrells Inlet.

Many of the restaurants are closed for the winter so we should be in good
shape here. We birded from this location this morning. There is a
boardwalk behind the boats that you can walk for over 1/4 mile. There are
small boats, sportfishers, and commerical fishing boats.

Murrells Inlet is a pretty neat place in the winter. In the summer I bet
this is not the place to be. It is obvious there will be tons of people
here in the summer.

Did you guess what we had for lunch? We had chilli beans.

We are preparing supper now. We are going to have steak and Pamlico County
shrimp. Do you like shrimp?

Beach

We walked down the beach to the jetty. They say it is 1.2 milesm they
lied. It has got to be 2 miles or more the the end.

Not many birds out but we were close to everything we saw and got some
great photos.

At the very end of the jetty we were rewarded with a purple sandpiper.

Now we are making lunch. What do you think we will have for lunch?

Lunchtime

We strolled through Murrell's Inlet and are now at Huntington Beach State
park. Lots of birds and boats at Murrell's Inet.

Lunchtime view.

morning

Local mounties left us along all night so we had an excellent night of
sleeping.

Mr Battery is unhappy this morning. He can't talk but can relay messages
through others like the Mr Smoke. Mr Smoke relayed Mr Battery's feelings
this morning. We are going to have to ask Mr Sunny to do a little work
today.

We've had breakfast and are going in search of birds at Hunting Beach State
Park.

The road goes on forever.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Nite spot

We have moved to our nite spot for the evening. We are in a Piggly Wiggly
parking lot semi hidden behind a structure and some plants. Hopefully no
one will ask us to move.

Tomorrow we have a big day planned.

Dinner

For dinner we had lasagna and salad. Here is a photo of my salad.

parking spot

Here is where we are parked for a while.

Pigeons

A couple of pigeons from the hundred or so that stayed on the pier. There
were a handful that were smart enough to get under the shelter. One was a
leusitic.

birding

It is still raining after all day. Nothing unexpected but it is time for
the rain to go away.

At Myrtle Beach State Park we went out on the pier and saw a handful of
birds including red-throated loon, horned grebe. We also had great looks
at several northern gannets and could have hand fed a ruddy turnstone.

So the day concludes with lots of yearbirds.

We are parked for a while here at the park since it stays open until 8 pm.
We'll decide where we are going to stay later.