The Fairy Wogdog

Is no relation to either of ours....

Yesterday Mack laid a good one on me. Of course I should have known that a Jack Russell terrier would have guts of granite and a constitution to match, but I am used to Border Collies.

They are much more tender.

Anyhow, each morning I have been taking Fin out on a leash and letting Mack run loose...in order that neither be inside barking while I walked the other, in deference to the night shift. They have a great time mauling each other.

I think it will be a long time before I can trust them together though. Mack loves the pup, but he is so darned fierce. I fear he might hurt him without meaning to.

Then I bring Fin inside to have his breakfast and leave Mack out to hunt rats. Yesterday he was most successful....except that his chosen prey was the lovely carcass of a deceased chicken.

A long deceased chicken. Bones, feathers and decay.

Or actually, upon further research, two of them. I think he found them up under the small chicken coop, which is vacant because something...probably rats....was killing the teenaged chickens there.

Guess the clean up crew missed a couple.

I did not discover the crime until AFTER I had given Mack his breakfast. He was bulging in an interesting fashion and looked as if he might soon pup a nice litter.

Then all day long he ate newspapers. This is not normal for him. I guess he wanted to pad the bone ends or something. I worried, as worrywarts are prone to do. We had just finished getting the other pup over some typical Border Collie tummy troubles. Just what I needed.

However, this morning the signs of pregnancy have subsided and he seems to be his usual obnoxious and overbearing self, barking at something or other and tearing around like a wild man....btw, Jade went back on days and the darned dog is back on his cable....bark away, buddy, bark away....

Me, on the other hand....at least ten new grey hairs.....see, right here.....

Gem

If morning is, then ours is opal

All misty firmament and heart of fire, 

And trees the secret of the Orient within.

But whatever is up in the garden driving the dog nuts and making him bark.

Stopping my work and getting me out there, dog as excuse, and camera in hand

Be still.....

Go away wild thing, whatever you are, I need to write.

Fair Time

Lily

The fair is almost upon us, so one of the veterinarians from Midvale Veterinary Clinic, where we have done business longer than I have even been here, is here doing the "fair work". Getting legal for attending a show where many animals from many farms are all grouped together. This doctor is great with the horses and does a good job with pups too.

Coggins, rabies vaccinations, ditto Potomac Fever are being done on the horse and the three ponies. We have heard that Potomac is really bad this year so everybody got an extra booster. Even if they aren't going to the show they need their protections......

And lucky me, the doctor who is doing the work today had dog vaccines and medicines right on the truck.

Thus Fin got his rabies vaccination and his third distemper, lepto, etc. shot, plus some Frontline for the fleas that seem to have taken over his person....er....dogson.....puppyson? He saw fit to retaliate by peeing all over me during the rabies part of the deal.....

Ah, well, it's only laundry, right?

Meanwhile it is finally cool enough to feel lively again. I think I may be at least ten years younger than during recent weeks.

Fallmanac

Been pushing the walking envelope the past few days. Made it all the way to the 30-acre Lot yesterday, although it took a very long time. Took a shorter walk this morning, but by golly I took one. Pedometer still doesn't register my careful little steps.

Preening

Everywhere you look there are signs that this is going to be a very short summer. Blue Jays are back in loud mode, yelling all day long. Haven't seen a Yellow Warbler or Redstart in a week or more....nor heard them either. Plenty of Common Yellowthroats around though. There were two cuddled up very cutely in a desiccated little shrub, preening in the early sun, right next to a House Wren doing the same.

Mixed flocks seem to be the norm now, another sign of impending change. While the boss and I talked next to the wood pile yesterday we saw that Dark-eyed Junco that is back early, more Common Yellowthroats, a couple of House Wrens and at least eight Carolina Wrens, all in one little feeding flock.

If you stand still you can hear yellow leaves falling all around anywhere there are trees. I suspect this may be a feature of the weather as much as the season, but it is a bit disconcerting. I am never ready....

It is threatening rain today and the boss has a load of hay ready to bale. Sure hope he gets it.

This impish little person is planning a tooth brush raid.
Found mine behind the toilet
and the boss's in the garbage wrapped up in noxious paper stuff.
Time for new ones I guess
And a functional gate for that door.

Duck, Duck, Duck, ooooohhhh, Cool Duck

We did a few hours up in the swamp on Saturday before the family pic-a-nick....which had me plumb wore out by evening, but what a good day we had.

Besides bazillions of great birds....43 species in all, plus some peeps, which I could neither ID nor photograph.

There was this one duck, which came under a great deal of discussion. Couldn't quite make it fit anything and it wasn't close enough to get a great look at it.

