Swallow Tailed Kites!

  For the past three days along Rt 44 in Rehoboth Swallow Tailed Kites have been flying over the open fields around a nursery and soccer complex. Swallow Tailed Kites are a southern hawk like species that eats insects. They are extremely beautiful. 

   I couldn't go look at them on Thursday of Friday. Even on Saturday I had to lead a bird walk in the morning. After my walk was over, on my way back home I stopped in Rehoboth. They had been reported in the morning. I pulled into the War Memorial and there was a Revolutionary War "camp". past that I saw a few birders. I parked my car within minutes we were watching the Kites. On Thursday, there were three but on Friday and Saturday two were reported.

  The Kites were flying high and it looked as though they were eating bugs. They are extremely graceful dancing in the sky. They never really got close to me ranging from 200 yards to  mile away but in the binoculars when the light hit them right I could see the contrast of black and white body parts. I could see the swallow like tail and even the little sharp beak.

   I watched them for about an hour and headed home. I took some photos so I got proof shots. However, my back up camera that I'm using has spots all over the inside of the lens leaving my photos a mess with marks all of them. I might be buying a new camera much sooner rather thsn later. I was hoping to wait until 2025 but I don't think thst is going to happen.  

Been birding and fishing

 I haven't written much but I have been outside when I can get out. Some days I've been fishing and others I have been birding. When I've been fishing, I've been targeting largemouth bass mostly because they are close and I don't have to drive far. I usually hit up the fishing spots in the afternoon for a couple of hours before supper. I haven't caught any big ones but have been well most days with a Yakomoto type worm on a 5/0 extra wide gap (EWG) hook

   Birding has been an all day affair. When I go and I know I'm going to burn a lot of gas, I'll make a day of it. I've mostly been chasing the rarities figuring I'll get most of the easy ones along the way. Here are some photos below.

Trumpeter Swans are a western and midwestern species however, a pair made its way to Mendon, MA a couple of weeks ago. Ironically, the only other ones I've seen east of Wyoming was a few years ago at a pond five miles away in Milford

Lousiana Waterthrush are a tough bird to see. They do nest in New England but are on the rare side. Also, their habitat is unique. They live near fast moving streams. You won't find Louisiana Waterthrushes near ponds unless something horrible happens like they fly into a Nor'easter and they have to land 

I ran across three Spotted Turtles at Great Swamp. A rare species on the endangered/threatened list

Many rarities that are seen in April are known as "overshoots". These are southern birds that when they migrate north, end up traveling further than they planned. This usually happens when they have a strong tail wind pushing them along. Blue Grosbeak is one such spoecies

Little Blue Herons are a dark almost purple species. This one is transitioning from it's white coat to its dark. Seen on the road to Conimicut Lighthouse. I've never seen one that looks like this

I actually came across two Summer Tanagers last week. This was the closest one. The other was a bright red adult male. This one has some really cool splotches on it. Summer Tanagers are another southern overshoot. While Scarlett Tanagers breed in the area

Terrible photo, but was told where a Gret Horned Owl nest was. I was far away parked in my car but got to see these two fuzzballs. The babies are covered in soft down and are at least 18 inches tall. They look like pillows with eyes.

Antietam National Battlefield

 

   On our third day we decided you can only take so many photos of cherry trees so we decided to do something different. We had left the binoculars at home and I left my big lens so birding wasn't going to be a good idea. We planned on going to Mount Vernon but we had done that a couple years ago. I came up with Antietam Battlefield. I went to Antietam when I went on a solo vacation by myself to Shenandoah National Park in 2010. I went to the battlefield on my way home and only spent a couple of hours. Since Laurie had never been there, it was a no-brainer to go back. The GPS said the time to get there from our campground was one hour and twenty three minutes. 

   Okay, background- September 17, 1862 has the sad distinction of being the bloodiest day in American history. It was bloodier than D-Day, the invasion of Iwo Jima or Okinawa (in a single day). There were over 23,000 casualties including 3600 deaths. For most of the morning and afternoon there was someone killed or wounded every second!

  Antietam (or Sharpsburg) was an extremely important battle during the Civil War. If the South would have won, European countries would have recognized the Confederacy as an independent nation. On the other hand, if the North won, Lincoln was prepared to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. The North had been whipped badly for the entire summer by Robert E. Lee. They were demoralized. The fighting men knew there wasn't any real leadership and the generals were subpar. Before the battle, Lincoln made George McClellan  commanding general for the second time. Despite being inadequate in combat, his troops loved him and his reinstatement did bring morale back to the Union Army.

   Lee invaded the north hoping to take pressure off of the southern farmers and civilians in Virginia that were bearing the brunt of the war. A southern victory on northern soil would do much to have England and France recognize the Confederate States of America. The Northern army got a copy of Lee's orders and knew exactly what Lee's strategy was and where he would be. Unfortunately, Little Mac was slow and took forever to muster his men and get them where they needed to be to fight. Because of this, Lee got to choose the ground the battle would take place. Despite this, the North had a two to one advantage in man power. 

