Several Peacocks have the run of Middleton Place, a historic SC Plantation and Museum. They mostly stay in the barnyard area and on my last visit I spotted just this one sleeping on top of a rabbit hutch.
He opened his eyes to watch me watch him but he showed no sign of getting up.
The Harris’s Hawk can be found in the southwestern United States, through arid regions of Central America and South America. They are one of a few birds of prey known to hunt cooperatively.
This Harris’s Hawk was one of the birds that flew as part of the photography day presentation. It was fascinating to watch but my images weren’t great. I’ve included this one to show his beautiful brown and red colors.
I had much better in flight shots when I participated in this event in November, 2016.
Harris’s Hawk, Parabuteo unicinctus
The Center for Birds of Prey offers photographers an opportunity to take close-up photographs of owls and other birds of prey a few times a year.
The Center for Birds of Prey, Photography Day, April 22, 2018, Awenda, SC.
The Ural Owl is a medium-sized nocturnal owl found in Europe and northern Asia. They are in the same genus, Strix, as the locally more familiar Barred Owl.
The close ups below were taken with the Sony Alpha 6500, Sony 55-210 mm lens.
The ridge of feathers at the edge of the face create a disc, which works to trap and focus sound.
Ural Owl, Strix uralensis
The Center for Birds of Prey offers photographers an opportunity to take close-up photographs of owls and other birds of prey a few times a year.
The Center for Birds of Prey, Photography Day, April 22, 2018, Awenda, SC.
We wandered the Charleston, SC peninsula along Church, Water and King Streets yesterday morning and I thoroughly enjoyed the amazing presentation of flower boxes.
Houses and businesses of all architectural styles have decorated with flowers.
Some of the containers match the building and others are a cascade of flowers and you can’t really tell.
Most of these are private homes and plantation shutters for privacy on the inside are common.
Most of these buildings also have functional exterior shutters that can be closed for hurricanes.
Many of the boxes stuck to a monochromatic theme.
This little garden seems overloaded with color and style.
The Azaleas are fading but other flowers, including these Calla Lilies, are blooming.
Live Oaks with arched limbs line the entry way to many southern plantations and this spring the Azaleas under those arches have been spectacular.
Elizabeth Street is the main entrance of the Aiken-Rhett House , making it appear more modest than it is. Many Charleston streets have the houses arranged this way, with the narrow part of the house facing the street. This was done to maximize space, not reduce taxes as the myth is often told.
This house is a little unusual as it sits at an intersection so there is no house immediately to the right and that it encompasses a “townhouse complex” that includes several outbuildings which indicate the original owner’s wealth. The orange color is also not the norm.
Wide piazzas on the first two main levels of the house run the length of the building. Below is the first level, with one of the enormous windows open, which serves as a door from the drawing room onto the piazza. Manipulating the breeze was essential to comfort during Charleston’s humid summers.
Large windows with shutters were used throughout the buildings, including this one that housed the kitchen, laundry, and slave quarters.
The property, encompassing just over one half acre per Charleston County records, runs all the way from Judith Street on the piazza side of the house to Ann Street.
A privy stood in each back corner of the property. The photo below was taken from inside one of these little buildings.
At one time the entrance from Ann Street was lined with a row of Live Oaks, making a stately entrance through a gate for the horse drawn carriages. Horses were stabled along with their carriages in the building on the right below. Additional slave quarters were overhead.
Click on any photo for larger view.
The Aiken-Rhett House is a historic museum in downtown Charleston, SC. Last renovated in the 1850s the house is full of well crafted details, many you have to crane your neck to see. The back stairwell is crowned by a ceiling medallion three flours up.
Most of the rooms are big, with high ceilings. This drawing room sported one of many large chandeliers in the house. The gigantic mirror and its gilding would help reflect the light into the room.
This metal chandelier had a simpler ceiling medallion. but the room was well decorated with crown molding and carved woodwork.
Ringed by these serious faces, this light fixture was never upgraded from gas fuel, even though the house was occupied by Aiken descendants into the 1970s.
Light was enhanced in the home’s art gallery with a skylight that had its own ceiling decorations.
The four sides of the skylight have windows to capture light indirectly, protecting the art work. This image taken out a window on the second floor shows the skylight from the outside.
Click on any photo for larger view.
Brown Pelicans are attracted to Shem Creek by the commercial fishing activity and are often seen cleaning up behind the boats as they clean their catch. Other times they drop into the creek and fish on their own.
Shem Creek also hosts a Kayak/Stand Up Paddleboard rental shop and a public boat ramp for those with their own equipment. This pair of paddlers wasn’t paying much attention to the Pelicans gliding by. I’m not sure how that would be possible.
Pelicans will land on anything and everything. Their sheer size (between 4 and 11 pounds) always makes them stand out. I liked this shot with the colorful hulls in the background.
Shem Creek – click image for larger viewTaken with my new 20mm lens, 3/24/2018.
Sony Alpha 6500, Sony 20mm F2.8
The shrimp boats and a few sail boats were docked for the day along Shem Creek, a long time fishing center turned tourist attraction when the board walk was added. The smaller inlet off the creek winds around the marsh and frequently hosts egrets, herons and other water birds.
Shem Creek – click image for larger viewTaken with my new 20mm lens, 3/24/2018.
Sony Alpha 6500, Sony 20mm F2.8