Kinda looked like a Lesser Scaup so I put it down as one but with the disclaimer that we weren't sure. We got several photos though, so it could be checked out by those who know more than we do.

Thanks to the lovely folks who review eBird check lists we now know it was a Ring-necked Duck.

How cool is that?

Happiness Is

Some volunteers

Being too young for the Senior Citizens' Day free admission at Altamont Fair. There are only a handful for which I am still not old enough to qualify.....

Getting off easy in last night's storm. Some wind and lightning, but nothing too awful. There sure has been some violent weather the past few weeks. Not really all that unusual for a NY August, but the constant heat and humidity makes it seem worse.

Are more welcome

Helping bring along the next generation of birders. I was coming downstairs from putting laundry on the bars when I heard a LOT of peeping around the front porch. I went to the screen, but it was so dim, with approaching bad weather that I couldn't tell what the birds were even though I could see them.

So I pished a bit through the screen door and soon had a porch full of YOY Carolina Wrens. There were at least 8 around. Peggy came out and asked what I was doing, so I yielded my place to her mother, thinking she could call them up so Peggy could see them.

Seriously, they were coming over a couple of inches from the screen. Not much bolder than a wren. Liz couldn't get them to come back in but Peggy started squeaking at them and they came right over.

Than others

I wish you could have seen her face when she came and told me all about it! Soon they wandered over to the sitting porch and began noodling around all the flowers, while hummingbirds were drilling for nectar. I hope this year they are savvy enough to head south. I hate losing them every February when it gets really cold.

Getting a year bird yesterday...they are awfully thin this year. Anyhow, as I was cussing out JRT Mack for hauling me off the step in his rush to go potty hunt, I glanced up and saw a distant black outline flying east to west. 

Great Blue Heron. Cannot believe it has taken me into the second half of August to count one here on the farm. With the river nearby and a tasty stream full of frogs in the center of the place I usually see them much earlier.

So many missing species this year. Bad luck or some other thing I do not know, but even the Great Crested Flycatcher has been elusive. We normally see them or hear them daily in summer. No Green Heron either, another normal spring and summer bird.

No Upland Sandpiper. Only four warbler species. I sure hope approaching autumn livens things up. It doesn't help that I can only walk a little way but still......I haven't even seen a Yellow-Rumped Warbler yet.

Almanac

It has rained.

A lot. 

Will it break the drought? Maybe. For sure there is no need to water the gardens.

The pup has caught his tail and is lying on the floor holding the wiggly white tip and looking at me as if to ask, "What do I do now?"

He has also decided to bring all the locust pods in the yard into the house. Do you know how many pods fall off an 80-ish foot tree in a high wind? A lot.

Other than that it is just August. Hazy, hot, and humid. Laundry won't dry, nor will hay. No sense even mowing because it is just going to get rained on.

Wal*Mart is sold out of fans...the guy said 178 went out the door in just a short time.

August has a schedule for us here at Northview that would drive some folks off cliffs. People go to work at three AM while other people come home from work at three AM. Or four. Or five. 

People come home in early afternoon, others leave a couple hours later...sometimes they pass each other in the driveway. People work in Massachusetts, in NYC and Washington DC, or just down the road in Fultonville. Or in the barn or up in the fields in the back of the land. There are people working every single day of the week, Sunday to Sunday, and all the days in between. It's like an anthill around here.

Somebody is always sleeping so they can go to work, or awake working, or getting ready to work. Instead of a pocket door in the bathroom, we need a revolving door.

I guess the common theme around here is that everybody works at something, be it building America, delivering the goods that keep her running, managing a restaurant, feeding critters, making hay, or if you are me, just watching them all whirl by like a carousel of hard workers, off to their various jobs. And doing laundry and housework and gardening....the easy stuff that is....oh, and bookkeeping too...the nasty stuff.

A Restless Sky

Wood Duck

And a reckless one. 

Even after the big storm wreaked its havoc all over the region, devastating Pine Lake, and ruining vacations everywhere, lightning flickered and whined and tossed bright tantrums all night long.

Pied-billed Grebe

I was awakened once, when I happened to be facing the window, by brilliant red, as a flash so bright it shone right through my eyelids struck something west of the barns.

It was nasty and for many, no doubt terrifying. It hit fast and hard at the end of a day of utter misery from the heat and humidity. If I wanted to live in Louisiana I would move there.....

This photo, taken by Alan, could give you an idea of the density of birds in some places

We hit the swamp early in the morning, an amazingly rewarding time for birding, and saw so many it is going to take me a while to tabulate the list. Becky rode along and very generously served as secretary, which allowed me to see even more birds than usual. Funny how the population changes week to week. Not a Black Tern to be seen, but Common Gallinules abounded.

