Great Day for Bird Watching 6' 16

Both the fresh  and salt water water marshes at the end of our street are thriving estuaries , which are teeming with wildlife.

 But as healthy as these ecosystems are, it is often difficult to spot the some of the marsh birds, as the proximity of the marsh to golfers, tend to send all but the large mature birds into hiding.  With the course having been  closed for almost a week,  we had no such problems today.

Even the normally secretive marsh birds, like the Clapper rails 

(Above and Below) were out in clear sight this morning.

As were many other species.

Green Herons ( Above)

Juvenile Blue Heron Heron ( Above and Below)

Including a few we could identify like the white and blue colored bird 

(below) which we found wading in the salt water marsh.

 What is species is this?  A  Little Blue Heron Juvenile maybe? 

 We've never seen one with these markings.

Finally here's a short video of what the freshwater marsh looked like this morning. I only took the South-western half of the marsh because the sun was so low on the east that it would have been blinding to try to video in that direction. 

Click on the link to see:

Pawleys Island Marsh on 6/30/16

Course Closed for Maintenance 6 '16

12th Green looking NW

Apparently all the noise from the construction was disturbing golfers , so the Golf Course management decided that  they would  close  the golf course and areate the greens and fairways last week.

 12th Fairway  looking West

 17th Fairway looking South towards the Freshwater Marsh

Now that the shredders are finished,  they should be able to open the course  in time for the holiday weekend.

There is however, still  the problem with the sinkhole on the causeway to the 13th green. 

They still don't have that fixed,

and this morning, I noticed some new long cracks developing  in the cart path on the causeway near the professional Tee off area.   Hmmmmm!

A morning walk around the New Development 6'16

So far the heritage oaks are still standing

The sky was clear of rain clouds this morning, so Bruce and I decided to take an early morning walk around the golf course side of the  new development. Starting at the Heritage Oaks at the entrance to our street, we followed the 18th fairway  cart path east towards the 17th fairway taking photos as we went.

Bruce is standing at the corner of the heritage oak lot, looking west along Tanglewood Dr towards the Club House.

Even though it is clearly within the new owners property, the shredders left that magnificent 20 foot high Camellia and the Magnolia tree  adjacent to the 18th fairway alone.  Good thing,  I think I might have been tempted to exercise my right to bear arms had either  mature species been harmed.

This is a view of the woods along the 18th fairway looking east towards the 17th fairway.

And west towards the Tanglewood Drive

Looking through the woods from the 18th fairway

 towards Units 48 and 92.

Looking through the woods from the 18th fairway towards Units 108,

we can actually see the bird feeder in our back yard.

We have a clear view from Fairway 18 to unit 108-4 While most of the trees along the property lines are oaks, the interior of the woods is filled with pine.  I suspect many of these will be harvested soon.

Bruce is on the golf cart path  at the intersection

 of  the 18th and 17th fairways.

Here's the woods at the  corner of the 17th and 18th fairways. 

 We can now see through them to the marsh

 and the causeway to the 13th green.

 Here's the view South, along the cart path by the 17th green ,towards the 18th tee off areas.

Walk a few feet further, past the Hunt  Caretaker's House, and one would never guess how much has changed in the past week.

New Development Davy VII a.m. 6 '16

After the BIG CAT finished working yesterday, the woods behind 108-3 and 108-4 looked like this.

There were still a few trees left standing, but they were sparse,

And we could see from the end of Twelve Oaks Drive clear through the forest to the 17th fairway at the other end of the old utilities service road.   The BIG CAT had been moved off of the property; there was no work behind us  during the morning hours. but we could here the bull dozer working away shredding downed trees to the west of us.  

New Development Day VIII 6 ' 16

It rained most of the afternoon yesterday , but around 4 pm the John Deere tractor with its shredder showed up behind our units and began removing the last of the small shrubs along the property line. He worked until about 7 PM when a lightening storm shut the operation down.

What difference a day makes!

Here's a short video clip I took showing what the property behind us looked like this morning before she started up again.

