To the Quiet One

Happy Birthday, dear one. Hope this is a good day for you.....glad you liked the surprise.

Love you!

Evening

This is a tiny fraction of the gulls, mostly Ring-bills, Herrings, and Great Black-backed.
Hundreds more roost on the buildings at the fairgrounds and on the ground, and still others
sit on the river itself. It is mind boggling. Click for a better look.

I rode over to town with the boss last night and on the way home we paused near the river to look at the gulls. There are staggering numbers thereof, probably rivaling the Canada Geese and Mallard Ducks that darken the water in their plenty, morning and evening. I took a few photos to give you an idea of the largess.

Air Dog

Open Winter

Somebody's watching

This sort of weather has its downsides. There are folks, not including myself, who love outdoor sports...braaaaap....

There is mud.

Muddy dogs. 

Lots of ice when it freezes. Lots of days when the animals can't be out because of the slipperiness. 

However, there is also the real and genuine possibility of walking all the way to the Stolen Car Field and back, knocking those 10,000 steps a day right out of the park and getting a female Harrier and a Red-bellied Woodpecker for first of the year birds.

Probably an Eastern Bluebird too, but I couldn't quite be sure through the binoculars when he perched on the chopper chute....and with the camera I got a lovely, sharp, clear, shot of the chopper chute.

There were crows, over a hundred of them. Ninety odd robins. (Well, forty or so of them were probably even). A couple hundred or so starlings.

Tempestuous skies, scudding clouds, tracks and traces of coyotes and deer. Turkey tracks, although no turkeys...

There is warmth in the January sun...

Cold in the January wind...

Crows ride it like a crystal pony, wings flashing neon white and bear-coat-black in the low-lying sun.

Shout and lecture like a mile of math teachers, geometry on sky, hexagons, cubes, and diamonds of noise and self-importance.....I wonder what they are yelling about.

Clues

After going out before anyone else was up...except Becky who goes to work before four....I was hanging around the house, keeping an ear on Peggy for Liz. Liz came in and I peeked out the window to see if anything interesting was on the feeders.

I hadn't filled them yet, so there were few birds around except one little White-throated Sparrow that was huddled against the wall of the shelf feeder the boss built me, picking disconsolately at leftover seeds.

Every time I went back to the window he was still there. This is not normal behavior so I finally went outside, figuring he was sick or injured. Nope, as soon as I came in sight he was gone like a rocket, along with another one that had been hiding on the ground...in plain sight pretty much..they have great camo.

Since I was out anyhow I wandered down to the heifer barn and paused to try to get a photo of some approaching Canada Geese. Suddenly, out of the heifer barn haymow window, burst a big Cooper's Hawk! It had to turn on the diagonal to even get out the window! 

Wow! I still wasn't quick enough to get a photo, but now we know the rest of the story about why the sparrows were acting so oddly.

On a side note I was able to get all the way up behind the barn for the first time this year. Yay! I would have gone right up to the upper fields, but I need to be inside to listen for Peggy while Liz does chores. Soon.....

On the Bright Corn Snow

An Adirondack Barred Owl, seen on Moose Quest a couple of years ago

Whatever phenomenon you choose to blame for this oddly benign January, I am pretty much enjoying it. This morning the icy sleet and other forms of ultra cold water that blanketed the ground during the last storm had turned to corn snow, something we don't see terribly often and usually only in March.

It was fine to walk upon, requiring only a reasonable amount of care. Wildly stoked by the Rough-legged Hawk and Great Blue Heron I saw on one short bird walk a couple of days ago I decided to try a bit of owling. I didn't go far, just down to the Long Lawn, but out there is a whole nother world when the sun is still asleep.

I know we have Great Horned Owls, as I seem each year to find a few downy feathers where one has dived into something thorny after a bunny or a mouse. However, it is noisy  here by the house....what with all the highways...and all the best wildlife is up back in the woods. The odds of hearing or seeing one are pretty slim.

However, watching the way the faint light of false dawn and the nearby towns played on the snow and sent itself back to the sky, and listening to water trickling from the broken blind ditch, which has found an unfortunate new outlet near the compost bin...and thinking good thoughts and small prayers for friends and family members beset by illness and misfortune this season....was as rewarding as a good bird.

An Eastern Cottontail paused, momentarily mesmerized in the beam of my flashlight, which I had flicked on to see what was moving out there on the lawn. I switched it off to free him and he gamboled a few feet away before stopping to nibble on the frozen grass under the bright corn snow.