Peeps, but not of the shorebird kind

Then afternoon brought a family reunion. Everyone got together despite the weather for good food and good company. My knee was giving me fits and Al needed to get home and get some sleep, as he is off to DC for three weeks, so we left pretty early, but it was still a good deal. Four generations of aunts and uncles and cousins and kids....and my own folks too. How cool is that.

Alas, the stormy night did not bring even an ounce of relief from the nasty heat wave and there is none in sight. Can't get laundry dry, or hay either. And never mind webbed feet....I swear I even have webbed ears and eyelids.

Ah, well, I guess it will snow soon enough.

I look at all the green

....Green grass and swear that I will not complain about the heat and humidity. It will be cold and snowy soon enough.... I truly hate our winter desert of ice and misery. 

Taint easy though. Even the pup, who does not like the fan attall, attall, lies in front of it by the hour. This morning his usual rambunctious play has been limited to merely parading squeaky toys in front of Mack's kennel and squeaking the heck out of them. Mack doesn't even react. He came in from the outside about three minutes after I let him out too. Usually he is good for a nice, long hunt, but not in this weather.

I am stubborn though. This is the third year I have not run the air conditioner and I ain't a gonna do it this year either. I was tempted last night though. The heat bakes into the upstairs west-facing rooms in the afternoon about like the sun on the Serengeti. Guess where I sleep.....

I must bake today for a family reunion tomorrow. Liz ditto. Kitchen will prolly resemble the 6th circle of Hell before we're done.

Anyhow, have a good one. If you can.

Almanac

This is how it was birding this morning. This is a power wire in the cow barnyard.
Note: two Mourning Doves, one Indigo Bunting, and a very ticked off Robin
 that was trying to feed honeysuckle berries to nestlings somewhere

While the cat's away.....

The boss is off to Empire Farm Days today. I hope he is having a good time and not suffering too badly from the heat. Meanwhile, this mouse is having a fine time.

From the unusual phone call department comes one from his orthodontic surgeon, who is repairing the damage from the car accident. Early this morning the doctor's receptionist called. Visions of missed appointments flashed through my head, but no, the doctor's cows were out on the road and she was looking for someone with a horse trailer to haul them home. I truly wished I could help her, but there was not much I could do. Alas, I don't drive, and by the time he made it home from Seneca Falls the cows could have walked back to the farm...

And that's not all.....

Despite being the last full month of summer, August has plenty to show us.

Gold finches flutter all day in the rudbeckia like so many flying flowers. They are the exact same color. There are so many that it is a challenge to get a remotely accurate count when I want to do an eBird checklist. They are simply everywhere.

For every bird that has taken to the airwaves and headed south there is some other species still busily rearing young. Two sets of robin parents were still feeding nestlings this morning and a young Northern Flicker was following its parents around begging vociferously. Catbirds appear to have kids as well.

There are advantages to being a gimp for a while. It took me a very long time to walk over to the barn and up to the crossroad to the T-field this morning, but what a lot of birds I saw.... 28 species in all. (It takes me a long time to walk anywhere btw.)

Then, as I was standing dead still, listening and watching for movement right behind the barn, I heard a sharp cracking from the bushes. There is a deer trail there....maybe about four feet from where I was waiting....

Sure enough after a few seconds a doe thrust her head out of the bushes right in front of me. I stood frozen waiting to see what she would do. Had the wind been different I might have even gotten a photo, but it was almost exactly from me to her.

With a loud WOOF! and a lot more crackling, she was gone back down the hill. I think she was an old one, as her face was pretty grizzled. Deer, by the way, are not always the quiet, wily things their reputation would have you believe.

The highlight of the trip was a Black-and-White Warbler busily feeding right next to the barn gate. Although they are not terribly rare, the last one I saw was on our blacksmith's garage roof before Magnum was born. Anyone who knew him can figure about how long ago that was. (Hint...I was still thin and blonde, and he's been gone over a decade...oh, and he lived to be 32.)

It was an amazingly crisply-marked and tidy little bird, and obligingly gave both its song and chip call so I could have a good listen.

I have really missed walking out and although this was a short, and really, really slow walk, it was a lot of fun.

Flicker family

The Look of Eagles

I've been following, albeit reluctantly, stories of the protests against horse racing in Saratoga. Activists want the sport banned because they consider it cruel. Horses have died at the track, perhaps more than usual this year, and they are simply horrified. I get that.

