Purple Martins

Last night, we went to Bomb Island to see the Purple Martins. Bomb Island is the largest Purple Martin roost in North America. At its peak in late July, there are between 700,000 to 800,000 birds flying to Bomb Island. Since it is late June, we saw closer to 400,000 birds give or take a few 100,000. [They are small and hard to count. :) ]

The Purple Martins fly in every summer from Brazil. Each summer night around dusk, they fly back to Bomb Island. It is quite amazing. It must be nice to have a summer island tax and mortgage free.

If you click on the picture, you can see small dots over the island. The dots are the purple martins. I will post a better picture next time we are out there. We needed to be closer.




This picture was taken at the same time as the Bomb Island picture. Note the moon over Bomb Island and the sun over the other side of the lake. Jordan thought that was very cool. For those blog readers who do not know, Bomb Island and surrounding islands were used for bombing practice by pilots in World War 2.

Sailing Classes

This week Hunter and Jordan are taking Sailing Classes at the Lake Murray Sailing Club. They are having the best time. Each student practices sailing with their our sailboat. They rig their own sails and care for their boat. Today they sailed to an island. After exploring it, they sailed back. One kid lost a shoe on the island. I'm glad both of our boys came back with both their shoes. Hunter told his dad that he did not know sailing was so much fun. As always, you can click on any picture and make it better.

Hunter at the helm

(He looks so serious. I think they were racing.)

Jordan sailing in

(For the record, if they were racing Jordan beat Hunter.
I just posted their pictures in the wrong order.)

Hunter back on shore

Jordan returns to shore

Happy Father's Day

For Father's Day, Hunter wanted to make breakfast for Chris. So this morning, Hunter and I woke up and made breakfast for him. Hunter served him in bed. After that he received his Father's Day cards and presents. Chris wanted to spend the afternoon on the lake. The boys had fun tubing and swimming. We went to Bomb Island and walked around. I had found some coordinates for a geocach hidden on the island. It was the first geocach we had looked for. One day we happened upon one while we were looking for a letterbox but this was the first one we searched for. We found it easily and it was neat that it was hidden on an island. I hope all you fathers had a wonderful Father Day.