Spring Goes On

Regardless.....

And at least so far the powers that be say we are still allowed to get out and experience it. I hope that extends so far as to let us drive down to the Crossing and hit the big ponds up south of us. There are few or no people there and plenty of birds and wild things.

Yesterday marked the first Spring Peepers for us. Their strident shrieks were first heard down in Schoharie County, through which we drove on our way home from an appointment that had to be kept.

Then we stopped at a little pool on Rankin Grove Rd. where we have seen oh, so many amazing birds. Nothing around but a couple of chickadees, but from the watery wash at the base of the brightening magenta of the Red Osier Dogwoods came the barking grunt of several Wood Frogs.

I have not heard them in at least 20 years, as vernal pools are in short supply on our upland acres.

Ring-necked Ducks

We also found some interesting migrating ducks, a small group of Ring-necked Ducks on a pond in the Bear Swamp complex of waters and a Long-tailed Duck up on Lyker's Road.

That was a thriller  as we only see one or two of these per year and only if we are lucky, and only on the river as a rule. I still remember the first one I ever saw, decades ago when they were still called Old Squaws, out in the confluence of Schoharie and Mohawk. If I have seen more than twenty altogether in the ensuing at least four decades I would be surprised.

Rana  Lithobates Clamitans

And once upon a time, in another life way back when, I learned or thought I learned, the names, both Latin and English, of all the frogs and toads found in NY and many of the other amphibians plus reptiles. Pointless in my line of work, but fun. Then they came along a couple of years ago and changed the Latin names of most of the frogs, so all those Ranas are now Lithobates (thanks a lot). Peepers are no longer Hylas either. Pseudacris Crucifer now I think? Anyhow, I thought I was well versed in local herp lore.

Imagine my amazement when I discovered that parts of NY have chorus frogs. There seems to be some discussion on whether they are Boreal or Western Chorus Frogs, but dang, I did not know they were there atall. However, there was a video yesterday of Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge frog song, which sent me off in a flurry of research and frog learnin'.

As they say...you learn something every day. yesterday I learned frogs.

Stay well dear friends. Stay strong. Stay safe. We will try to do the same. 

This little round mountain centers the view on many of our travels
Anyone know its name?

Did She or Didn't She?

When this photo was taken one July day three years ago, I think she did. Today, well, it is pretty darned sunny out, so six more weeks of winter.

But wait! In Upstate NY, on the second day of the second month, there are ALWAYS six more weeks of winter for our eager anticipation. 

Always.

Meanwhile, check this out. Turns out the things below may be more accurate than the rodent.

Sproing

Spring is springing up all around us. From parrot tulips the kids bought me last fall to Robins nesting everywhere, including places we would prefer they had left alone.

It's all good. Had a nice Mother's Day trip to Cabela's, which is where we found  a toy...finally..that Mack can't destroy. 

At least so far.

 A nice lady clerk told us that she had bought one for her dog, but dogs couldn't make the squeaker in it work. Too complicated because you have to turn it on its side to activate the noisy part.

I told her I had a Jack Russell Terrier. They can do anything they want to.

She said, "No, I have one too, and he can't work it". Although Mack loves noisy toys and squeaks and honks them all early and often, I did wonder why someone would be concerned about a JRT not being noisy.

Anyhow......

Guess how long it took Mack to squeak it....

Yeah, half a lap around the kitchen table and it was going. He loves it and plays with it by the hour. Honky, honky, squeak, squeak, squawk.

Playing Catch Up

*****this was written for yesterday, but it was just too hectic here to get it proofread so......

The garden  should really be all planted by now, but this is a late spring.

Thus we are doing what the title says, playing catch up. The boss and I put in fifteen tomatoes that Becky and I started way back when and TWO zucchettas this morning. That's right. Only two. Last year we planted ten, and although we made good use of them, we really couldn't eat that many.....in fact we are still eating on them.

 Speaking, of which, hey Mappy...we have one saved back for you, as promised. Plus one tomato plant for Sean. Plus more herbs than I know what to do with. What was I thinking anyhow?

We turned Cinnamon up the hill with the old cows yesterday. She was out all last summer and pretty much knows the routine.Of course she immediately came into season and was abusing the old cows terribly. We kept her for beef, so that is just another thing to deal with.....

