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Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Eight

I'll bet this guy is cold this morning down there in the big city and working outdoors.
I miss the beard

Below zero this fine January morning. They promised us four above, but didn't quite get it right. There will be a lot of farmers fixing and thawing and muttering this morning I fear. Even the goldfish from the pond, which are wintering in a ten-gallon tank in the office are cold.

I really shouldn't have fed them this morning....



Sunday, January 03, 2016

Perfect Timing

I shamelessly stole this photo from Liz's FB page....thanks, Liz
Both Moon and Moonshine are behind Bama, but she is a fat old girl and has them
mostly hidden.

The two old cows and the heifer have been out on pasture right up until now. They have been getting all the baled hay they could eat for several weeks, but with the temperatures mostly above freezing, and sometimes even above summertime, they were better off out.

They are both going to turn 9 this year and that means old arthur...itis, that is....can make it difficult for them to get up and down on a hard barn floor.

However, tomorrow night it is supposed to go down around four degrees, so the kids got a nice pen built for them down in the old heifer barn and we brought them in.

We are pretty sure Bama has been in there before when she was a heifer, but Moon was a show calf and stayed in the cow barn. The little heifer has only been in a barn for a couple of days, and she had never been in this one.

Thus when all went smoothly we were glad. I think they were happy to be in. Old Bama pawed shavings like a mad bull and danced around kicking up her heels like a clumsy fool. She is pretty seriously too darned fat and looked pretty silly. 

Hopefully they will do okay in there....it isn't a particularly cow-friendly barn, having been built long before concepts like proper ventilation were on the horizon. However, with just three cattle, three sheep, a big old horse, some bunnies and a mess of poultry, it should be okay.

Hopefully..... 

Winter



It just got here, albeit with a hiss rather than a roar.

However, I am over it already and it can leave at any time.

Meanwhile, I will be getting out there to get year birds for my list, and maybe submitting lists to eBird. I did one the other day and although it was a bit difficult I think I may have done it right.

And gardening. I picked these little beauties yesterday. And ate them.

Promptly.

There will be a few more it looks like, although the little 2-year-old volunteer tomato plant in the big geranium pot is looking a bit the worse for wear. However, I am going to drag one of the wooden plant boxes Alan had a coworker make for me out to the kitchen, trim off the oddities it still contains, and plant it to lettuce. I love growing lettuce in the big windows, and as I said, I am so over winter.

Nothing like a little fresh greenery to take the curse off.

Friday, January 01, 2016

Clean Slate


Really every day gives us one, to use as we will, and to think of as we choose to think.

However, today marks the official one.

This morning at 1:30 AM I was greeted by this little horse on the dining room table when I came downstairs. Last crochet project for Becky for 2015, and boy has she come a long way since she started this craft. Isn't he a cutie?

First bird for 2016 was a Northern Flicker, which is at least a little more glamorous than last year's starling.

We managed as a family to tally 84 species on the farm this year, four over the goal I set myself. No goal yet for this year, but already several species, including American Robins, are listed, and I have only gone outside to walk the pups.

Guess my most exciting bird for last year was actually a pair, Upland Sandpipers, and by all evidence they nested here, which is a nice bonus.

Anyhow, enjoy your day, and Happy New Year from Northview. I'm going to get out and click up some birds.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Happy New Year


Last year at this time we were sleep deprived, destroyed by so many hours in the car, and excited half to death, hanging out in Orange Park Florida. We welcomed the new year in listening to fireworks and noisy parties at a motel not far from the St. Johns River. Over the next two days we raced back and forth across the Sunshine State, picking up life birds and experiencing more cool stuff than I normally see in ten years. On New Year's Day I dabbled my toes in both the Atlantic and the Gulf and have been sustained all year by the memory of that feat....

This year Alan's dear friend is getting married, so he will be staying here at home. Congratulations to the happy couple and to the delightful farm family that raised the fine young groom. They are just plain good folks....



Last year my year bird was a parking lot starling. I was trying to keep my eyes off the skies, as we were on the way to Walmart for some fruit and road food and I knew there were Boat-tailed Grackles over there. However, that bird-every-minute-habit struck, and I looked up as we exited the motel parking lot. Bam! European Starling. How thrilling......

What will this year bring? Perhaps a Carolina Wren or a Canada Goose....or maybe just another starling...there are plenty of those around. Anyhow, it will be a NY bird.



I need to tabulate the farm list and add on the several species seen only by Alan, as he spends more time in the fields than I do, between hunting, riding his quad and snowmobile, and making hay. He saw a Red-headed Woodpecker up there this year....I haven't seen one in at least twenty years and probably more like thirty, although I used to see them all the time back in the days when I rode Magnum everywhere I went....or at least almost everywhere... He also got the Ruffed Grouse, Green and Blue Herons and a couple or so others.