Of course it is sad when a horse dies. If you think you as a spectator are troubled, imagine how the horse's connections feel. They care for these animals day and night, often giving better care than the most cosseted of house pets would expect.

And as one commenter on a local news story pointed out, when human athletes die in competition, no one suggests banning football or baseball. However, horses are animals and so must be elevated to a higher plane. They must hate to be made to run so fast all the time, right?

They couldn't possibly actually like racing as much as any youngster likes T-ball, could they?

Nah, of course not. Why would an animal born to run want to? Horses, even horses without an iota of Thoroughbred blood, don't race each other in their pastures do they? And sometimes get hurt?

Not possible. Except that it is. Horses run by nature. Horses race by nature. They like it or they wouldn't do it. You can't really make them, as was demonstrated by some Amish fellows trying to get a drafter out of the road up west of here. It didn't want to get out of the road and so it didn't. It just stood there blocking two lanes of traffic until it got good and ready to move. It was way too much bigger than the human pests trying to influence it for them to make it do anything.

I will leave you with this little tale of my days walking hots at that selfsame race course.

I worked one summer, much to my infinite delight, for Henry Clark's stable at Saratoga (check him out, he's in the hall of fame).

One day late in the season the stable claimed an older chestnut gelding. I really liked him, even though he was so tall I could barely reach his head. Many of the horses in the yard were "hot", so high strung, full of giddy-up go, that it was hard for a neophyte such as myself to keep them politely walking in a circle when they needed to cool out or stretch their legs a bit.

This guy, however, was as gentle as a kitten. Truly kind. With his head about a half a mile above mine he always walked quietly beside me, whenever he was in my charge. 

Normally most of the horse walking takes place early in the morning. On a normal day, unless one of the horses that I walked was racing, I went home by noon.

However, one afternoon someone was racing...can't remember who...but I think it was Sweet Sop, another gentle chestnut, a little filly that I simply loved, so I stayed to work while actual racing was going on.

For some reason I was tasked with walking the old fellow, while we waited for the other horse to get back from the track.

The call to the post sounded as we paced around the walking ring. 

I still get chills when I remember how he raised his magnificent head upon hearing it, pricked his long red ears, and, with flaring nostrils, bugled his own call to the contest. He was utterly alight with eagerness.

As much of an old veteran as he was, as far as he was concerned that bugle rang for him.

That was over thirty years ago,  yet I will never forget that moment.

The look of eagles. 

Don't tell me that horses don't love racing and live to race. I've been there and seen that. If you want to be cruel, take that away from them, and break their generous hearts.

Twofer

Big day today. Eleven years for this blog and 34 for our son-in-law, Jade.

So happy Birthday, Bubba, hope you have a wonderful day.

If you want to read the first Northview post ever, from all those years ago, there is a link over in the sidebar, as the featured post.

Why Yes,

As a matter of fact, I AM in the toy box with all the toys...

Who wouldn't be?

We are really great buddies.....

To the Swamp

Gulls and Caspian Terns

Pied-billed Grebe (Photo by Alan)

Many of the pools were lined with goose down. Pillow fight anyone?

We did a quick run up to Montezuma National Wildlife refuge yesterday and drove around the main loop. No time for the side pools, but we had a great time.

Saw a good number of Caspian Terns...normally only one or two, some ducks, many Pied Billed Grebes, a few American Coots, and a nice flock of Black Terns, which I particularly enjoy.

Yesterday's Dark-eyed Junco was unusual enough to warrant a query from eBird, which I thought was very cool. I discussed it with the data reviewer, he was quickly convinced and is interested in the White-eyed Vireo Alan is pretty sure he is seeing regularly. 

I hate to be the One

To tell you this.

However, the birds are saying something these days. All you have to do is look and listen.

Yesterday, Alan put all four sets of brakes in the car. When I went out to see how it was going and to walk Fin I heard Chimney Swifts. Nothing unusual about that. They nest in our chimney after all. 

However, when I looked up to count I was amazed. Our little flock has grown by twos all summer....first the original pair, then a couple of more, etc.

This time there were seventeen! Yeah, and those were just the ones I could see against the bright noonday sun when they were very high in the sky. No doubt there were more.

You know what that means don't you?

And then this morning, once again walking the pup, I heard something strange over at the barn. Never did see whatever bird was making that call, but as we walked over we flushed a Dark-eyed Junco.

Yeah, a winter bird. Although range maps show them occurring in Upstate NY in all seasons I can tell you, they are winter birds here. Winter. Normally we start seeing them in October.

And it was hanging out with a flock of Song Sparrows. I called it a dozen, but once again, there were almost certainly more. Limited mobility and a dog jiggling the binoculars made it hard to get a really a good number. Plus the weeds are still high.

