Blend, Baby, Blend

White-throated sparrow doing what they do best....blending. Each photo is posted twice, once uncropped and once after a little editing. You can click to find the bird in the upper ones....

Glow Bull Warming

Is causing this cold weather. I just heard it on the Tee Vee so it must be so. Tee Vee is heavily populated with little talking heads that are too young to remember when this was just normal winter weather. I recall dating a guy who went off to college in Grand Junction, Colorado, when I was in high school. A gigantic snow storm locked down all the airports on Thanksgiving, and another on Christmas and so on all through the early months of the year and well into what was supposed to be spring. I didn't see him for months and months and months because he simply couldn't fly home. They called it global cooling then.

And don't you just hate it when the person in charge of the idiot box....an apt name indeed....goes to sleep with it tuned to lamestream media news? Me too. I used to have my own remote control for moments like those and I swear, even though I never watch it voluntarily, I am going to get a new one.

On a brighter note, I was standing at daybreak watching the morning erupt outside the big windows in the living room (wherein resides the propaganda portal) when I saw a magical sight.

I was birding. I am always birding. And here came this great, bird, hooking his long, hard wings over the thin, cold breeze. Right up to the window, lower than the roof, he had to grab air pretty hard to get over the house.

A bald eagle. He looked pretty fancy in the pink light of dawn. And awesome. I know there are places where they hang around dumps and scavenge fish off the fishing boats, but here in NY, at the breaking of another cold, sharp, day, they are awesome. 

Snowy Owls

Hairy woodpecker. He is sure a shy son of a gun, but noisy

Nope, not here, but a neighbor from a couple of miles to the south brought down a photo taken on their farm and their neighbors have been seeing them too. Guess if we can get up some gumption we'll have to take a run up that way and see if we see one. I've seen several in my lifetime, but not in quite a while.

Meanwhile, the song sparrows are back. A nice, natty red one showed up yesterday. I have only seen one or two since the first snowfall, but we usually have quite a few.

Saw a pair of ravens too. I was just mentioning that I hadn't counted any yet this year, and a pair came right through the yard.

Speaking of gumption....where can I buy some? These night barn checks and working with only Becky all the time is wearing us old fogies out. She does all she can, but she is just one person. I could barely drag myself to the barn at 4 AM for calf check. Seemed like a mile, all uphill. Of course we were in the barn until after nine last night so it makes for a short time indoors.

Thankfully after Bailey has her calf we get a few weeks respite before the next ones start coming.

 I am ready for some warmer weather and the cows are too. Can't get them outside with all the ice. Even with all this snow it is so cold that it doesn't stick to the ice underneath, so you are walking in a foot of thick fluff with glare ice underneath. We do okay, but for hoofs it's not so good. 

The Magic of Apples

As you probably know, there was a ridiculous apple crop last year. Our Winesap tree made so many that I fell behind on clean up in the fall....I try to get the drops out from under it to help control pests...and the ground is covered with old apples. 

And as you know we saw a big flight of robins last week coming in from the neighbor's fields and landing on our old horse pasture, which is quite grown up to brush.

They stayed around. We saw them every morning over by the barn. I wondered what they were eating. At least part of that question was soon answered. Bird poo on the driveway was full of riverbank grape seeds...thanks, guys, I really needed lots more little grapes planted everywhere. There were sumac berries here and there too, dotting the snow like drops of blood.

Then this morning, Alan looked out the window over the sink and exclaimed, "Robins!"

And so there were. Apparently the whole flock, and there truly are at least a hundred, had stopped by for applesauce. I guess I'm glad I didn't get the apples cleaned up after all. It was funny to watch them surfing over the fruit, beaks dripping apple mush and chirping so melodically. Plumb made my day.

Hairy woodpecker taking the sun and banging on the dead boxelder behind the house

Resident red-tailed hawk in a cottonwood down by the river

A Day for the Birds

For some this could be a complaint....but for me it is more like this.

First, when the boss went to the barn this morning, what he says is a big hawk flew out of the barn cleaner shed. He swears it's a red-tailed. Could be. It was back later when he went over again. Hopefully it will hang around long enough for me to check it out.

Then the dear, sweet, gentleman who sometimes brings bird seed in the winter stopped.

