The site commemorates the town’s participation in the Revolutionary War.  It includes a log cabin, a cannon and trenches that the Patriots used to get water without getting shot.

The field is completely surrounded by forest that was chock full of birds.  The most abundant bird was the robin.  Robins were everywhere!

They especially liked these bushes with red berries.  I tried to identify them, but there are a lot of red-berried trees in the world, even when you narrow it down to South Carolina.

We have robins in Utah, but they’re not nearly so visible.  I see them most frequently at dusk in early spring.  I liked seeing all the robins, but they were getting in the way of me finding a unique warbler.  But I still enjoy the robins.

When I hear a commotion in one tree.  So I look more closely in the tree and I see this:

BABY OWL!  Baby owl, BABY OWL!!!  He flew to a different tree and I followed to get a better picture.

He was pretty fearless.  He stared at me as I walked closer and closer.

Mom (dad?) was on another branch in the same tree watching me very closely.

The blackbirds, robins and sparrows kept trying to mob the baby.  They did not want the owls in their nesting territory.

This is the first time that I’ve found an owl on my own and I found the baby no less!  I’m starting to feel like less of a novice and more of a moderately skilled birder.  I know all the common birds, I’m getting better recognizing bird songs and I can find birds and their nests.  Since this is purely a hobby, I’m not pushing myself to be the best.  Competition takes the fun out of birding.  But it’s still nice to feel that I’m getting competent at birding.

Especially when you’re a baby robin.

And you’re not going to wait for the low hanging fruit to ripen.  You want it now!

So you look and stretch

for that perfect piece

but sometimes

it’s just too far

and then he fell

They are especially vocal during sunset.  Robins are one of the last birds to make noise as it gets dark.

In California, I saw robins frequently in Mountain View and Golden Gate Park.  You have to know where to look, though.

Does anyone know if this is a robin?  He has the orange breast (although it’s lighter) and the beak looks right, but there is no eye ring.  In the images that I’ve found of juvenile robins, they all have the eye ring.