Barnegat Day One

 

It's spring in Barnegat. The bushes and grasses are thronged with Yellow-rumped Warblers, still clad in drab winter plumage, but ready to assault the great North any day now.

Kris and Kristen on the jetty. A younger me would have been out there hopping rock to rock, but it is a nope for an old lady with bad knees and questionable balance. Instead I walked the sand from where I took this shot.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

The sea there is likewise thronged with wintering ducks and geese that would trigger rare bird alerts here in NY and instantly bring flocks of birders, rivaling those of YRWA, to stand and stare while madly clicking camera shutters.

Purple Sandpiper...he knows exactly how cute he is!

My dear friend and Best Birding Buddy, Kris, invited me to share a quick trip there to view these amazing creatures, so we took off at o'dark-thirty Friday morning. On the way down we speculated about what we wanted to see most. I was hoping for Great Cormorants, and we both settled on Purple Sandpipers as grail birds so to speak. I had only encountered either on Bird Wise or on Cornell birding courses.

Once we found our way through the tangle of going south in order to go north engendered by the whole just one bridge to Long Beach Island thing, we were instantly greeted by a whole flock of Brant, one of those geese that get folks all excited here in this area. They were grazing on lawns and strolling in the streets, much like our local Canada geese do here. We were out of the car and pointing the cameras in seconds.

Soon, we met the other Kristen, an experienced birding guide who generously shared tips on where to go and what to see, as well as accompanying us out on the jetty at the lighthouse...well, K and K did the jetty. I walked out far enough to see the rock hopping that would be involved in going on the actual rocks. Not being a penguin, I hustled down to the sand route....

Within a short time we had spotted Great Cormorants drying their wings on another nearby jetty, and Purple Sandpipers hip-hopping and scurrying to forage among the stones. The latter were even more beautiful than I had imagined and tickled me....well, purple, not pink.

Red-throated Loon

Red-breasted Merganser

American Herring Gull

Among other notables was a Red-throated Loon that swam up right next to us, floating on a breaker just as it hit the beach. There were so many amazing birds that I can barely describe them. Mergansers, Long-tailed Ducks, all three scoters, a Gadwall, scads of American Black Ducks and Mallards. Gulls abounded, mostly the three common species here, Herring, Ring-billed and Great Black-backed. We found 31 species just on that walk.

American Black Ducks, strolling with a Gadwall drake

Later we went to Holgate to seek the Snowy Owl spending the winter there. Hiked 2.84 miles down a sand spit reaching out into the water, almost to the very dip, only to be unable to find it. It was less than thrilling to get a rare bird alert a short time after we trekked back to the car...someone had seen it almost exactly where we had been right after we left. It taunted us all weekend, being spotted off and on... Although it would have been nice to see it there were so many other birds to make up for it. Day two was even more amazing...TBC

I can't thank Kris enough for allowing me to share this incredible experience!

Twas

 

The night of the Full Moon

And all through the House

Every Creature was Frozen

Including the Mouse

The Toothpaste was iced in the Bathroom (unfair).

And Soap in the Laundry won't pour anywhere.

Are these Rock Pigeons or Willow Ptarmigan?
Note the protective coloring...

***And now you tell me that d*mned overgrown lawn rat saw his shadow etc. etc.

As I told the boss...as of the 2nd day of February in Upstate NY, there will ALWAYS 6 more weeks of winter.

Or really more like 12 or 14.

And that blasted marmot won't show his furry face until the beans and peas are sprouting up in the garden and he can have him a nice salad with the best of my lettuce.

Winter. 

I'm over it.

Snow Song

Rising, the sun trickles pink and gold across the snow. So faint you wonder if you really see it and miss the green of sweeter seasons.

Deer tracks trace a trail across the palette, stencil in the night. I think it's one of the summer fawns. He was tiny when the winter came but Alan said he'd be all right, and so far I guess he is.

American Tree Sparrow

No bird song now. Weeks ago it ended, as the focus turned to living through the winter, with no love in sight. 

Or sound

In a few weeks it will begin again, old as time and sweet as summer. The hills will ring with joy and hearts will leap with warming sun.

But for today, two ponies shred the snow with flying hooves, sailing by a dozen times, racing, dancing, manes a-flying, silent but for snorting, muffled by the banks of white stuff.

But where is Jack? Diamond and Gambit are in the strength of middle age and full of vigor. Jack is in his 20s and over all that stuff.

They scoop him out of his sheltered corner and it's a race, two on one; snow flies in their wake.

I go out with the camera and sing to them.

Di stops to stare down at me and then they're off again.

Critics

They're everywhere.

Snow rollers on the side lawn

Making Snowbanks

I imagine a large percentage of the population is or has been participating in this entertaining winter sport today. I got a head start last night thanks to the dog. At 12 pounds, with short little terrier legs, portions of his anatomy end up quite close to the ground.

This results in some daily bodily functions becoming....problematic... when the snow gets deep.

Last night he whined and wuthered and begged to go out.

Once out he would cringe and creep and race back in, his feet, and thus his nether regions, barely touching the ground...or the snow.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

 I eventually took pity and shoveled a potty portal for him.

He was delighted and tended to business with a will. 

This morning we all went out to play in the snow once more.  I shoveled out the car and bird feeders and refreshed the pup promenade. Becky cleared the snow off the car. The boss dug out the driveway with the skidsteer.

Enough snow has continued to trickle down that it will probably all need to be done again this afternoon....Yay!

BTW, weird snow. Sometimes when it snows just right a few loose flakes will sparkle on top. This snow resembled sugar or salt, rolled off the shovel with every scoop, and sparkled all the way to the ground.

Pretty I guess, but I am over it.

Stay warm and dry my friends, and do some baking and boiling to get your kitchen cozy. That is how we roll at Northview...Italian Sausage Soup and homemade bread, later turned into garlic bread....a fine feast indeed.

Fern

I have full respect for the coming storm. Experts are suggesting top ten all time, or even biggest one ever! 

Winters have been pretty easy in recent years. I remember much harder years.

Driving to work in minus 30 or 40 temps in a car with no heat or defroster. We kept a portable catalytic thingie on the passenger's seat pointed at the windshield. 

Keeping one tire on the snowbank to keep from sliding down the hills out of control. 

Several inches of ice on the milking parlor wall, from trying to keep the place clean when it was that cold.

Frozen water bowls in our conventional barn. Frozen stable cleaner. Frozen manure spreader chains. Frozen silo unloaders. Frozen every darned thing. Normal three or four hour sets of chores morning and evening morphing into sixteen or eighteen hour days and not really done then.

Earlier years when snowbanks were so tall and wide that Gloversville streets were reduced to one lane and you had to take turns and pray. Couldn't see over them or around them. Holidays when blizzards hit and no one could get home from college in distant states.

However I have lately been second guessing myself. After all, our parents walked to school barefoot, uphill both ways, right? Maybe my ancient memory was tricking me into thinking things were worse than they really were.

However, the almanac shows that the winter of 70-71 was actually the snowiest on record here. There were storms with over 30 inches of snow, so I guess I am remembering those snowbanks accurately after all. 

Turns out winter temperatures were the same story. In 80s when I was working at that farm with the milking parlor with frozen walls and driving that frigid car, some of the coldest temperatures on record occurred. 

Anyhow, I hope you can all stay safe and warm, and my heart goes out to livestock owners facing frozen equipment and monster snowbanks. And if you have to walk to school in this and it is uphill both ways.....maybe you could all chip in for a dogsled and a dozen huskies. Maybe we could all use a nice set of those. I have a couple sets of harness in the hutch in the dining room. 

It's snowing....