Later as I walked into the office, passing through the living room where the big windows are, a huge flock of robins passed by. By huge I mean like probably more than a hundred.

They just kept coming in waves ranging from a few birds to twenty at a time. 

And then when I went to fill the feeders a little chickadee came right up to me and scolded as he grabbed a seed.Nice, huh? 

I hope the robins hang around. I have been so jealous of my dear friend in Ohio......

Interval

Owl feather? Caught in a rosebush

The insanity I wrote about yesterday seems to have become the norm around here. I accept that this is how it is with farming and family today. However, some days stress piles upon stress until I don't know which way to turn.

The heifers' summer hangout. Other animals are using it now

Thus when Alan called me from the woods where he was rabbit hunting to report that he had seen a large flock of bluebirds and what he thought might have been a pair of red-headed woodpeckers I donned my boots and joined him.

There be something banging on these trees

The ice was bad in spots but most places we could walk in crusty snow that was fairly navigable. Out in the open the wind would bite hands right into submission. It was hard to hold the camera. However, down in the sheltered bits the sun was pleasingly warm.

Wandering coyote was here

We did find the bluebirds, although the large mixed feeding flock he experienced had moved along. You could hear birds chirping and calling out in the hedgerows of the far fields, but I wasn't up to chasing them all over the farm. There was enough treacherous ice hidden under a thin skim of snow to make waking slow and in spots pretty dangerous.

Off toward the Dacks

It was fun. It was liberating. It was much needed. You would be amazed at the dramas unfolding all the time back there, while we go about our business all unknowing down by the buildings. Foxes and coyotes search the rose bushes trying to roust out bunnies. Owls hurtle through the same bushes hunting the same bunnies, and mice, and voles and such. A busy shrew plies his way along the surface of the frozen creek and vanishes under a steep bank. There are tracks everywhere. We could read the story of the wilding night in all the many footprints.

Pileated detected

 We came back off the hill and tried to help get the stables cleaned, but the big stable cleaner chain broke about six times before we gave up...the boss is forking out the gutter and wheeling the manure outdoors from behind about half the cows. Not much fun.

Mark of the wild hunters

We figured out that the chain is at least 28 years old and it is just worn out. If the barn is cleaned really often and there is no ice, it will work, albeit grudgingly. When there is ice, as there has been so many times this winter already, it breaks. And breaks. And breaks.

Blurry bluebird

So hooray for bluebirds, blue skies, and shining vistas of woods and wild lands. They do a body good.

Christmas Hawk

Along with a replacement faucet so I have hot water in the kitchen...handy that, and installed with the help of a huge Sawzall, which was not dull....and a handmade basket from my dad....spectacular that....and other fine and interesting things, including the socks that are keeping my feet warm even as we speak....

I got a hawk for Christmas. I was at the sink and looked out the window...a window over the sink is one of my favorite things in the world...and there he was.

Or she as the case may be. I hurried out quietly and grabbed a few pics and then he flew.

My first thought was sharp-shinned hawk, then I started second guessing myself, so I put him up on the FB bird ID group, where it was decided that he is indeed a sharpie.

So, to whomever sends hawks for Christmas.....thanks.....

Christmas Bird Count

Is done for the year. We had pretty awful weather, and after worrying about not having anyone to participate due to the odd day that was chosen, I was concerned about not seeing anything because...well, it was really hard to see. The little guy above is typical for what we were up against IDing the birds if we could actually even them spot at all in the fog.

Taken from the truck window, you can see what he is....after a while. Took us at least ten minutes to be sure what he and some fellows were. And at least that long to ID three gold finches in a birch tree.

Sometimes over the day the fog lifted and we could see a greater distance. Sometimes it rained and we were really socked in.

At least fears of heavy pre-Christmas traffic failed to materialize and thanks to lay-offs and vacation, all the usual suspects were able to count.

 Some years when the count is before the holiday traffic is terrifying. Some of our territory is on frantic cross region highways and close to malls and all.

And all in all we had a good day. A black duck was fairly unusual, as was a robin, two red-breasted nuthatches, three bluebirds, and despite the challenging spotting conditions, five red-tailed hawks. 

