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| Montezuma ...there are birds in this shot, but you will have to look close |
Friday the Schoharie. A nice walk on a lovely day.
Saturday, we drove up to Montezuma only to find it closed. We could hear thousands of birds right on the other side of the gate....other people drove around it, but they looked like they might have business there...... so we just sat in the parking lot for an hour or so trying to pick ducks, geese and swans out of the fog.
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We hit some other favorite hot spots on the way home, but they were all pretty darned dead. Saw a few gulls and an absurd number of grey squirrels.
Then today was the Christmas Bird Count. We split into two sets, Matt, Lisa and Alan did one side of Turkey Farm Road and Mike and I and later Kegan, did the roads on the other.
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| A portion of the huge flocks of Snow Geese we saw on the Skiff Farm up the road from my folks |
Tonight we watched the Big Year just to top it all off. I know it is grossly inaccurate in its depictions of the personalities involved, but the story is fun, and the birds are amazing.
We were laughing out loud at the guys hooting for owls, as we were driving around before the sun came up this morning hooting out the Camaro windows trying to pick up an owl....no such luck though.
We did see a massive flock of Snow Geese, and, between the two sets of us, a LOT of Canadas, some Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, and lots of other goodies, plus we had fun chasing a lovely flock of somethingorother out in a corn field, which turned out to be about fifty guinea fowl of every color known to the breed. They sure do look wild!
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| We finally found out what was behind that elaborate fence we have been driving past for years on count day |
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| Just up the road from the guinea hens |
It was a great weekend all in all.
Great scenery from down here in stupidly warm December.
ReplyDeleteLove the snow geese and flocks.
Your land is just stunning!
ReplyDeleteLinda
When I came home one day last week there was a beautiful red tail hawk sitting right side my kitchen door eating a dove. I stayed back and watched it. I was almost near enough to touch it if the door had been open. It cleaned up the bird almost completely. Beautiful bird.
ReplyDeleteFC, thanks, it was very dark and grey, so photos weren't what they might be, but for such lousy conditions we saw great birds.
ReplyDeleteLinda, i love NY, except for our government, lol
Ellie, that is really cool! We counted 7 Red Tails on our count this year, I believe. I think it's the highest number we have ever gotten. We have a pair that nest in our own heifer pasture woods and I love to see them and to hear them call.
Sounds like a great time...Happy New Year...may it be the best one ever!
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