Wood Stork

I was so lucky this morning to see a Wood Stork. It was on the salt water marsh side of the causeway. Amazing looking bird. I think Hooded Mergansers in the back ground. Have more to post of Snowy Egrets and Herons.

Birds of a feather.....

 ....flock together....like these Cedar Waxwings..........

 and several groups of ducks on the brackish side of the causeway at Huntington Beach State Park. Murrells Inlet, SC. Any birders out there that can help with an ID? They look like Ruddy Ducks to me.

 There was a group of Blue Birds but I caught only this one.

I hope that everyone had a nice Christmas as we did here in South Carolina. I'm enjoying getting out with my camera and surprised at all the birds that I am seeing. Hardly seems like Christmas with the temps in the 70s.

Night of a Thousand Candles.....

.....at Brookgreen Gardens. We arrived while it was still light so I was able to get a few OK pictures. We had dinner in the biggest tent that I have  ever seen. The meal was delicious and by the time we were done it was dark.

Impossible to get any decent pictures without a tripod. It was so beautiful ... a huge amount of lights dripping from the trees.....a  real fairyland. It was also very crowded and cold....not cold by Michigan standards but chilly non the less.

Enjoyed the evening very much.... with my daughter Amy and Allison and Jacob (above)

Brookgreen

Iron Coffin

It doesn't look like this is in current use....could be though.

Delray

 I couldn't find out any info on this church other than it was Hungarian Orthodox. 

You can see the fire stack from the mill behind the gray house

 Wonder if they got in....

Out and About in Detroit

 When my son was in town I asked him to drive me around so that I could take pictures. I was particularly interested in seeing where the new international bridge is going to be built. It was a very dark and gloomy day as you can see but it added to all the industry, blight and just plain sadness.

 This ship, the Wilfred Sykes, was docked on the Rouge River and was being loaded (or unloaded). I saw on facebook that we just missed the mail boat delivering mail to the ship's crew. The JW Westcott carries mail to all the ships that come thru Detroit....zip code 48222

 Zug Island

Vacant building may have been a bar/club

 St. John Cantius

Built in 1927 and closed 2007....  there is a fence around the whole property and right in front of the church is a waste disposal plant. Really so sad to see but even more disturbing is that the church will probably be torn down when the bridge is built.

The area of Delray is mostly all industry now and the neighborhoods are a mere shadow of what they once were but some folks do not want to move. They were offered homes in a swap for swap owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority. The homes are newly renovated. People that owned homes in the path of the bridge were bought out but people on the outskirts of the bridge had the option to swap homes.

Christmas 2018