I believe the starling count was 237, a real high for us in recent years. No doubt they are always there, but tend to not be out where you can see them when it is really cold. I thought we had good numbers overall, although not what we might have had with better weather. No geese. No turkeys....

Anyhow, thank you, Michael, Matthew, Alan, Jen, Lisa, Mom and Dad, Kegan, and everyone who hosted, drove, or called out, "Oh, look, a bird, oooh, aaahhhh!"

Oh, and just FYI, there were cookies. I have yet to meet a cookie I didn't like....just sayin'.

Wild Geese

Although the weather forecast around here is changing and often, we are obviously going to get something.

Heaven only knows what, although we have freezing rain, heavy snow accumulations and pretty much whatever else you might choose, including zombies on Zambonis, from the winter misery menu up for grabs.

The birds are confirming that something will happen although they aren't saying what either. Feeders have been bare for weeks. Not even the Sassenachs coming in to steal seeds. Then yesterday they were crowded with sparrows, juncos, gold finches, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and pretty much everybody else in the neighborhood. More of the same today.

And the wild geese were so restless it was crazy. A friend took me to lunch yesterday, which was an amazing lot of fun, plus good food in the bargain. We stopped on the way home to check out the population on the river in town....nothing like traveling with a fellow birder..... and it was positively thronged with birds. Not just geese, but an exceptionally large flock of assorted gulls, ducks, etc. And oddly enough, instead of being mostly gathered on the bank as usual, they were floating all over the river, mostly facing west and for the most part evenly spaced. Looked like a net of geese....hey maybe it was a skein. 

Anyhow, all day long chunks of the flock kept breaking off and flying up, circling here and there, and then cupping back down in. Of course when I walked the dog without the camera they would fly low, right over the house, with the rays of the setting sun painting their breasts gold and pink. When I went out with the camera, they would circle way off to the east, well out of range. Then when I went out to haul firewood, obviously sans camera, back they came to taunt me happily.

They were beautiful, and I looked up every single time a bunch went over. I think they feel the stirring of the coming storm.

And I had a white-crowned sparrow this morning. He looked pretty out of place. 

Anyhow, once you get all stocked up on milk and bread and toilet paper...did I mention milk?....stay safe and dry and warm and have a good one.

Pishing

Telling me to mind my own business

Alas, I couldn't do Sunday Stills this week, as I simply didn't get out on the highway and the topic is billboards. However, I did get out birding...for maybe ten minutes in between a panoply of other stuff, most of which was not very memorable, but it kept me busy.

See the birdie?

I was walking Miss Daisy yesterday afternoon and the hedgerows were full of clicks and chips and peeps. I had the camera, but not the binoculars, and as I didn't want to traipse through the house in my boots, I put her in the kitchen and headed down the long lawn.

A dark-eyed junco quickly appeared, but I knew there was more. Without binoculars I had to try pishing. I was almost instantly surrounded by a whole family of Carolina wrens. I knew we had a couple, but there were at least four, probably six or eight, one singing right at my feet..maybe six feet away..but hidden by dense undergrowth.

Hiding in the grapevines calling me names

The juncos came too and scolded me soundly. And there were song sparrows. There are always song sparrows. 

I wish someone would tell those little wrens that we get hard weather up here. They love to hang around until real winter shows up and then there's no food and it's too cold and they come in the barn half dead. There they either just die, or the barn cats get them.

It makes me sad. I wish they would migrate to friendlier weather. 

Snoopy song sparrow giving me "the eye"
OMG, I didn't catch the Carolina wren photobomb right behind the sparrow. Hahahahah

We even had a cat catch one inside the house. They keep showing up every four or five years, nesting, bringing off a brood or two, they they freeze out and we don't see them for a while. I love them, especially their vibrant song, but I don't think they are terribly smart. 

Northview Farm Year Bird Count Progress

Palm warbler

Thanks to the Facebook Bird ID Group of the World, I am having a lot more luck than I used to with warblers....just in time for the fall migration.

I took a long walk around the farm today, originally looking for nice landscape photos for this week's Sunday Stills....have I mentioned that I stink at landscapes?

The walk provided a veritable cornucopia of birds and wildlife...not to mention the erratic popcorn popping sounds of millions of grasshoppers.

