French Interference

I love to listen to audio books while walking 10000 steps a day...thank you Becky for Audible.

My favorites are W.E.B Griffin books, partly because they are super engaging and partly because they are long. It takes a long time to walk that far and short books just don't hold up. Recently I have been making my way through the clandestine operations series. A great deal of German is spoken therein and I have become fascinated by the words and names. I found myself wanting to learn some German.

No reason. Just because.

Enter Duolingo.

Also enter French interference.

I studied five years of the French language in high school and college, the first two under a tiny Moroccan martinet who did not take no for an answer. Her red hair matched her temper. I don't remember a lot of French by I can still recite the dialogs she drilled into our brains. Dis donc, ou est la biblioteque? C'est tout droit, tu y vas tout de suite?

Anyhow, I am forever typing est when it should be ist, thus losing all my hearts and having to end the lessons.

Who would have thought? Not me apparently.

6

Seen in downtown Cobleskill during that count

Six Christmas Bird Counts this season and what a nice set of adventures they were. 

First was the count at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I wrote about that one here. I am really honored to participate in such an illustrious event, even if my personal failings slow me down a bit.

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Oneida County

Next was Schenectady County, much easier physically, as it is mostly done from the car. There are some incredibly beautiful places on that count, as well as a plethora of semi-urban birds, such as Northern Mockingbirds, which never fail to delight me, even when we are down south where they are everywhere.

Red-tailed Hawk, Montgomery County

Fulton County, up until this year my very favorite. Mom and Dad did this one almost from the start, and it is the county where I was born and raised. All sorts of northern birds are possible and this year we were rewarded with an Evening Grosbeak, a Northern Shrike and a Merlin.

Montezuma NWR

Montgomery County...home, although the territory covered by my BBB (best birding buddy,) Kris Harshman, and I is not part of our usual haunts, being farther west than our daily chases. It was a great count for raptors, including a Rough Legged Hawk, Kestrel, and Great Horned Owl. The weather that day was some of the best we have had in this challenging, cold, snowy season and much appreciated.

Trumpeter Swans, Montezuma

Then came Oneida County. This one is always interesting, as it is not an area Ralph and I have ever birded, so it is all new and different scenery and habitat. It is a good thing George can navigate so well.... The weather was harsh and windy (go figure...that has been the case almost every day since the second week in November) and it was work to find small birds, but fun, as always.

Northern Mockingbird, Schenectady CBC

Next was my new favorite, the brand new Cobleskill (Schoharie County) CBC. The boss and I bird extensively in three adjacent counties, Montgomery where we live, Fulton where I was born and raised, and Schoharie, conveniently located just to the south of us. To get to do CBCs in all three was the best treat of the winter so far. We had a long day with a mix of a few minutes of warm, sweet, elusive sunshine, bracketed by endless rounds of lake effect (my new cuss words for this winter) snow squalls and mini-white outs. 

Cobleskill

Oh, but the territory, the habitat, the miles upon miles of winding roads through a mix of grasslands, wetlands, farmland, woodland, scrub brush areas, and urban neighborhoods. We found 32 species finishing the day with a Great Horned Owl George called up on a woodland road south of Cobleskill. I really hope the Good Lord lets me do this one again next year.

Anyhow, thanks to George Steele for leading all but Montgomery County, and to my BBB, Kris Harshman for that one. There is a good chance I am the world's worst navigator, having the potential to get lost in my own closet. My two good friends cover that nicely, as well as being able to actually see the birds...

Over the course of the season, I got to meet and bird with three new people, all of whom I liked a lot, and every single one of whom has sharper eyes than I do. (I am forever grateful to be able to hear reasonably well.)

Winter is a heckin' lot shorter when the foul weather and dark days are punctuated by the challenges and fun of all these Christmas Bird Counts.

10 out of 10 (if all 10 are lunatic birders, such as myself) would recommend.

Cobleskill

The Forest or the Trees

 I often hear Pileated Woodpeckers Heckle and Jekylling in this woods and sometimes see them as well. This tree was ripped up like this over the course of less than a week. I know because I have been watching the hole high up in it for owl action...none yet. Quite a feat for a simple bird. 

