VOILA! Gardenia transforms into an Azalea overnight!

My Gardenia is looking more like an Azalea than a Gardenia....

Azalea

Mockingbird

Mock
yeah
Ing
yeah
Bird
yeah

Mockingbird

List of inland birds that I've seen

This is the list of some of the birds that I have seen inland and have not yet captured on camera. Hopefully, a list of shore birds will be forthcoming:

• Pileated Woodpecker
• Osprey / Red Tailed Hawk
• Belted Kingfisher
• Swallow
• Crow
• Cattle Egret
• Snowy / Great Egret 
• Great Blue Heron
• Green Heron
• Wood Stork
• Black Vulture
• Ruby Throated Hummingbird
• Sparrows

Of the Swallow I am not sure of the exact kind.

Cute and Curious Faces

Female Cardinal

Carolina Chickadee

I can never tell the difference between a House Finch and a Purple Finch. I guess this is probably a House Finch because the Purple Finch is only a winter resident here. I also have an impossible time differentiating between Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. I guess this is probably a Downy because I don't think it was 9 inches long.

House Finch

Downy Woodpecker

Carolina Wren

Well, I sure do apologize for the quality of my photos. Every has to start somewhere, right? Really what I aim to do is try and capture all of the local birds that I see on camera, good quality or bad. So here's another one:

Carolina Wren

Another mystery solved!

I have been an absolute fool. There is a type of bird that I have been seeing in my back yard that I could not identify in any book or on the internet. I would see these birds high in the trees in groups of 3 or more. They had a white belly, a dark ring around their neck, and their tails (from below) were black with two circles of white on the outer edges. Their backs were dark. The oddest thing about these birds was their call. They would bob their entire body up and down (excuse the lewdness, but it looked exactly like humping) and make a loud purring or whirring sound. I finally got these birds on video and captured some photos. As soon as I plugged my camera into the computer I realized what a fool I had been. This video unfortunately does not pick up the purring sound they are making, but it shows their body movements.

 Well, if you're as bumbling an idiot as I've been and you still don't see it, here's a photo:

Blue Jay

 I'll admit the photo isn't that great. I have found that taking pictures of birds is extremely difficult, especially with a dog at your side. I will use that excuse and several others which follow to defend my idiocy:

• I have never seen more than one Blue Jay at a time
• I have never seen a bird that purrs and humps and there is no absolutely no recording of this behavior on any of the countless web pages or you tube videos I searched
• I usually only notice Blue Jays when they are around eye level or below. I guess I never noticed their tummies before (also, I was not able to find any pictures in any of my books or on the internet of a Blue Jay from below)

Blue Jay in flight

Hawk or Osprey?

One would think it would be fairly easy to distinguish between Red Tailed Hawk from an Osprey. I think this is the latter, although I am still unsure. It's breast is completely white - not banded - and when it looks at me it appears to have on a bandit's mask. I finally looked up how to actually tell the difference easily so I'll have to wait until tomorrow (I see this raptor almost daily) to properly place it. The way to tell the difference easily is by the wing shape when they are soaring. A Red Tailed Hawk's wings, like a vultures, are straight across in flight. An Osprey's wings are bent at the wrist. I noticed in the second picture that the legs are not "hairy" as in a Red Tailed Hawk. Also, please keep in mind that these pictures are taken from over 30 feet away and backlit.

More Mysteries!

I found a couple more mystery plants and the Camellia is opening up! To my dismay, some of these surprises are popping up in what was to be my vegetable garden. They lived through my composting and are now unevenly spread out due to my tilling of the soil.

These look a lot like Iris, but they're not in a spot that I would imagine anyone would plant bulbs

Mystery sprouts in what was going to be my vegetable garden - Hollyhock?

Fern in the base of a standard Oak, next to Magnolia Tree

Camellia

Some type of vine in front of the Holly - I believe it's called "Cat-something"

Mammals

The camel isn't a native to South Carolina, but the squirrel is. My neighbor tells me that there are actually two white squirrels - he saw them both together. I really hope that they get together and Hollywood becomes home to a white squirrel colony. Other native mammals I have spotted are deer (in abundance), raccoons, opossums, dolphins (on the Ashley River), and a large whitish dog-like creature which is either a swamp monster or a Great Pyrenees. I really want to see an alligator (I know, not a mammal), a whale, a coyote and a wild pig.

Birds

Female Cardinal

Male Cardinal

Tufted Titmouse

Carolina Chickadee

Turkey Vulture with Opossum

Barred Owl