This warbler, which peeked out of the bushes right in front of me, looked like a yellow-rumped at first. Since I have seen dozens down by the house, I  enjoyed spotting it and would have let it go at that. However, it posed willingly for its photo. When I took a better look at it on the computer it didn't look right for a butter butt.

I put it up on the group, after spending a while with the field guide. My guess was that it might be a palm warbler. Consensus among the experts there is that it is just that,

Count so far stands at 66 species, seen by me. If I add snow buntings, eastern bluebirds and northern harriers seen by the boss, I only need to find one more for seventy. Fall warblers..here I come.

Warbler ID

All you better birders, can you help me with this fall warbler? I posted it in an ID group on FB and will probably eventually get an answer, but I am so impatient. I know the photos are lousy. It was high in our honey locust and hard to get a focus.

For handy, dandy reference, for the less warbler challenged than I, here is the nice page the FB group sent me to for ID.Nice page and I will get the book as soon as I get an Amazon card for doing surveys or something.


Warbler guide

******Hold the presses! The nice man at the FB group says that this is a Wilson's Warbler, a lifer for me....and lifers are scarce on the ground for someone who doesn't travel much. Also the second new bird for the Northview annual count in as many days. Yay!

Get Along Little Dogie

The other dogie

If only I could spell. I thought they meant get a long little doggie, so we got one. She is a loving little nuisance, everybody's best buddy, and lap comforter and bed snuggler and rug....no, let's not go there...if you are diligent indeed, she will do it outdoors, at least some of the time.

I tried tying a bit of string to my belt loop to leave my hands free for binoculars and camera and took her birding yesterday. It was interesting. A nifty little yellow-rumped warbler found us intriguing and came in close and low, to nip from branch to branch just inches away, friendly as a kitten. 

I didn't raise the camera, just stood still to enjoy him, only to find out what he was laughing at when I started to step away. My dogie had lassoed me, and neatly tied my feet together with the string. 

Thanks, Daisy. She continued to do so every time I stopped. 

Which was often. The house was captured in a net of Eastern Phoebes, chasing wasps I think. They fluttered at every window, and hoovered every shingle all day long.

Though we have yet to see anything exotic, the woods and fields abound with the common but interesting. Catbirds, cedar waxwings, gold finches by the dozen. Warblers....how DO you learn fall warblers anyhow? They are driving me nuts. Every time I think I have found something new, it is a common yellowthroat, a yellow, or a yellow-rumped.

Smorgasbird

All migration, all day, all night. Flocks o' stuff going over all the time. The trees were full of little brown birds this morning, sparrows of some sort, but probably not song sparrows, as they had no interest in pishing. You can almost always pish a song sparrow.

Then as I was getting ready for work I swore I heard a house wren on the front porch. Although the Carolinas have been around since July or so, and are still singing now and then, house wrens have been unusually scarce.

 I crept to the screen door to look.

The darkened cedars and lilacs were blooming with birds. Warblers....who knows what kind...saw a common yellowthroat, but for the rest just hmmm...

Catbirds, foraging for something, including a couple of rose hips. The air resounded with blue jay calls down in front. Cedar waxwings everywhere.

And silly little house wrens. At least a pair. They were in and out of the old nest cavity in the porch pillar, singing and singing and singing, fighting and flirting all over the porch and environs.

What on earth are they thinking!?! Sure that cavity has raised many a wren and the top of the pillar so many robins that the nest was up to triple-decker before it fell last winter, but c'mon now. 

It's September. Somebody give those birds a calendar!

One of These Things

Is not like the other. For years I have wanted to get a photo of this domestic style goose, which travels with the flock of Canadas that live down by the river at the DOT in Fonda.

On the times we saw it on the river there was no break in traffic to get a photo, and because of the fence you couldn't get a shot on the DOT side of the road.

However, this summer they moved the fence so on Sunday this week we were able to drive right down near the flock and snap some shots.



 I am not sure if this would be considered a domestic greylag or some other sort, but I assume it is probably not a true wild goose. Could be though.....they have wild ones in Europe.

Should anyone who knows about these things care to enlighten me I would be most grateful.

Thanks.