Bird Watching

I enjoy watching the birds that come down to sample the seeds from our feeder.  Each type has its own personality. Their interactions are curious and intriguing.

The occasional painted-bunting shows up. These guys are so colorful that I'm not even sure if they're real, or some animated Disney cartoon version of a bird

Finches and titmice are timid. The black crowbirds are individually cowardly, but they invariably arrive en masse, using the 'strength in numbers' principle like an urban street-gang with a hive-mind. Bluejays are bullies.

More local wildlife

Gator at work the other night. Crawled right up from a nearby pond, and laid himself down on the pavement by the doors. Guys trying to chase him away were pretty hilarious to watch.

Two guys. Each standing ~10 meters from the gator. Scratching their heads, not wanting to get closer.

One guy grabs some orange traffic-cones. The smallish rubbery kind, used to signal minor hazards or to reserve parking stalls. I guess the idea was "If I throw things at it, it'll leave".

You need to be more specific

When the girl at the grocery store said "Strip down, facing me.", how was I supposed to know she was telling me how to swipe my credit card?

Biggin Church Ruins

Biggin Church,

Biggin Church Ruins

Link goes to sciway.net website.

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located just South of Moncks Corner, SC, was originally built in 1712 as the parish church of St. John's Berkeley parish.

Biggin graveyard & church ruins

The church was destroyed by a forest fire in 1755, but was replaced with a new building in 1761.

British troops used the church as an ammunition depot during the revolutionary war, until they were forced to retreat in 1781. As they retreated they set fire to the church, once again destroying the building along with their abandoned ammunition.

The church was promptly rebuilt, and although the role of parish church had shifted to the nearby Strawberry Chapel

Strawberry Chapel

In 1748 a 7-year-old girl was tied to a headstone in the chapel graveyard, and left there. She survived. Barely.

Then things got weird. , Biggin Church remained in use until the war between the states.

It was destroyed yet again by a forest fire sometime in the late 1800s, after which many of the remaining bricks were scavenged for other construction projects. The ruins that remain today are from the 1761 building and the restoration after the war for independence.

Stitched composite image of the ruins

All that remains of the church are two crumbling walls and a short rectangular brick outline. The surrounding graveyard, however, is still in use today.

Biggin Church is listed in the National Register

Biggin Church

Link goes to the Historical Marker Database website (hmdb.org)

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of Historic Places

Feeding the mosquitos

Edisto River, at Givhan's Ferry Park.

Local wildlife

Was riding by Crowfield Lake and decided to stop. It's only about a mile or two from home and I pass by it all the time, but for whatever reason I felt like taking some photos.

It's not much of a lake, really. More of a wide spot in Goose Creek, the waterway for which the city is named.

Crowfield Lake

There were about 8 or 10 of these guys floating on the surface, just sunning themselves. Who knows how many more were below.

People were standing off the shore with fishing poles, in the water up to mid-thigh. A couple of

kayakers

Same lake, same morning

You won't catch me doing this
in a lake full of gators

(or at all, for that matter)

were out there rowing around.

Now I know that gators aren't typically aggressive or hostile, and they prefer to stay away from people if given the chance. And I also know that when someone gets bit, it's usually because they stumbled into a nest or stepped on a gator, or otherwise pissed one off. I realize that gators are entirely different animals from crocodiles, and have a wholly different demeanor.

But I'm still not getting in the water with these guys. Nope. Not me. Water's their house, not mine.

Plus, I also know that the males can sometimes get downright ornery as we get closer to mating season.

"Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top."

-- Hunter S. Thompson