Windy Sunday on The Wacissa River

I took a very windy paddle on the Wacissa River this morning. It was just me and the seaweed farmer and my cold weather friends.

Catching up With Veronika Jackson

Nathan and I took a trip up to Macon, Georgia on Friday to see Veronika Jackson perform at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Veronika is a blues singer originally from St. Petersburg whom I had first seen and heard at the Florida Folk Festival when I was her MC on the Tower Stage, a few years ago. She is beautiful and mysterious, a soulful child of God and a Black woman through and through! If you get a chance to buy her CD or hear her perform, you will be lucky! Here are a few photos from her gig. I am writing an ethnography about Veronika for my Folklore class: my second course towards yet another degree( which will make four)... education junky that I am!

Nathan enjoyed our trip because he spent two days at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame playing B-ball. We also toured the Harriet Tubman Museum which introduced me to many Georgia artists whom I was unfamiliar with including Thornton Dial, Amalia Amaki, Radcliffe Bailey, Ronald Lockett, and Nellie Mae Rowe.

Kayak Trail at Lake Lafayette

On saturday I also took a short trip into Lake Lafayette from the launch near the railroad tracks at the end of Road To The Lake. I did not do the entire trail since I am unfamiliar with it as yet and I was alone. The water appears to be about three feet in depth and the bottom is very, very silty. I did not see any alligators. There was one other canoe on the trail. This area is a young cypress swamp with flooded fields with fence posts in some areas. It has been dredged and marked and appears to be a pleasant trip. I saw bluebirds, warblers, robins, cardinals, and a great blue heron but did not get any really good bird pictures so I have used the trail pictures only, in hopes of peaking my kayak buddy's interest in doing this trail sometime. ..

As you can see, some yahoo has already shot up the signs with pellet shot...

The Wacissa Crowd

Cold Saturday birds!

Woodpeckers!

These woodpeckers were across the water from the pileateds and I had a time with my head swiveling back and forth like a woodpecker!

Getting Ready for Spring (at the Spring!)

Before dawn this morning, I rolled out of bed and managed to do the dishes, wash up and hit the road for the Wacissa in an hour. I was on the river before eight AM, a record for me on a Saturday. It was cold and overcast until after ten AM, but I found the birds!

This pileated woodpecker was excavating a nesting cavity and he stayed at it for more than a half hour while I snapped dozens of photos! He was near Blue Spring in a place I'll return to in a few weeks to see the nesting.

Didn't I Dance?

Didn't I Dance?

Grandmother heard him -
His song was so sweet.
She danced to the fiddler
On little bare feet.
She was fifteen and fair,
With black braided hair,
And didn't she dance in her day
Over the years I remember she said,
One night as she kissed me and put me to bed,
"When I was a maid, and my song was played,
Oh didn't I dance in my day?"

Didn't I dance, didn't I dance
Didn't I dance in my day.

Mother, she danced
In a long silken gown
Hair done in curls
The belle of the town.
There was many a man
Who asked for her hand
And didn't she dance in her day.
Now when she dances, just once in a while,
She says, "I remember those times and I smile
I think of the night my feet danced so light
Oh, didn't I dance in my day?"
See the young girls
On a soft summer's night
Silhouettes slender
Against the moon's light;
Hair flowing free
Once that was me,
And didn't I dance in my day!
Now that I'm older, there's one thing I know,
I'll go on dancing though the tempo be slow
And I know that some day to my grandchild I'll say
"Oh didn't I dance in my day!"

Copyright Lori Holland BMI 1984

Feting The Yard Birds and Sky Sights

I took these photos early Saturday morning before I went off to kayak the Sopchoppy. One only has to look up into the sky to see many wondrous sights. Remember to look up into the sky often! I am feeding the finches, providing food for the other yard birds and generally trying to live in harmony with my fellow travelers!

I may be off to hunt at Fakahatchee Strand, and Oklacoahatchee Slough State Forest this weekend so stay tuned! It has been so rainy and cold that I have been trying to work to make some cash so I can afford to tramp around in the forest as much as possible!

I see that Cornell has a mobile search unit in the Apalachicola River Basin. I think looking around Wright Lake at Hickory Landing is in order, this year, as well! (for IBWO, of course)

Sights on The Upper Sopchoppy

The Sopchoppy is a high banked river with many young cypress trees, small waterfalls from creeks, a karst here and there, and very few birds. It is too swift and deep for the wading birds. It is very quiet and peaceful. I had the good fortune to have two men along this time and Peter even helped me in and out of the kayak, which is a rare treat for me. Observant perusers of the blog may notice the stripping of bark on the pine tree near the blind.

Kayaking The Upper Sopchoppy

Waverly Pond

I did my birding the easy way today. Along about 3:30pm I gathered up my friend and off we went to Starbucks for Mocha Lattes and a visit to Waverly Pond. I had read on limeybirder's log that some interesting birds were hanging about at Waverly Pond.

Anyway, here is some of what we saw. The rare woodstorks (ha, Peggy) were hanging on the lawn enjoying the sunshine. Later they flew off when the noisy neighborhood children came running and I think they went back down to Munson or maybe over to PineyZ!

Tomorrow I am taking a kayak trip, weather permitting, on the upper Sopchoppy. So stay tuned...

Waverly Pond

Saturday Birds