Every year I go back to North Carolina at least once during the fall season. It’s definitely my prime “happy place”. This year, a few of us girlfriends rented a house on Lake Summit for a week, near Flat Rock / Zirconia. What a great getaway it was. We explored the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site, Brevard, Caesar’s Head State Park, Pearson’s Falls, the Sky Top Orchard for apples, apple pie, apple cider donuts … We took long walks to try and atone for all the food we ate. Just a really good time with good friends.
This phenomenon occurs most frequently in the fall when the mullet are plentiful in the Kiawah River, and within two hours of low tide either way. It is a practice that has become fairly well known among the locals, and is exciting, fascinating and awe-inspiring to watch. To quote from Kiawah.com’s webpage:
“During low tide, the dolphins will herd a school fish, gradually pushing them closer and closer to the shore of the Kiawah River. As they chase the fish up the bank, they create a wave that then throws them out of the water. The dolphins then push themselves up onto the sand and eat as many fish as they can before sliding back into the water.
Keep in mind that not all Kiawah Island dolphins know how to strand, however. It seems that this behavior is passed from mother to calf. For reasons unknown to scientists, adult dolphins are not able to learn the feeding technique once they reach a certain age. Because of this, a little less than half of the Island’s dolphin population can perform strand feeding.”
Here are a few pictures of these amazing mammals in action.
In the heart of the Ace Basin, where the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers empty into the ocean is where you will find the St. Helena Sound. This is classic low country shoreline, where migrating shore birds gather on fragile sandbars, and where the shrimp trawlers ply the waters, attended by expectant gulls, pelicans, and dolphin. These images were taken yesterday morning as we set off from a Harbor River landing before dawn.
Last Saturday morning has got to have been one of 2021’s photographic highlights. We had scheduled an early morning trip out on the water off Wadmalaw Island to photograph shore birds and shrimp trawler activity. This was nothing new, but rarely do conditions come together to offer the best weather, light winds, gentle tides, and great subject activity, the subjects being the birds and shrimp trawlers. It was hard to pick a few images to showcase here, because we came back with hundreds of keepers. The thrill of a successful morning more than makes up for the many early rises and time spent drifting on the water in less than perfect conditions, having spent hard earned cash for pitiful results. This is the challenge of photography. The outcome is never a given, but this was a treat. Thanks to photographer, naturalist, and boat captain extraordinaire Eric Horan. You can find information about his lowcountry tours here: https://horanphoto.com/lowcountry-photo-tours-adventures
I wouldn’t go so far as to say there was a “nip” in the air yet, but it is getting cooler and the humidity is dropping. The mornings are glorious and some trees are beginning to drop their leaves. Just another couple of weeks and nature will start to amaze with her explosion of color in the higher elevations of North and South Carolina. I was looking back through some photos I took in the fall of 2016, a particularly good year for color. Hopefully 2021 will not disappoint.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Every Summer sees the congregation of thousands of diverse shore birds on Bird Key, a small island in the Stono Inlet between Folly and Kiawah, managed by SC Department of Natural Resources. I notice that it is now being referred to as the Stono Seabird Sanctuary. Regardless, it is recognized as an important bird area by Audubon and it is forbidden to land on the island during nesting season. It makes for a great boat ride in the evening. Even the Stono Bridge looked beautiful in the late afternoon light.
Searching for inspiration in a dry and dusty desert (photographically speaking), I revisited archived image folders of far away places. These memories are particularly poignant. My mom and I were spending a few days in the South African Drakensberg mountain area, and I persuaded her to accompany me on a helicopter ride to do some aerial photography. She was 87 years old at the time, and in the beginning stages of a bout with Shingles, but she gamely acquiesced, and so off into the sky we flew. I was impressed with her spirit of adventure, since she was very obviously nervous at the prospect but threw caution to the wind for the sake of the experience.
Mum on a 8,000ft plateau where the helicopter landed for breakfast
This is a magnificent mountain range, spanning 600 miles and towering over 10,000 ft. in height. The translation of Drakensberg is “Dragon’s Mountains”, and our family spent many vacations in this area when we were children, hiking, horse-riding, and swimming in the clear mountain streams.
I know it’s not hard (like when men were called up to war) but it’s just plain boring to sit around at home. Besides, I end up eating way too much, just because I bought all these snacks! Anyway, today I resolved to get outdoors, but where? The beaches, county parks, city parks, golf courses are all closed and I’ve walked my neighborhood until I know it better than I want to. So I headed south down Highway 17 and explored the area down Bennetts Point Road, including the Donnelley Wildlife Management area in the Ace Basin. Nice, but the gnats and mosquitos definitely rule out there, and no amount of repellent seemed to have any effect. Plus, as soon as you open your car door, they all fly inside. Aside from all that, it was a good day!
The March 9th full moon (also called the Worm Moon by the Old Farmer’s Almanac) is this year’s second-closest full moon. According to Earthsky.org, these are the distances between Earth and the moon for the three upcoming full moon supermoons; March 9 222,081 miles away, April 8th 221,851 miles away (the closest this year), and May 7th 224,429 miles away. By contrast, the smallest and most distant full moon of the year will fall on October 31st at a distance of 252,380 miles away.
The evening storms have been providing great photo opportunities lately. I have a gadget that attaches to my camera that is supposed to trigger the shutter when lightning strikes, but for the life of me I can’t get it to work, so these shots are the result of patiently waiting for a bolt, and tripping the shutter as fast as I can on continuous shooting mode. When I’m done, I end up with hundreds of nothing images and one or two keepers. Here are last night’s keepers, this time looking out over the Stono River.