I will do a little real birding later, but Owl Quest was.....nice.....

Fail

Caption this.....

White Ice

Although I spotted a single Snow Goose yesterday, flying in formation with what ended up being 226 Canada Geese, birding has been slow at best.

With the warm weather, open water, and bare ground, only a handful of regular yard birds have been coming to the feeders. Walking has been a bit better...made it down the driveway and back...alive! ....yesterday, but still don't dare try for the hills and fields. Frozen, greasy, mud tussocks aren't much better than ice on bad knees, alas.

However, this morning, after last night's combination of sleet, snow, and freezing rain, the feeders were packed. I had to finish the Farm Side so I only did a tiny count, but as soon as it brightens up a bit I am going out again. The winter sparrows were back...I thought they might already have started moving north, as I hadn't seen a White-throated in over a week. Guess they were just partaking of wild seeds and such because they were here again.  40 Goldfinches, and two male Cardinals in all that snow! Gorgeous!

Anyhow, after all the mud, it almost nice to see the white stuff clinging to the trees and sticking to the ground.

***Update: went out to see if the geese were coming off the river and got a Great-Blue Heron and a Rough-legged Hawk. The latter is a pretty big deal for me, having not seen one in a very long time.
 

Nature's QR code

Winter Recess

Edge of the Mohawk

Grand Canyon of the barnyard ice

The Mudsissippi Delta

Gulls doing a little non-ice fishing

The Amish hustle

Tributaries of the Mudsissippi

Because there is no doubt in my mind that it will soon return.

Visiting dignitaries

Dairy Diets and Skittles Candy

The great Skittles spill in Wisconsin has raised an awful uproar about giving candy, bread, and cookies to cattle. I believe a little light needs to be trained upon the subject.

Modern dairy cows have been bred to be able to produce prodigious amounts of milk when cared for properly....and proper care is what farming is all about. This means that fewer acres, less water, less feed, and hopefully from the farmer's point of view, less money, go into making more milk from essentially better cows than we used to have.

Here is a picture of a Holstein in the '30s.

Here is a modern cow. 

Now I know most folks probably didn't do dairy judging in 4-H or raise cows to show or milk, but even an untrained eye can surely detect the difference between these two. Although cow A was a good cow in her day, today she would not be able to hold a place in pretty much any milking string. 

Check out cow B though.... just look at those strong, powerful feet and legs, that wide chest, straight topline, and those veins. They aren't called milk veins for nothing. And just look at that udder....high, and tight, and well connected to the cow....an important factor in a long life as a milk cow.

Of course cow B is a national show champion, but you can still get the idea that cows have changed since the days of wooden stanchions and shoveling out behind them twice a day.

The feed has changed as much as the cow. Nowadays, feeding cows is a complicated science. 

When farmers add such things as candy, cookies, and cake to cow rations they do so under the guidance of trained nutritionists, who balance  individual ingredients, such as sugars, starches, and proteins, to offer the most possible benefit to the animal, while costing as little as is reasonable.

Cows have different needs than people do, and utterly different digestive systems. When we were feeding cows one of the mantras that our nutritionists and veterinarians and speakers at meetings where we went to learn how to better feed cows, was, you are not feeding cows, you are feeding bacteria....

The bacteria in the cow's rumen help the cow to break down the ingredients of their feed in different ways than we break down our own groceries. Thus a cow can eat grass and make use of it for meat and milk where we would just get a belly ache.

And yes, the sugar in candy can help a cow get the right nutrients in the right balance to feel and act her best. Here is an article about the practice.

We worked with some amazing nutritionists, both from the companies where we purchased cow grains and from independent consultants, as well as with a group of bovine veterinarians who really knew their stuff. I personally attended many meetings and classes on cow management in all its aspects, from keeping cows comfortable to feeding them the best way we could. 

Beet pulp pellets, another byproduct fed to cattle

Soaking to feed the show calves bitd

We at one time even fed a grain product that contained chocolate left over from production for people. The barn smelled sure smelled good then! We also fed a broad range of other products you might not have found growing in a hay field, such as citrus pulp (another good scent in the stable) cottonseed, and other byproducts of food production. Pat, Jim, Kris, and a number of other trained professionals helped us use these ingredients correctly. Cornell Cooperative Extension put on many programs to teach us the craft of feeding cows, as did the feed companies and veterinarians we worked with.

