Despite our unseasonably warm weather, there are no new sightings to report, apart from some lovely sunsets. On Wednesday, we set out for a walk, but the wind soon blew us back inside. The incoming front dropped the temperature from 12C to below zero in a few short hours and then delivered snow.
We have become nostalgic, once again, for the balmy time we spent in Hilton Head, South Carolina in early 2020, just before the pandemic arrived.
We have a myriad of photos to downsize. Here are some of our better photos from our first week there.
Red-shouldered Hawk
Northern Mockingbirds seemed to be everywhere.
Shorebirds were present on the beaches, great in number and variety.
Below: Willet, with Ruddy Turnstones and Semipalmated Sandpiper
Willet and Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
The beaches also hosted Ring-billed Gulls and Laughing Gulls.
Inland ponds were oases for wading birds.
Below are: adult and juvenile Little Blue Herons, Anhinga, Snowy Egret, and White Ibis.
Juvenile Little Blue Herons are white with greenish legs, pale eyes, and two-tone bills. Snowy Egrets have yellow eyes, black and yellow legs and yellow feet. Tricolored Herons have a white belly and white stripe along its neck, yellow legs and a two-tone bill.
This handsome Great Blue Heron was ensconced in a drainage ditch close to a pedestrian path.
Here are a couple of chance sightings along the treed paths where we were staying.
Great Backyard Bird Count Photos
Cornell has published a selection of photos submitted from across the globe for their Great Backyard Bird Count. You can browse photos from Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceana, Antarctica, Europe, South America and North America here: https://www.birdcount.org/bird-and-people-photos-gbbc-2024/
Aretha Franklin and More
The entire Kennedy Center Honors of 2015 is wonderful.
We initially accessed it to watch the tribute to Seiji Ozawa, a dynamic conductor who enlivened the Toronto music scene in the mid ’60s. Ozawa died recently at the age of 88.
https://www.tso.ca/home/seiji-ozawa/
The final tribute was for Carole King and featured Aretha Franklin singing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”. I know we’ve featured this clip before, but it is well worth revisiting for Aretha’s captivating performance.
As great as Carole King’s version is, Aretha gave it wings.
The song appears as a continuing element in Murphy Brown.
The music of Aretha Franklin was the soundtrack to the original incarnation of the TV comedy, Murphy Brown, her voice lifting the series aloft at key moments in its history. Franklin served as a kind of patron saint to Brown, played by Candice Bergen, reminding the newswoman of who she wanted to be and what it sounded like to be a strong woman comfortable in her own skin. Franklin’s songs bookended the entire series.
In fact, creator Diane English has said the concept of Murphy Brown fell into her head perfectly formed one day while she was sitting in Los Angeles traffic, and Franklin’s “Respect” came on the radio. True to her initial bolt of inspiration, this song framed the very first moments of the pilot episode when Murphy Brown premiered in November 1988 on CBS.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/aretha-franklin-appearance-on-murphy-brown