Diario de williamwisephoto

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 29933071 - Southern Banded Watersnake; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

The most noticeable - or, I should say, most unavoidable - sight on the Trembling Earth Nature Trail in the Stephen C Foster State Park is the gnats; great clouds of gnats six feet in diameter, swarming at eye-level populate the boardwalk at certain times of the year. We pass through one cloud - swatting and waving our hands with eyes squinted and mouth shut tight - only to encounter another gnat cloud a few feet further down the boardwalk. Swatting did absolutely nothing; like trying to blow a path through thick fog with your mouth.

But I must thank the gnats. If it not had been for the gnats forcing my eyes to squint and face downward, I would not have noticed a quick movement below the boardwalk and a stirring of the tannin-stained blackwater swamp. “A snake!” my daughter shouts. (She is somehow always the first to spot the serpents on our wildness hikes.) Sure enough, down in the sphagnum moss slithered a Southern Banded Watersnake, Nerodia fasciata. One cool reptile was now on our Okefenokee checklist.

N. fasciata inhabits most freshwater environments such as lakes, marshes, ponds, and streams.
Banded water snakes are active both day and night and may be seen basking on logs or branches overhanging the water or foraging in shallow water. (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/29317-erodia-fasciata)

Backyard Birding Journal, August 7, 2015...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 234308689 - Red-shouldered Hawk; Clarke County, Georgia. August 7, 2015.

A refreshingly cool morning; 68°. It hasn’t been this cool in quite some time. Sitting on my oasis patio, the sun is rising an orange radiance in the east to my left. A nearly full, silver moon still hangs in the blue sky in the west to my right. Our male Hummingbird takes repeated draughts at the nectar. A dog howls off in the distance; a mysterious call of the wild (with a bit of imagination). A bright red Cardinal and a rich blue Jay highlight the feeders in back. Goldfish swim under the drabbling pond fountain. Day Lilies and Knockout Roses colorfully border the oasis patio. Canada Geese briefly sound a fly-by in the distance. ​​A Red-tailed Hawk decides to come in for a closer look; perhaps to see if there was an easy meal of House Finch or Mourning Dove at the bird feeders.

Athens-Clarke County, Georgia
https://ebird.org/checklist/S46258879

Nature Journal August 10, 2018...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 17336831 - Double-crested Cormorant; Walton County, Georgia. August 10, 2018. ©williamwisephoto.com

Friday, 8:32 AM – You never know what you’ll see. After literally hundreds of morning walks up to the small pond behind my office, this morning there was something I had never seen before. At first I thought the splash in the brown murky water was one of the beavers ending a night of tree-felling and heading back to his home. But when the creature surfaced, it had a much longer neck than a Beaver!

A Double-crested Cormorant popped up out of the water with a fish in his hooked bill. Since it didn’t immediately notice my presence, I was able to watch it fish for several minutes. Once his senses picked me up, he took to the air, circled the pond twice (giving me some great photo-ops!) and moved on.

Although not a rarity for Walton County, that is the first cormorant I’ve seen on this particular pond, and not sure when I’ll see one again.

• Walton County, Georgia, USA
• Sunrise 6:51 am; Sunset 8:25 pm
• Daylight Hours: 13 hours, 33 minutes (-1m 45s)
• Moon: 1.2% Waning Crescent
• eBird checklist: S47776777

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 30037682 - Red-shouldered Hawk with a fish perched along The Sill Recreation Area; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 13, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

Noises carry in strange ways in the Okefenokee Swamp. A silent solitude lies upon the blackwaters as one paddles through the refuge. But the dead stillness is suddenly broken by the scream of a Red-shouldered Hawk. Its call seems to emanate from over your shoulder, but the echo carries ahead, to the left, and to the right. It may take a few squawks from the raptor to pinpoint its location.

For many decades, the Red-shouldered Hawk has been one of the most common raptors in the Okefenokee Swamp. In 1913, Albert Wright and Francis Harper published “A Biological Reconnaissance of Okefinokee Swamp: The Birds” in The Auk, the scientific journal of the American Ornithological Society. Of the Red-shouldered Hawk, they wrote,

“Buteo lineatus alleni. FLORIDA RED-SHOULDERED HAWK: ‘Hen Hawk’; ‘Chicken Hawk.’- Very common. This is one of the most widely distributed birds, as its scream is one of the most characteristic sounds, of the Okefinokee.”

The call of the Red-shouldered Hawk is still piercing the stillness of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge today.

Nature Journal August 18, 2017...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 66341876 - Great Egret; Walton County, Georgia. August 18, 2017. ©williamwisephoto.com

Friday, 9:16 AM - Hot, hot, hot and humid. Each day has been a replay of the last: highs around 90°, humidity through the roof. This has been a pretty stressful work week, but thank God it is Friday! I grabbed my wildlife lens and took a quick walk up to the water retention ponds in the rising sun. A Great Egret was fishing on the main pond. Perhaps this is the same bird I shot back on August 10 and 11 on the upper pond? It is not at all skittish and I walked the perimeter of the pond with him. Even approaching within 40 feet, he still kept to his business of spearing small fish and snapping up dragon flies.

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 66341876 - Great Egret; Walton County, Georgia. August 18, 2017. ©williamwisephoto.com

It was fun to watch as some small prey would catch his eye. He would stiffen up, but shuffle his neck back and forth in a serpent-like fashion. If the critter was in range, he’d strike. We walked the entire back side of the pond together. As he turned the corner at the far end, the sun was no longer hitting him from the right direction so I went back to my office to get to work. ​

August 18, 2017; Walton County, Georgia

• Mostly Sunny, high near 91°
• Heat index as high as 99°
• Sunrise 6:57 AM; Sunset 8:16 PM
• Day length 13 hours 18 minutes