Whose Day is it Anyhow?

This guy's.

If you see him today in the far away home of Philly cheese steaks, wish him a happy birthday....or hit him up here if it's handier.

Meanwhile, happy birthday, kiddo. Hope the weekends make up for spending it on the job. Love you!

Kicking over the Traces

Tomorrow the family Christmas get together.

Sunday the holiday itself. With a two-year-old. She is so excited.

Monday Johnstown CBC. 

Monday night. If all goes well, and the good Lord willing, and the crick don't rise, and all of the ifs ands and buts fall into line.

Heading south. Where the birds and the sunshine live.

Buddies

Sometimes it is all about the journey and not the destination These guys had a great day out in the fields and woods last week and came home grinning and joking. Only saw one deer and it wasn't in a safe spot to hunt it, but they seem to have had a real good time.

Happy Birthday

He's the one on the left.....

To a great dad, a fine son, good citizen of our area, world's best brother, and a fine  young man. Congratulations on all you have accomplished, Scott. It is a pleasure to know you.

Who Worked 9 Hours

And then drove 4 1/2 hours home....

To vote......?

Yeah, this guy. And now he has to drive back.

And yes, his parents are proud of him, although I will be a lot happier when I hear that he is safely in Boston....

Before and After

I'm All Right, But.....

That phone call you hate to get. Well, I got it yesterday. Seems a tractor trailer in Pennsylvania swapped lanes entirely at random with a whole line of cars and trucks beside it.

Guess whose car got hit. Run over really, by the back wheels of the trailer.

Yeah, it will be a while before the Camaro takes us any more cool places.

However, it is probably going to be okay after some serious repairs to door, fenders, skirts, wheel, etc. ......and most importantly, our boy is okay.

There are simply no cars that matter more than that.

That being said, he loves that car and has invested a lot of time in keeping it looking like it just came from the factory....now it looks like it just came from a NASCAR race.

The other side is still nice and shiny.

Montezuma

Purple Martins

I was expecting a less than stellar weekend. Alan was supposed to have to work straight through and be in DC for the next couple of weeks with no breaks. Then last night he called, late, but on his way home. I figured he would be too tired to do much, but he was up bright and early and said, "Let's go to Montezuma."

And so we did. 

Blue-winged Teal

Best day birding ever. We saw so many thousand birds it was insane. 

At least seven. Or maybe eight. Or maybe more, Bald Eagles, hunting right under the observation tower where we were standing. They were so impressive and amazing and all, that I cut my hand on the tower railing, said ouch, and never stopped watching. Climbed down and discovered that I was bleeding all over the place....just made sure I didn't drip all over my stuff and went right on birding. Alan had to chase me down with a Band-aid.

Rusty Blackbird yea or nay?
 *Update:verified! First I've seen in decades. Identified them by learning their song and listening for them in groups of more common blackbirds

I am pretty sure I spotted Rusty Blackbirds. I have photos, and just need to get them checked out by wiser birders.

Osprey

Talked to a fellow on one of the observation platforms that informed us about a lot of what he could see or had seen with his better than ours equipment. That is one thing I have missed...other birders to talk to like that. I am mostly self-taught (and thus personally to blame for all my bad IDs), and meeting someone like that was pretty cool.

What a day! What a place!

Saw Ruddy Ducks, the most improbable chestnut color, bobbing up from dives like so many bathtub toys. Cutest things ever. As always we are going to need help with one gull and some sandpipers. They are so HARD!

A tentative list of what we spotted and ID'd

Canada Goose
Caspian Tern
Arctic Tern (according to the bird man...all I could tell is that they were medium-sized terns)
Greater Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Killdeer

Great Blue Heron
Lesser Scaup
American Wigeon

Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Ruddy Duck
American Coot
Mallard
Wood Duck
Hooded Merrganser
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Osprey (Flying, as well as feeding chicks on a nest)
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Kestrel
American Robin
European Starling
Common Grackle
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-winged Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird (?)
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
Tree Swallow (thousands)
Barn Swallow
Purple Martin
American Crow
Some small sandpipers yet to be identified. Update: Dunlin, and I figured it out all by myself and then had it verified. Go me. lol
And probably more that I missed getting on the list because there was so much to see. 
What a day!