   The nice thing about going to Antietam Battlefield is the entire battle happened in one day. To make things also simple, the battle moved in a line roughly north to south throughout the entire day.

   

Dunker Church

At dawn artillery opened fire at the north end near a little German Church known as Dunker (spelled multiple ways) Church. The goal was for the North to take this church. Fighting centered around a 24 acre cornfield . Men could not see one another from either side due to the corn and the smoke. The cornfield changed hands many times. Soldiers were shooting at whatever was in front of them despite not being able to see the enemy. It was a bloodbath. 

When I went to Antietam in Oct 2010
The Cornfield did have corn and you could
picture the hell the soldiers went through

   In the late morning, the area known as a Sunken Road in the middle of the battlefield saw the majority of the fighting. The South held this road with 2300 men being opposed by ten thousand boys in blue. They held the road for three hours before eventually being over run and falling back a few hundred yards. This road earned the nickname Bloody Lane. It was covered with dead Southerners laid out like cordwood in rows and men piled on each other. Most of the men died of head and neck wounds so you can imagine the carnage in this once quiet farm road.

The Sunken Road would later be renamed 
Bloody Lane

   In the early afternoon the fighting moved further south to a bridge spanning Antietam Creek that was renamed Burnside's Bridge. General Burnside's men were tasked with taking this bridge. On the other side were Georgians just as determined to hold the bridge. After hours of fighting the Union gained the upper hand. They sensed the fire of the Rebels slowing down so without orders from their commanders they charged the bridge. They took it and drove the Southerners into the town of Sharpsburg. The last part of the battle was known as "The final attack" which was basically the North using their superior numbers and finally taking the field. 

Burnside's Bridge. The huge Sycamore on the
 right of the photo was present for the battle

   While the battle was basically a draw the North took the field and therefore could consider the day a Union victory. On the day of the 18th, both sides declared a truce so the dead and wounded could be picked up. McClellan timid as he was, allowed Lee's army to cross the Potomac that night and get back to Virginia. If he pressed, he would have crushed Lee's army and who knows if the war would have lasted three more years.

Clara  Barton was at the battle. She brought
bandages to soldiers on both sides and later
founded The Red Cross

   The Union victory was what Lincoln needed to free the slaves. Three months later he announced the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in all of the states in rebellion (not the border states). 

  Laurie and I spent time at Dunker Church, the Cornfield, Bloody Lane, and Burnside's Bridge. We stopped at all of the stops on the auto route. As we finished out last stop it started to rain. Because of this we did not go to the Antietam National Cemetery. We went back to our campsite and made supper. 

Eclipse

 

   I now understand why pre-science humans thought it was the end of the world when there was a solar eclipse. I drove up to St Johnsbury, VT to experience the totality of the eclipse. Quite honestly, it was a nightmare. 

   Traffic was bad on the way up. I had planned on going to northern NH but traffic was so bad I took I-89 into Vermont and then went north on I-91. I found a  grocery store that allowed people to park for free. They had food and restrooms. I bought some cooked wings and ribs which were delicious. 

   I watched the eclipse with my glasses that I had saved on my burrow since 2017. When totality came I got to watch it for two minutes. It was mostly dark and I saw two stars. I took about ten photos. It was over as quickly as it started. I must admit that the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is accurate. It took all of my power not to make any puns or title this post Bonnie Tyler's song. My heart was racing and I was overcome with true awe. It took a few minutes for it to slow to normal.

   Then the misery began. If you read that traffic was a nightmare or saw it on the news, it was worse than you could ever image. Within fifteen minutes of totality I-91 was backed up with stopped traffic. I thought it would be smart to let it clear out for an hour which became two, which became three hours. Finally at 7 pm I tried to leave. I was immediately stuck in traffic so I drove through St Johnsbury only to find traffic as I passed the NH border. I drove another two hours moving maybe ten miles. The last straw was when my GPS told me there was an hour and forty seven minute back up going through Franconia Notch. So I did a U-turn on the interstate ( no one was going north ) and found a trailhead to lie down at.

   

Heavily cropped so you can see the red around
the sun

  From 10:30 until 3 am I tried to sleep. This would have been easier if I brought a blanket. I covered up with the three sweatshirts I had and dozed off a couple times. Finally at 3 am I left for home. I was again caught in traffic within ten minutes as I was funneled through Franconia Notch. Once south of Lincoln I finally got up to speed and made it home at 7 am. 

  The question I asked myself while I was stuck in traffic praying for the  end of the world to stop my misery is this...was it worth it? The simple answer is no. Two minutes of one of the coolest things I have ever seen was not worth the 22 hours of being on the road. I would not do it again...but I know this, I would have regretted not going up to see totality for the rest of my life if I didn't go. I could never have imagined traffic would take a full day to disperse. So while I am not glad I went, I am glad I have no regrets so I guess that's a win?