Thursday, 8:43 AM - one of the first true chilly, windy mornings of the fall; when I left home at 6:30 AM there was actually some frost on the roof of my house and on the truck windshield. This is the signal that it’s time to fly… time for the winter waterfowl migrations. When I arrived at the shelter this morning, our first waterfowl visitors were on the main shelter pond: a Grebe and a male/female pair of Hooded Mergansers.

​Wednesday, 12:35 PM – a beautiful breezy fall day today; a mostly blue dome overhead with wispy white clouds trailing across the sky. The strong breeze has brought small waves blowing south along the main shelter pond; two Turkey Vultures appear to be riding high, soaring in the gusty wind currents. 

​Election day, 12:56 PM.  A gorgeous, breezy, mild, mostly-sunny, 64° afternoon. Having just finished my first marathon on Saturday, my normal lunch break treadmill sessions are on hold for at least a week. So I had plenty of time for an easy walk behind the shelter. Approaching the upper pond, a Great Blue Heron is fishing, but moves off to the far end of the pond as I approach. If I only had a longer lens I could have captured the beauty. 

I sold my first stock photo today on Dreamstime.com! The photo was from 2013 of a Great Egret that allowed me close approach on the upper pond behind the animal shelter. I remember sitting for at least twenty minutes watching this beauty preen in the warm sun.  

The sale gives me only a $2 credit, but perhaps it is a start toward purchasing the Manfrotto tri-pod I'd like for the shelter photos, and the 200-500mm lens I’ve been dreaming about for wildlife photography.

Thursday, 8:13 AM -  Just for fun, my coworker had set out his goose decoys that he had been busily touching up with fresh paint the last few days in anticipation of goose season. The next morning, I heard quite a bit of “honking” as I walked from my office to the kennels.  Seventeen Canada Geese had alighted onto the shelter pond and were dabbling with the ducks on the far end.

According to an online dictionary, a gaggle is a term for a flock of geese that is not in flight; in flight, the group can be called a skein. A gaggle is greater than or equal to five geese.

​I slowly walked around for a photo and a bit of observation. While kneeling and enjoying a study of their feeding behavior and interactions, a Kingfisher rattled off overhead, circling the pond.
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​Walton County, Georgia

Wednesday, 12:26 PM - Exploring the woods near the shelter today, I came across this macabre spectacle: a Chupacabra snarling at me from a pile of stone debris and briers. I snapped this photo just before fleeing for my life!

El chupacabra (translation: "goat sucker") is a creature unknown to science but responsible for killing animals in Puerto Rico, Miami, Nicaragua, Chile, and Mexico (… and now Georgia!). The creature's name originated with the discovery of some dead goats in Puerto Rico with puncture wounds in their necks and their blood allegedly drained. According to UFO Magazine (a very credible source) there have been more than 2,000 reported cases of animal mutilations in Puerto Rico  attributed to the chupacabra.

(Spoiler alert!: this is actually a mummified roadkill raccoon that was most likely scraped up by a Walton County Public Works crew and tossed out on a pile of debris behind their complex.)

Tuesday, 6:21 PM - With the girls’ cross country season over and our church haunted house outreach completed, I finally felt like I had an evening to relax. Sitting on the back patio under a slowly fading, calm and cloudless azure dusk, and comfortably enjoying a short-sleeve seventy-three degrees, my eye was drawn to a break in the wood line at the back of my property to see a doe running in the meadow. Heading to the left (westbound), another deer, this one a decent young buck, was close in tow. About 45 seconds later, almost comically, the doe runs back by heading the opposite direction… and he is chasing right behind her again! I run inside and grab my camera. Sure enough, within just a few moments, she runs by again, this time right to left, and he follows behind panting. You could almost hear her shout, "Leave me alone!" I managed to raise my camera and fire a burst of shots as he passed the clearing. Not the greatest photo, but a rack of antlers a bit larger than those I typically see in our neighborhood is discernible. 
 
With it being so warm lately (continued record high temperatures for this time of year), and being a tad early in the breeding season, I was surprised to see this young buck rutting already. According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, “the timing of the rut, or breeding season, for white-tailed deer varies locally, especially in southern climates like Georgia’s. During the rut, the desire to breed causes deer to become more active compared to the rest of the year. Bucks move more and become less secretive.”  The Georgia rut map indicates the peak deer movement time in Clarke County is November 10 to 16. This guy is getting a head start!

​Athens, Georgia

Sunrise 7:53 AM, Sunset 6:40 PM 
​High 79°.
Waxing crescent moon, 4% illumination.

