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  Ice storm bird inventory report from the Deep Woods Bird Porch. You’ll notice I did not say bird ‘yard’. Our porch, covered in feeders of one kind and another, is our ‘bird yard’. That’s because we don’t have a yard. We live in the woods, where little light penetrates, and thus does not attract…

Ice. Snow. Bitter Cold.   The forecast could have been a meme, but being hit by a storm of ICE is no joking matter. After the deepest dark of last Saturday’s midnight, sleet pelted from the heavens, turned to rain, froze to hard cold ICE on every twig of every tree, every tree, foreign and…

As I write this tonight, the focus is on the winter storm forecasted to hit our area this weekend. Most people seem to be taking it seriously and preparing as much as possible, as evidenced by the long lines everywhere. Meanwhile, back in the Jocassee Gorges, I wonder…does wildlife sense a storm is coming? Possibly….

Seeking Resilience What will our trees look like by the next edition of the Blue Wall Weekly? Our favorite Severe Weather Liaison from the SC State Climate Office, Frank Strait, has declared “the worst case scenario” for the base of the Blue Wall in Upstate SC. It will not be pretty. Limbs snapped, trunks snapped,…

    EAGLE COUNT! We do it most every January, assisting Tim Lee from the SCPRT in a nationwide survey of bald eagles. Last year we counted only 3, but we did much better this year! As you can see, we count most every bird we see along the way. (We don’t see them…

Trees ‍Bare-branch winter. Trees take on personality not noticed behind the screen of summer green. Consider, for example, tulip poplar, a neat, somewhat prim tree who spends life as a tidy column, orderly limbs thrown sharply heavenward like the praise stance of a church choir. Different, much different, than rangy oak. Oaks are cowboy trees,…

  ‘This week on Lake Jocassee’ section of the newsletter is exactly about that… what happened this week. Only, ‘this week’, we’ve been on vacation, so it’s hard to know for sure. However, after 8 years of Jocassee winters under my belt, I can just imagine. This time of year, mornings are quiet… so grab…

Canada Goose She was born here, but visitors to Lake Jocassee try in vain to chase her away. She is large, beautiful—regal, even—and not easily intimidated. She was a precocious youngster, walking and swimming from the time she hopped out of the nest. Rather than bringing her food, her vegan parents taught her, from day…

Our last tour of 2025 was on Sunday, December 28th. The day was overcast with misting rain and cool temps, but 5 folks showed up with smiles and great attitudes to brave the weather. Jocassee’s winterscape didn’t disappoint. With minimal boat traffic, we found ourselves, at times, looking out across the water and wondering if…

Reset Salt water laps this flat sand shore, and across its great expanse there is sky, not rolling blue ridges of mountain. Coastal plain people come to the mountains to reset; mountain people (or, at least in our case, base-of-the-mountain people) come to the Atlantic coast, where different pines and oaks live, where the wind…

  ‍As we head into this beautiful winter season, one thing you can count on seeing on Jocassee this time of year are our winter birds. On Wednesday, Zach saw 6 eagles, Matt caught a glimpse of a bufflehead hanging out in a group of horned grebes and my boat was lucky enough, in addition…

Christmas Green leaves of partridge (in a pear tree) berry vining through silver (bells) tufts of (Rudolf the red-nosed) reindeer moss. (Merry) Christmas fern. Bright red holly (jolly Christmas) berries on evergreen trees. These gifts, precious as any delivered by magi who follow that familiar star on a long-ago night, are our familiars. Even in…