Happiness Is

Some volunteers

Being too young for the Senior Citizens' Day free admission at Altamont Fair. There are only a handful for which I am still not old enough to qualify.....

Getting off easy in last night's storm. Some wind and lightning, but nothing too awful. There sure has been some violent weather the past few weeks. Not really all that unusual for a NY August, but the constant heat and humidity makes it seem worse.

Are more welcome

Helping bring along the next generation of birders. I was coming downstairs from putting laundry on the bars when I heard a LOT of peeping around the front porch. I went to the screen, but it was so dim, with approaching bad weather that I couldn't tell what the birds were even though I could see them.

So I pished a bit through the screen door and soon had a porch full of YOY Carolina Wrens. There were at least 8 around. Peggy came out and asked what I was doing, so I yielded my place to her mother, thinking she could call them up so Peggy could see them.

Seriously, they were coming over a couple of inches from the screen. Not much bolder than a wren. Liz couldn't get them to come back in but Peggy started squeaking at them and they came right over.

Than others

I wish you could have seen her face when she came and told me all about it! Soon they wandered over to the sitting porch and began noodling around all the flowers, while hummingbirds were drilling for nectar. I hope this year they are savvy enough to head south. I hate losing them every February when it gets really cold.

Getting a year bird yesterday...they are awfully thin this year. Anyhow, as I was cussing out JRT Mack for hauling me off the step in his rush to go potty hunt, I glanced up and saw a distant black outline flying east to west. 

Great Blue Heron. Cannot believe it has taken me into the second half of August to count one here on the farm. With the river nearby and a tasty stream full of frogs in the center of the place I usually see them much earlier.

So many missing species this year. Bad luck or some other thing I do not know, but even the Great Crested Flycatcher has been elusive. We normally see them or hear them daily in summer. No Green Heron either, another normal spring and summer bird.

No Upland Sandpiper. Only four warbler species. I sure hope approaching autumn livens things up. It doesn't help that I can only walk a little way but still......I haven't even seen a Yellow-Rumped Warbler yet.