Anyhow, 2015 was wonderful.....we had a lot of fun with Peggy, and birding, and visiting Florida, Talladega and Gettysburg. The boss made a bunch of hay, we had a good garden, chickens were raised from baby chicks, with the result that every flat surface in the kitchen and some in other rooms is covered with cartons full of eggs.

If 2016 is half as much fun I won't have any complaints.

Happy New Year.



Sunday, December 27, 2015

Birdy Extravaganza Weekend

 Montezuma ...there are birds in this shot, but you will have to look close

Friday the Schoharie. A nice walk on a lovely day.




Saturday, we drove up to Montezuma only to find it closed. We could hear thousands of birds right on the other side of the gate....other people drove around it, but they looked like they might have business there...... so we just sat in the parking lot for an hour or so trying to pick ducks, geese and swans out of the fog.



We did see a lot of birds there, but IDs were tough. It was pretty foggy and dark.

We hit some other favorite hot spots on the way home, but they were all pretty darned dead. Saw a few gulls and an absurd number of grey squirrels.




Then today was the Christmas Bird Count. We split into two sets, Matt, Lisa and Alan did one side of Turkey Farm Road and Mike and I and later Kegan, did the roads on the other.



A portion of the huge flocks of Snow Geese we saw on the Skiff Farm up the road from my folks

Tonight we watched the Big Year just to top it all off. I know it is grossly inaccurate in its depictions of the personalities involved, but the story is fun, and the birds are amazing.



We were laughing out loud at the guys hooting for owls, as we were driving around before the sun came up this morning hooting out the Camaro windows trying to pick up an owl....no such luck though.

We did see a massive flock of Snow Geese, and, between the two sets of us, a LOT of Canadas, some Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, and lots of other goodies, plus we had fun chasing a lovely flock of somethingorother out in a corn field, which turned out to be about fifty guinea fowl of every color known to the breed. They sure do look wild!


We finally found out what was behind that elaborate fence we have been driving past for years on count day

Just up the road from the guinea hens

It was a great weekend all in all.


Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Peggy Channel







Schoharie Morning


We bird walked Christmas morning  down at Schoharie Crossing boat launch after the fun with Peggy was over. I wanted to play with my new toy...... Leupold binoculars.



 Alan gamed me good, calling me up and telling me how he had finished his shopping, but, oops, he had forgotten me. We'd get something after the holidays.



I was entirely fine with that and told him so. There comes an age when it actually is better to give than receive, and I have gotten there.




Then he walked in the door and handed them to me.

I was thrilled. I still am. I have never owned good optics....they make a world of difference and bring the birds close and clear. We walked along the bed of the river where the water has receded since they opened the dams for winter. It was only a little bit muddy and very interesting.



We saw an unusual perspective of the old Erie Canal aqueduct from the riverbed and then climbed up to the towpath and looked across the top. Amazing structure. it is a shame that so much of it has been destroyed by floods or taken down for safety.






We saw only ordinary birds, Tree and White-throated Sparrows, several kinds of gulls, Chickadees and such, but we sure got a good look at them.


Schoharie Henge

Tomorrow if all goes well, Montezuma, and Sunday the Christmas Bird Count. Alas it is supposed to rain......



Size 11 1/2 earthworm in the parking lot....someone needs to explain to him about winter

Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas from Northview





To friends and family and all of you who brighten our days in so many ways.......
hope you all have a wonderful day.


Thursday, December 24, 2015

Twas the Night Before Christmas


A certain small someone has been introduced to Santa. She has no idea why he might be exciting, but she is excited anyhow. She showed me her Santa dance last night....it was too late and too dark for video but maybe today. 

In the meanwhile, Merry Christmas.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Start your Day



The Jack Russell way. First thing in the morning, dismal, dark, and foggy. Massive dog fight in the center of the kitchen floor.

Teeth! 

Snarling ball of fur!

Swirling, snapping, biting, yapping.

Over a single leaf of Romaine lettuce.

 Mack loves lettuce. He kills it first, then shreds, teds, chops, minces and dices. He could make his own infomercial for late night TV.



Then, when there is lettuce confetti from one end of the floor to the other, he eats every tidbit as if it was steak and gravy.

Daisy has no interest in lettuce whatsoever, being more inclined towards Milk Bones and cheese cubes....

Unless, of course, Mack has the lettuce. Then its allure increases exponentially.

Faster then a speeding camera

Fortunately an old 12-pound dog quarreling with a new, but still possessing only milk teeth, 10-pound dog, does not make for much of a dog fight.

I nudged them apart with my toe and went back to making coffee. 


Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Four and Twenty

A huge flock of starlings is visiting our woods and the neighbor's woods every couple of days.
I would hesitate to estimate how many, although I keep trying to come up with a rough number. What you see here might be a quarter of them. They are very loud and busy