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THIS WEEK at HILTON POND
1-31 July 2015

Installment #624---Visitor #AmazingCounters.com

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All text, maps, charts & photos © Hilton Pond Center

AN UNNATURAL ACTIVITY:
RECOVERING FROM BILATERAL KNEE REPLACEMENT SURGERY (Part 1)

NOTE: At 7 a.m. on 30 June 2015 my trusted orthopedic surgeon tried to undo the ravages of too many years of osteoarthritis when he replaced both my knobbily, wobbily knees with titanium prostheses. We elected for simultaneous bilateral replacement out of concern my "bad" knee (which I had repaired after a college Frisbee accident 'way back in 1967) might fail while I was rehabbing my "good" left knee (which has been paining me for several years due to torn menisci, bone spurs, defective cartilage, and a shredded ACL). The bottom line: I was hospitalized for about a week and in a residential rehabilitation facility for another fortnight. I returned home at last on 20 July and finally got to spend a few minutes gazig out my office window (above), admiring Hilton Pond. I'll be on a walker for a few weeks, restricted to the indoors, doing daily home rehab and outpatient physical therapy 2-3 times per week.

So far the knees appear to be mending well, although complications with swelling and mysterious pain in my right ankle have slowed progress. They also strapped me down a bit too tightly during surgery, resulting in numbness to my right (dominant) hand could impede banding dexterity. Until my overall physical condition, stamina, and mobility improve there will be no full new installments of "This Week at Hilton Pond," so I hope you'll simply use our on-line search engine to find nature topics in which you may have an interest. The archives include more than 600 past installments!

Wife Susan faithfully maintained all our hummingbird and seed feeders in my absence in the hope I can get back to banding most local ruby-throats before they head south this fall. As you might guess, visitor activities are suspended at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History for the time being, with the goal of reopening in late fall. I'll welcome your positive thoughts and healing vibes until I've mended well enough to start banding and teaching and writing, and I look forward to being strong enough to ride my trusty road bicycle through scenic byways of the Carolina Piedmont by next spring. See you soon!

BILL HILTON JR.

All text, maps, charts & photos © Hilton Pond Center


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York SC 29745

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"This Week at Hilton Pond" is written and photographed by Bill Hilton Jr., executive director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History

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Comments or questions about this week's installment? Send an E-mail to INFO. (Be sure to scroll down for a tally of birds banded/recaptured during the period, plus other nature notes.)

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Transmission of weather data from Hilton Pond Center via WeatherSnoop for Mac.

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Thanks to the following fine folks for recent gifts in support of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History and/or Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project. Your tax-deductible contributions allow us, among other things, to continue writing, photographing, and sharing "This Week at Hilton Pond" with students, teachers, and the general public. Please see Support or scroll below if you'd like to make a gift of your own.

We're pleased folks are thinking about the work of the Center and making donations. Those listed below made contributions received during the period. Please join them if you can in coming weeks.

Gifts can be made via PayPal (funding@hiltonpond.org); credit card via Network for Good (see link below); or personal check (c/o Hilton Pond Center, 1432 DeVinney Road, York SC 29745).

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If you enjoy "This Week at Hilton Pond," please help support
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It's painless, and YOU can make a difference!

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If you like shopping on-line please become a member of iGive, through which 1,500+ on-line stores from Amazon to Lands' End and even iTunes donate a percentage of your purchase price to support Hilton Pond Center. ..Every new member who registers with iGive and makes a purchase through them earns an ADDITIONAL $5 for the Center. You can even do Web searches through iGive and earn a penny per search--sometimes TWO--for the cause! Please enroll by going to the iGive Web site. It's a painless, important way for YOU to support our on-going work in conservation, education, and research. Add the iGive Toolbar to your browser and register Operation RubyThroat as your preferred charity to make it even easier to help Hilton Pond Center when you shop.

The Piedmont Naturalist--Vol. 1--1986 (Hilton Pond Press) is an award-winning collection of newspaper columns that first appeared in The Herald in Rock Hill SC. Optimized for tablets such as iPad and Kindle, electronic downloads of the now out-of-print volume are available by clicking on the links below. The digital version includes pen-and-ink drawings from the original edition--plus lots of new color photos. All sales go
to support the work of Hilton Pond Center.
BIRDS BANDED THIS WEEK at
HILTON POND CENTER
1-31 July 2015

SPECIES BANDED THIS PERIOD:
NO BANDINGS THIS MONTH

* = new banded species for 2015

PERIOD BANDING TOTAL:
3 species
29 individuals

2015 BANDING TOTAL:
41 species (34-yr. avg. = 65.6)
1,952 individuals (34-yr. avg. =
1,848.2)
64 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (32-yr. avg = 160)

34-YEAR BANDING GRAND TOTAL:
(Banding began 28 June 1982; since then 171 species have been observed on or over the property.)
126 species
62,838 individuals
5,118 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

NOTABLE RECAPTURES THIS WEEK:
(with original banding date, sex, and current age):
NO RECAPTURES THIS MONTH

OTHER NATURE NOTES:
--Nature observations and activities were curtailed at Hilton Pond Center during Jul 2015 as the resident bander recovered from dual knee replacement surgery. Limited banding activity will resume on about 1 Aug

--As of 31 Jul Hilton Pond's 2015 Yard List stands at 64--about 37% of the 171 avian species encountered locally since 1982. We had no new yard birds during the period.

--The immediate past installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond" was a potpourri of images from the Carolina Piedmont and the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, from skunks to rhododendrons. The photo essay is archived and always available on the Center's Web site as Installment #623.

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center


Please report your
sightings of
Color-marked
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

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Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History is a non-profit research, conservation & education organization in York, South Carolina USA; phone (803) 684-5852. Directed by Dr. Bill Hilton Jr., aka "The Piedmont Naturalist," it is parent organization for Operation RubyThroat. Web site contents--including text and photos--may NOT be duplicated, modified, or used in any way except with express written permission of Hilton Pond Center. All rights reserved worldwide. To request permission for use or for further assistance, please contact Webmaster.