Tuesday, ​8:34 AM – it is a bit too cool for my short sleeves. The sun is just barely above the horizon; tree tops glowing a faint orange, but all else below is still in the blue-hued shadow of dawn. Jays are squaking all over; House finches catch the rising warmth from the tree tops; a Red-bellied Woodpecker sounds off and is soon mocked by a Mockingbird; a Song Sparrow lets out a morning chorus; lots of other dainty pips and cheeps throughout the trees. No critters are at the upper pond.
 
Walton County, Georgia

Halloween night; Monday, 9:15 PM - After the trick-or-treaters had come and gone, I sat on the rocker in my living room to close out the day’s nature journal entries. Happening to look down, along the baseboard sat a small scorpion. He was a minuscule thing. With his tail curled, he was no longer than the width of my thumbnail. Assuming he was dead (we have regular pest control visits), I scooped him up in a piece of paper and placed him in a baggie on my desk. The next morning while studying the Greek New Testament, the little critter moved! He traveled with me to work for an outdoor photo shoot before release. 
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Not knowing much about them, I did a bit of research. In Georgia, there are two species, both found in different regions of the state: the striped scorpion (Centruroides hentzi) of sandy soil habitats and the devil scorpion (Vaejovis carolinianus) found in Central and Northern Georgia (and in my living room!). ​While they appear quite creepy, they are practically harmless. The sting immediately burns but the pain, unless an allergic reaction occurs, is completely gone within a half an hour. Their natural prey consists of spiders and large insects. 

Athens, Georgia

Monday, ​10:33 AM – unbelievably warm and sunny for an early morning at the end of October. No jacket needed; the sun feels warm on my cap-less head. Feels like spring, but looks like fall. Each gentle breeze sends down more crisp brown, yellow and red leaves. Watched an acrobatic Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens). Lots of Wren ‘tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle’ calls fill the air. The Winged Sumacs are a deep crimson. 

​Walton County, Georgia

Thursday, 9:52 AM - Two days ago I was up at the Duckweed Bog again. A couple of flittering, tiny birds bathed themselves in the dew on the green bog grasses; dipping their beaks in the droplets and tossing their heads back with a vibrating  ripple that ran down through every feather on their backs and out through the end of their tails.

After bathing, one of them took a pose on a picture perfect stump not far from me. Grayish upper-parts and head, white ringed eye, white wing bars, faint barring on the breast and a bright yellow patch right in his armpit. I was again stumped since it didn’t seem to match anything in the Warbler Quick Guide. (I have since learned the warblers don’t bear as distinct colors and markings in the fall as they do in the spring.) Back in my office, Katy with Oconee Rivers Audubon Society replies to my email, “Yellow-rumped warbler (affectionately known as butter butts and formerly known as Myrtle warbler). These guys stick with us through winter and signal an end to fall migration.”

Getting into this warbler thing, I took advantage of a slow point at work yesterday and walked through the now draining swamp near the back of the jail.  I noticed quite a bit of bird activity in a line of trees and shrubs. Zooming in my lens, it was those Yellow-rumped Warblers again! I could see the yellow patches on their sides as they flitted up and down in the branches. Walking closer, I recognized their purpose in gathering in this location: Bayberry fruits! Allaboutbirds.org says, “The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the only warbler able to digest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles. Its ability to use these fruits allows it to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland.” I'm learning more about these "little yellow birds"!
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Desiring a better-butter-butt photo, I stood beside the thicketed drainage ditch in front of the shelter this morning and spied a flurry of activity; dozens darting in and around the branches. Just two days ago I saw my first Yellow-rump, and today they are everywhere! I wasn’t surprised to later read on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s  website, “Yellow-rumped Warblers are impressive in the sheer numbers with which they flood the continent each fall. Shrubs and trees fill with the streaky brown-and-yellow birds and their distinctive, sharp chips.”

Standing still for about ten minutes, they braved my presence and came closer. I finally got a good photo of what Katy "affectionately referred to" earlier: a bright yellow butter butt! When I photographed them on Tuesday, I didn’t see the bright yellow patch on their rumps. But here it was today, plain as butter, right before me!
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Walton County, Georgia. ​

Thursday, 10:54 AM

"Everywhere the world is alive, awaiting exploration by those who prefer, if only at intervals, real reality to virtual reality. And as to the wonders of modern technology, bear in mind that a sidewalk weed and a protozoan are each more complex than any device yet invented by humanity." E.O. Wilson*