Huge coyote hit by car at the bottom of the driveway. Alan says sixty pounds at least. I knew those tracks we've been seeing in the barnyard weren't from any little puppy.

As I was talking to our boy, who came home last night, while walking out on the long lawn, I happened to glance up....felt someone watching me...and there she was, that same old doe. The boss saw a fawn up in the field yesterday, but this old girl doesn't look as if she has one again this year...time will tell.

My other project for the day is keeping an eBird list of the birds I see today. Up to 28 species so far and a fair number of individuals. Numbers already dropping off from may though.

See ya later, alligator 

Look at all the Happy Creatures

Becky called me to see this wild turkey hen right on the lawn behind the house

These ladies went NUTS!

Get off our lawn, you varmint, you!

And then the boss called me over to see this one and four others,
which got away before I got to the camera

Dancing on the lawn. There are eastern cottontails and woodchucks too. I shudder to think of the beating the garden is going to take, should it ever dry out enough so we can actually plant it.


The wild things are on the move....new migrants showing up every day too. It is cold. It is grey. It is windy. But it is spring and there is no denying it.

Lookin' Out my Back Door

For those of you old enough to remember the song...we used to play it back in the band days. I do not smoke whatever engendered those lyrics, so we make do with the birds and wild things here in NY. It was always a happy, foot stomping good song, just the same. We played a lot of CCR...the boys were all good musicians, but three major chords suited me just fine.

Now the view out the back door is far different than in the music days.

A soft rain is falling. Warm, gentle, damp, and soggy. I keep listening for the woodcock, but no peent rings from the horse pasture yet. If you see him, tell him he's way late.

I was hoping to see a duck or two for my annual all-farm bird species count. When I was walking the delicate Miss Daisy, didn't a pair of mallards quack noisily right over my head. Nice of them. I see teal every darned day, but I'm not good enough on ducks to know which ones at the distance. Fast flying little bullets that they are.

And the turkeys are strutting out on the hill. Too dark and rainy for much of a photo, but you get the idea. Lots of ladies in the rose bushes, two big Toms flashing their wares, and a little jake puffing his tail when he thinks he can get away with it.

Spring truly has arrived and not a minute too soon.

For Jonna, Cathy, Linda

And all of you winter-weary good folks out there. The geraniums are already showing signs of damping off. Darned things anyhow; they are so hard to grow.

However, these hardy little herbs are confident that spring and summer will get here and give them room to grow and in the meantime they are thriving in the mini-greenhouse in the living room.

They give me hope.

Happy First Day of Spring

One end of the bowling green

I used to wish we could flood the bowling green in winter so the kids could skate. They loved to do so and spent hours down in town on the public rink. It seemed such a shame to have this perfect depression in the ground, just begging to be filled with water and frozen, where they could have had a serious amount of fun.

Part of the other end

However, we pay for our water out here and it isn't cheap. So it never happened.

Fast forward to the ridiculous winter of excess, 2013, 2014. Kids are grown and all gone but Beck and she is way past too busy to skate.

Now the silly thing is full of lovely ice just begging for speeding blades.

Oh, well.

Harbinging his little heart out.

And why a bowling green you might ask? The boss's dad built it as a young man, using horse and scoop blade, for former owners of the place. It is really a nice sort of place, despite the complete and utter absence of bowlers.




And last night the kids brought the therapy baby down and let me hold her, sleeping sweetly, on my lap for several hours. She is a cuddler, content to snuggle in whatever arms are warm and handy. Thanks guys.

Visiting her great grand aunt from who she takes her second name

 Have a wonderful first day of spring! 

Listen

Can you hear that? Yesterday a robin was tentatively clearing his throat with just a handful of translucent water notes. This morning he is in full song, the first robin song of the year.

And that wild whistle from the locust tree? The Carolina wrens are still with us.

Birds all around, testing phrases from the songs they will soon be singing, light up the morning all the brighter. 

How not to love a golden dawn, laced with early bird song, and edged by glowing contrails? Guess morning is my time of day, and spring, however belated, my time of year.

