Meeting Spring Halfway

 

A week month ago it felt like anything but spring here. It was cold and grim and not much fun. (not much better now either. What a year!)

The kids decided to take us down to meet it on its long, slow journey north so off we went to the Carolinas, where I fell in love with them all over again. We hopscotched down to SC first, to stay in a cozy, pleasant, well-equipped Airbnb. We were met with delightful weather, a huge backyard with a great deck and a playset for the kids...plus incidentally, almost as if pre-ordained for my personal enjoyment, a next door neighbor with an impressive array of bird feeders and houses, well attended by flocks of everything a northern girl could desire.

On our first day we visited the Yorktown. It was great. I read, or listen to, whole series of WW2 books and now videos as well. Reading about the great ships simply does not prepare you for their scale and functionality. I loved the visit, and I loved that the kids are offering their girls the chance to grow up knowing things I could only imagine until now.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow on the
Yorktown

Ooh, look, a Tri-colored Heron, my first lifer of the trip

We also visited the Viet Nam Experience and got a look at the USS Laffey, which was closed due to gangplank issues.

Next we had a day at Fort Sumpter, bracketed by really cool ferry rides in both directions.

A day on the USS North Carolina, a peaceful walk through Moore's Creek National Battlefield, the site of the last broad sword charge by Scottish Highlanders, and the first significant patriot victory of the Revolution were all exciting and fun.

Moore's Creek was also the site of the first Friers family scavenger hunt, and I am proud to say that I personally found the feathers....finally. lol

Perhaps not surprisingly to regular readers, my favorite day involved first a beach....I do love me a beach...complete with waterside boardwalk and finding tiny sharks' teeth among the grains of sand...and second...a trip through the Cypress Wetlands boardwalk. I have literally been interested in birds since before kindergarten. I can remember being excited about robins on my grandmother's sidewalk before I went to school. In all that time, and including trips to Florida, some of the best birding spots in NY, and wandering all over the West, I have never experienced anything like it.

The boardwalk takes you around small, shaggy islands with so many herons, storks, egrets, and other water and shorebirds, that the branches on the shrubs are bent under their weight. There are stacks of nests, one over the other, already full of sitting birds. Tucked away in a corner among some pines is a rookery of so many Black-crowned Night Herons that I didn't even attempt to count them.

We walked within a couple of feet of a couple of dozen Little Blue Herons quarreling over choice spots to roost or nest. There were alligators! Babies even.

I can't thank the kids enough for this amazing adventure. They go south with their girls quite often and know all the great places to visit and things to do. I took hundreds of photos and am still trying to get them into shareable video form...and maybe some day I will figure it out.

Meanwhile, Amber and Alan; it was the best. Sorry I have been neglecting this blog and storytelling so badly.

And then there was this part....