Short video of condition of forest behind 108 units on 6/29/16

Beautiful way to end the day. 6'16

What a beautiful evening

New Development Day VI 6 ' 16

Its Day Six of the  New Development ( There was no work on Saturday or Sunday)

The Big CAT   worked on the intersection of 17th and 18th fairways for most of the day.

Around noon, it  showed up behind  our units and began  clawing at the larger shrubs  behind the 108-3 and 108-4 units.   It removed most of the vegetation but left a small thin line of shrubs facing our property line  for the tractor to take out  later.

A Morning Walk on the Beach: 6 ' 16

Sand, Sea and Sky with Gull

The temperatures dropped almost 30 degrees overnight.  We woke up to 70 degrees air temperature , gentle breezes and a light cloud cover.  Perfect for a walk on the beach.

North PI Beach from Shell Street Entrance looking South

As usual other, than a few  people surf fishing, we had the beach to ourselves.

Near the  north end of the PI Creek channel, the tide had cut a large tide-pool into the beach sand .

which Bruce couldn't resist wading in.

The outgoing  tide had used the  sand from the PI  tide-pool to build a  sand bar on the  Litchfield side of the channel. Even at low tide, the new sand bar is below the surface of the channel, giving this lone Litchfield  Beach goer the appearance of walking on water.

Dinner, Chicken with Coconut Curry: 6' 16

Another hot muggy day with a thunderstorm in the evening.  So its time for another culinary adventure.  This time the table is set for Indonesian cuisine.  Dinner is: Chicken with  Asian vegetables simmered in a Coconut Curry. It was accompanied by an Avocado and  Heart of Palm salad.  I think this is the first time I've ever seen Bruce eat all his vegetables.

Short video of woods being cleared behind our house on 6/24/16

Interesting Find in Them Thar Woods: 6 '16

There's some interesting stuff  being exposed in them thar woods.  

Even before the forest was  cleared,   I could always see the outline  of of a dark shape about 70 feet into the woods behind unit 108-1, but  I never dared to check it out for fear of snakes and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Once the bulldozer cleared away the undergrowth around it, the  heavily overgrown remnants of a chimney of some sorts emerged.     I got a little excited as I approached it, thinking maybe we had just discovered a rice chimney left over from the days when this land was a plantation. But the both the brick and mortar seem a bit too modern for that era

   On the other hand the shape is wrong for a house chimney, and there is no evidence of there being any building's foundations around it.   Our local farmers  and homeowners typically make  open burn piles  when  they wish to incinerate yard waste, so an out of door incinerator seems unlikely.  It is not clear what this might  have been used for, so it looks like we have a mystery on our hands.  I'm just going to report it to our Homeowners Architectural Review Board,  and let them figure out if it has any historical significance.

Dinner, Thai Beef Skewers: 6 '16

It's been hotter than Hades and twice as muggy for the past two days.   It's only 99 F , but with 90% humidity and no cloud cover. With the heat index it feels like 105.  Its even too hot to go to the beach... We'd fry with from the rays reflected off of the sand and the water.  So we've been entertaining ourselves by taking a culinary journey through Asia.  Tonight's dinner was Thai beef skewers with peanut sauce, Thai eggplant with peppers and basil, steamed white rice, and cucumber salad with lemon grass dressing. 

New Development, Day V p.m: 6'16

Right after lunch, they began clearing the forest out from behind unit 92-1

Since a good twenty feet of the undergrowth  behind units 92 3 -to 92-6 had already been cleared, it didn't take the bulldozer long to move onto to the forest behind  our building.

That little bulldozer is remarkably powerful.   It chews through trees like they are twigs, and spits them out in big cloud of dust.

The bulldozer quit for the the day at 5 pm,  directly behind  unit 108-3 .

 By that time, the first three units of  Building 108 could see all the way through to Tanglewood, the golf course, and the clubhouse.

Meanwhile The BIG CAT had been working on the opposite side of the forest next to the golf course.  It ended the day by opening up a swatch of forest  along the overgrown service road at the end of Twelve Oaks drive .