We've got storms coming in I guess and plenty more of winter. But I heard the first red-winged blackbird yesterday, a true harbinger of better.

Look who's nesting in the snag right behind the barn.
Hope the wind doesn't take his condo down, because I sure can't wait to see his family,

A Funny Thing...or Several

A song sparrow sitting in the sparkly snow yesterday before the rain

Farm Side deadline is Wednesday at noon, or thereabouts. This week I wrote about how slow the early signs of spring are in arriving this year. Not the robins. We see them all year. But rather the first scent of earth, the first gilding of the willow trees, the first spring songs of the birds that hang around all winter, like chickadees and white-throated sparrows.

And then didn't yesterday bring most of those things...... It thawed like the devil, really fast and furious. Then it rained with considerable enthusiasm.

Soon calls of "Old Sam Peabody" rang through the shrubbery and the chickadees were going mad with spring songs. No sign of color on the willows yet though, and it will be a while yet before the maples put on their first blush of pink spring lipstick.

Meanwhile Bailey had a bad spell, went down and couldn't get up. Although she calved weeks ago and should have been long past "milk fever" the boss gave her a bottle of calcium. She was up in an hour or so.....

She seems to have a uterine infection along with the slight mastitis, so we are treating her with two antibiotics for the two conditions. If you were to see her now, you would find bright red crosses and lines drawn on her fanny and hind leg with oil crayon. That is so no one makes a mistake and milks her into the tank. There is also a record kept of everything we do for her, so we can be sure when her milk is safe to return to the bulk tank.

 

Every single tank load of milk that leaves the farm....and every farm...is tested. If you are caught trying to sell milk from a treated cow, you pay for the whole truck load. Needless to say we are careful. We don't even feed it to the bull caves. It is just dumped down the drain.

And thanks to a very nice person who sent us an antibiotic test kit that he isn't using any more, we can do our job better. Normally we would run a milk sample up to the vet's office and wait while they tested it for us. Now we can test our own right at the farm. 

Thank you all for your good wishes for Bailey. All eleven years old, she is the last Sandy Valley Ricky daughter we have, although at one time we had several. Her dam was one of the five Mansion Valley Delaware full sisters we had off a cow that would only breed to him and no other bull. Those five were really special cows, and did great for the kids in the show ring, as well as being good milkers and having very distinct personalities.

Because I Can

Random photos

Ice Washed

We had temperatures in the nineties just a couple of days ago...and now....now we had a killing, hard, hard frost last night and morning brought ice on everything. Glad we don't have anything planted.

However, the Ice Follies daffodils, which have naturalized all over the long lawn hill, look a bit the worse for wear.

And oh, happy day, Google was busy last night. I now have both the new post editor here and the new Gmail. I can't help it, I hate change just for the sake thereof. I will learn to use them, but I wish I didn't have to.

Shiverish, Windy

mourning doves

Last night, it was gorgeous at sunset. We all stood around out in the yard talking (and taking down laundry) after chores and just reveled in the lemon-gold sky and the tender air.

Robin

Then somewhere in the early hours an insane wind sprang up and things started popping and rattling and shaking. Sleep was pretty much impossible.

Robin

And baby it is cold out too. April in the Northeast is not to be taken lightly I guess.

Song Sparrow

We had a lovely Easter...a nice ham dinner in between chore times and the weather was the best it has been in a week or two. I went out to try to get a video of the mocker, but he was kind of just mumbling and the real blue jays and a song sparrow, which I think he had called in, drowned him out. Had fun taking bird pics at least.

Eastern Phoebe

Can't wait for grass though. Buying forage this year is not for the faint of heart or light of wallet....would be a lot better time to be selling it I think.

Song Sparrow Serenade

Took Nick out for a walk this morning just before the sun came up. 

Song sparrows were singing from perches near and far, at least seven or eight of them, plus a few robins and a cardinal. Something was making a strange wooden chirp from the old apple tree and the mockingbird has finally learned some new songs.


Sweet indeed.


I hear we are going to be seeing rain all next week....which I really hope doesn't augur the start of another summer from Hell....but meanwhile I love the chilly, bird-filled mornings with the sun coming up like a cold peach sundae.

Ephemeral