A Bald Eagle had just passed putting up hundreds and hundreds of ducks
You can see a few of them here

Solitary

Looks like I will be birding alone for the next few weeks, as my partner and teammate in the game will be stationed in a city far to the south of us. You know the one....full of folks who are full of hot air and bombast and keep the rest of us down on the farm as best they can.

I will not let it slow me down.....much...no matter how much I miss him. It is nearly May. Things are happening. Our acres don't feature the exotic wonders of some of the places we go on weekends...no Sandhill Cranes here.....but if you get up early enough you can watch the moon setting in the west while the sun rises behind the neighbor's woods to the east.I had been planning to get to the top of the Heifer Pasture hill before sunrise some day soon.

Today was the day. You see at o'dark thirty, sometime well before five, I was dreaming weirdly of being in an Amish home with my little helldog. Deeply, soundly, asleep. Suddenly, abruptly,  I was awakened by the sound of trotting horse's hooves and whinnying. I hustled downstairs thinking Sunny was out....and found Liz getting Jade off to work and Peggy thunder-rolling-in-the-mountains through the house, giggling and sounding a lot like a pony. It seemed like an omen.....

So I got dressed and got out there, just in time to hear a solitary Brown Thrasher FOY singing his paired almost-but-not-quite mockingbird song from the top of a nearby tree...He wasn't there yesterday.....if you play the video you can hear him and a turkey clucking in the background.

..

Hide 'n' Seek

With Uncle Alan

And peekaboo

Portrait

Two 'o' my favorite peeps, piled one atop the other. Can you tell they are buddies?

Color me Mountain

 I'm a valley person. Grew up in the foothills, but moved to this valley very young....and kept coming back here time after time. Farming is good in river valleys, warmer, moister, better dirt all around.

Mountains are cold and bony, hard and stony, and unforgiving of crop production. Hike the hidden high places and you will see skeletal remains of failed homesteads, foundations drifted over with leaves; vines and trees clawing at chimneys, and pulling them down. The mountains were hard on the folks that settled this area, while the valleys gathered them in and helped them grow..

Mountains are irresistible though.

In my life, there have always been forays closer to the peaks, some lasting longer than others. I lived in a cabin once for a few years...up there....

And to folks who love them, no matter how far from the mountains we move in time or space, they always sing that seductive song every time we see them in the distance.

It grows louder and louder the higher we climb until we can hear it all around us...or see it, because mountain music can be seen, smelled, heard, and felt.

We experienced it strong and fine this past Sunday. Good to know it's always there. 

Turkey Talkin'

See the kitty on the phone? Pet him and he'll purr.

Our boy is home for most of five too-short days. He loves to mix things up and the place is humming. He and Peggy play on the floor a lot. She used to hate to get down on a blanket in the living room, but now she loves it, and a patient playmate makes it that much better.

You should hear her growl. Her daddy taught her that quite some time ago, and she growls at her food, at her toys, and at us. She growls at towels. She growls at everything just before she grabs it and chomps on it.

When she gets a little older all she will need for 'talk like a pirate day' are a few 'Ahoys' and a couple of 'Mateys', because she sure has argghhh down pat. 

Wanna taste the lollipop?

Al came to the barn with us yesterday morning for chores and on the way back over he did some turkey talking. He is good enough with just his mouth, no call, no box, no toys atall, that he used to drive his professors crazy at college. He would get in the stairwell and do a few little hen calls and then leave. People would look all over for the turkey.

Hmmmm.....

Yesterday the birds in the turkey tractor went nuts when he called them. The toms began to gobble, feathers fluffed, tails fanned and then began to strut in earnest. The hens were utterly perplexed.

It was pretty funny. I can call well enough to get hens to come down off the hill....sometimes.... but I swear he could talk them right onto the table. He once stalked one quietly enough to walk up and touch it when it was sleeping. It woke up right quick though, I can tell you.
 

A loaf of Liz's peasant bread. Look, ma, no kneading!

Anyhow, things are pretty lively right now...nice to have him here....we will sure miss him when he has to go back to DC.