Good Dog

A couple of days ago I was walking past the front hall bookcase when something caught my eye. It was an old spiral bound notebook I once used as a journal. I kept such a thing for quite a few years, but most of them are long lost.

However, there is this one still hanging around and just for the heck of it I took it out to see what I was doing in December of 1994.

Surprise, surprise, the kids were all down with the flu. When we lived in town they are always sick. Dozens of diesels idling all night half a block away will do that if you are asthmatic. 

One of my best cows, Frieland TE Emmy, was really sick and ended up being sold.

And on the 18th I brought home a puppy.

Mike

A good dog. It got me remembering the time he ran the heifers over me and and we had a Come To Jesus moment. He was a little better after that but I had a lot to learn.

The time he ran a cow over me, and came to lie tenderly beside me as I lay there in the snow gently describing his ancestry in highly uncomplimentary terms.

The day (after some training for both of us, mostly me) that we were loading a killer-mean Jersey bull and had to get him to help. He ran around in front of that miserable so-and-so, and swung right off his nose, then raced around behind him threatening mayhem.

The devil creature had just finished demolishing an old wooden cattle trailer right down the axels. It took Mike less than two minutes and one well-placed nose swing to put him in the sawdust shed over on the other farm, from whence we loaded him on the trailer for a trip to the auction.

And there was that one time when he and his half sister, Gael, both retired from stock work and just keeping me company while I puttered in the yard, put the heifers back in the fence all by themselves. I just stood and watched the old dogs working together so nicely.

There were other adventures too numerous to recount, but he was one of the two best dogs I ever owned, Brandy being the other one. It is kind of weird not to have a Border Collie, but Mack is a pretty good guy.

The story about the cop and the cliff

Another tale of the tailed ones

And another

If you are interested in still more, just type "Mike" in the search box above. He made a great difference in my life.

A Tale of Two Checklists

There is a field we visit here in our home county, which up until recently was a communal roost for Northern Harriers and Short-eared Owls.

In 2023 we saw 23 of the former in the field, soaring in to roost on the fence or crouching down in the short brush. (Checklist with photos:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S129462371) On other nights there were at least five owls with them.

Last year we spotted a handful.

Yesterday there was one. (Checklist with Photos: https://ebird.org/checklist/S1294623710

No owls at all.

Ain't development fun....

Numbers Game

These Trumpeter Swans did not make our trip list
Out of territory and all
But they were just as exciting for me

I love Christmas Bird Counts. I can't say for sure how many years I have participated, but I have been married to Ralph for 40 years and they predate him on my dance card.

Black Ducks
Hooray for open water
Always a treasure on CBCs

Monday I joined the Montezuma count for the second time, which is a terrific honor for me. It required 4 1/2 hours of hiking through snow that ran around a foot deep and a close encounter of the really, really, really embarrassing kind with a scary bridge with which I would not be Facebook friends  even if it sent me a request, but I loved it. Sometimes I wondered if I would make it back to the car, but it is what I do...and really, it was great fun.

Cardinalis Cardinalis, looking for all the world like
a Christmas ornament

Highlights were an amazing Gray Catbird that my birding friend and mentor, George Steele, spotted on Howland Island, finding a Winter Wren myself (that is always a thrill for me) and meeting and getting to bird with Jim Eckler, who is a really cool guy.

Montezuma is a fabulous, ever-changing, ever-fascinating, wild, wonderful place, that rarely disappoints. It was a lot of fun to visit it with people who are truly familiar with all its faces and facets, and to see it in an unfamiliar season. Of course it's always fun to count birds...see above...

Waiting, yet again, for me to catch up

Thanks to George and Jim for putting up with my slo-mo hiking, bridge squeezing and crashing, and clambering over trees handicap. Their patience was impressive. I have the potential to do five more CBCs this year if I can stay healthy and the Good Lord is willing and the Creek don't rise and all.

Happy Birding, Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year to all...and yes, I have a bird count on New Year's Day as well.