I don't know what to make of a junco in early August, but somehow I don't see it as anything good by way of portents. 

47 days until Fall.

Stink Redux

Bama Breeze

When the boss came in from mowing hay and I told him the skunk story he had a tale of his own. 

Seems that he noticed that something had torn up some of the swaths where he had hay down. Hay was strewn all over the place and there was a large thing in the middle of the muddle.

He went over to see what had happened and there was a dead skunk. It had evidently not gone gentle into that good night.

In fact it actually was only some bits of a dead skunk, such as the legs and stinky part.

Then he saw another one, similarly impacted by whatever they had encountered.

Great Horned Owl maybe? If it was yotes I hope they stay away from the house....although I am sure we will be able to detect their presence right promptly if they do come down here.

When the boss finished his story, I suggested that maybe he might want to rake around that part of the field......

What's up with all these skunks anyhow? None since spring and now they're everywhere!

You work with what you got

Prior to the knee I had a reasonable routine worked out....for doggies that is.

First thing in the AM, walk the pup on a leash and put Mack up in back on his running cable. Let him exercise on the cable until the sun got warm, bring him in, leash walk him at noon, and put him back out there when it got cool later in the day...

It worked for everyone. I don't let him loose with Fin because he has such a tremendous prey drive that I'm afraid he'll kill him.

Enter the knee. Just one trip up the muddy slope to the backyard laid me right up. Thus I now walk the pup, crate him, and just let Mack outside loose. He is such a hunter.... he peruses the yard and barnyard for vermin at warp speed. He has a lot of fun and it's fun to watch him at it.

This morning all was in place. I was washing dishes and keeping half an eye out the window for him. He was hunting under the horse trailer.......when an all too familiar scent wafted in the open door.

Oh, crepes! Not that!

I quickly crated the little guy, closed the doors, which were propped open, and went out to assess the damage. Plans whirled through my head of how Mack was going to have a nice vacation over in the cow barn...in solitary...

For a week at least. Or two. A month. Or two. A year....you get my drift.

I was getting some drift too, and it sure didn't smell good out there in the yard. My heart was down at my knees. I was all clean and showered, nice fresh clothes and all, and now I had to catch my dog......who was certainly neither clean, nor freshly showered, and probably not smelling of roses and daffodils either.

I called. Called again. "Here Mack."

And he came, bustling up like a good boy.

Covered with mud, panting and soggy with dew, but smelling only of muddy dog. I don't know what riled the skunk, or where it is, or anything else about it.... But at least he didn't get the dog....and that's what counts.

Alas, I obviously now have to cook up a new knee-saving morning  routine, as, if there is a skunk out there, probably Mack should not be hunting off leash.

Dagnabbit.

BTW I discovered, much to my surprise, that he comes when I blow my shepherd's whistle just like the old BCs did. Which is handy.

Something Fishy

Taken last summer. Lilies haven't bloomed yet this year

Our garden pond is not an elaborate thing of water falls and pumps and fancy fountains. It is instead a 300-gallon Rubbermaid stock tank, intended for the watering needs of cows and horses. When I first wanted a pond we were not in a position to buy one. However, I had a job feeding a neighbor's horse and it paid enough to buy a watering trough.

It doesn't look too awful either. I wouldn't trade it for anything fancier, because the maintenance of it is virtually negligible. If I am not forced to drain it, it balances right up and stays fairly clear. This year I am not even running its little el-cheapo Walmart fountain.

Used to be, the first decade or so that we had it, I could winter fish and frogs in it pretty easily. Then the last two or three years winters have been so cold that it froze solid to the bottom. 

Thus we do our best to relocate any summering frogs to more suitable water features and bring the goldfish in the house.

This year six made it through the winter in an aquarium and back out to the pond.
 All orange. 
There seem to be four of those surviving.

The kids bought two more white-and-orange ones and four really pretty guppies.

I don't usually feed the fish in summer as the pond keeps them pretty well fed. However, since I wanted to see the guppies every day....did I mention that they are pretty?....I took to feeding them.

What should show up in the middle of the feeding frenzy but a huge, natural-colored (that is brown) carp goldfish. At first, since I didn't see the kids' fish when they put them in, I assumed it was a new one they bought, but, nope, they don't know anything about it.

The only thing I can figure is that is somehow escaped capture last fall, even though we nearly drained the tank, and survived the long, cold winter. There was one giant frog that we missed last fall that appeared to have made it through, although it sure looked rough when it emerged this spring, so anything is possible.

At any rate, it sure was a surprise!