So you see, reviling farmers who use ingredients, such as Skittles, for doing so is pretty misguided.

Here are some sample dairy rations so you can get an idea of just how carefully the modern dairy cow is fed. You don't have to read them all, just take a peek to see what's involved.

First, feeding TMR 

One set of ration guidelines.

Here are some comparisons on including candy in rations.

We waste a lot of food here in this prosperous world we get to enjoy. Why not spare some of that leftover stuff from the landfill and feed it to animals that can convert into nutritious food rather than throwing it away? Isn't that what sustainability is all about?

Stable

The three now ponies, plus my dear saddle horse, Magnum, and a long-ago pony,
Deranged Richard, teaching the girls how to pony.

Someone left the pony barn door open last night....probably because it's so warm and they didn't want it to get too stuffy.

Anyhow, I wandered over at o'dark-thirty this morning to make sure all was well. As the beam of my flashlight preceded, me a throaty chuckle came from Jack. He knows me of old and knows I'm a sucker, good for a treat or two. His nicker is so seductive, I swear if he was a kid, grandma would give him the whole cookie jar and then look around for something else tasty for him.

Diamond knows me as well and in the same way and came to stand tiptoe at the edge of her stall, peeking over to see what was up.

Gambit however, is not so familiar. I tend to dogs and goldfish and people and house plants these days....not my ponies and all. The rustle of the hay I found by the door lured him over for the party though...

Two slabs of the boss's good hay divided three ways so as not to mess with anyone's diet. There was a rustling and a couple of sighs of contentment as I left, leaving the door open behind me. It must be nearly fifty out there.

It was a moment, short, yet utterly sweet. I've missed the quiet sounds of well-cared for animals taking nourishment without fear or discomfort. There's a bond. If you have livestock you know it. Sad to think that animal rights activists would call this exploitation and want it ended right away. 

Good morning ponies, I'll bet the ice is soft enough that you can maybe go out to play today.

Perfect

Although it is fairy warm today, it is gloomy and glum and water-on-icy-nobirdsaround, bah humbug January.

A perfect day to work on tax documentation and getting all the accounts in order.

Right?

Because math and record keeping and all.

So....until later....

Almanac

Mom, this is your Christmas cactus that I have had since I still lived home
It is really outdoing itself this winter!

Though we go deeper into January day-by-day, there are signs if scant, that times may change quite soon.

This morning the scent of Pepe le Pew floated on the early breeze. Time to start making sure the dogs are always leashed....although they pretty much are anyhow. Between Mack's tendencies to chase bulls and kill chickens, he surely can't be free, and Finn's recall leaves something to be desired....like maybe him actually coming when you call him.

Anyhow....

Tis the season of love for the smelly little weasel allies, therefore they, frankly, stink. They do have a pretty fascinating reproductive cycle though.

Soon many of our local raptors will be laying eggs and hatching chicks. Just this morning the darker of the two local Red-tailed Hawks crouched in a Cottonwood Tree between here and the river as a half a dozen American Crows screamed stridently and dive bombed its perch. Eventually it flew off to the other side of the valley to another Cottonwood, where hopefully the crows got bored and left it alone. We have had Red-tails nesting here since I met the boss, over thirty years ago, even when the nest trees went down and they had to choose new ones. When they are not actually eating chickens we much enjoy them.

This winter the little brook between the farms is tinkling cheerfully whenever I walk that way. Some Januaries it roars like a thousand lions, while others it is either dry completely or locked down in ice and therefore soundless. It never fails to surprise and entertain me when I hear it. Not so much so though, back in the days when it sometimes took out the entire bridge between the house and cow barn. Then the tanker couldn't get in very well and we had to drive a truck between the buildings, down to the road and back up again, to get over for chores and back. You realize just how often a dairy farmer goes to the barn when something like that happens. Nice to have the bridge in solid working order...even if there is only one beef bull over there to feed and water each day.

Anyhow, it was nice in a way to smell that skunk this morning....at least a little bit..... a gentle warning that better days are coming, even if it was in an olfactory message rather than fine print. 

Favorite Friends

I've always had a problem with the whole best friends thing. Best is a superlative, indicating that there can only be one. Thus you might have two friends that you love equally but in different ways. Which one is best? Is the other one second best? One can only hope not.

And then there's the arrogance of the whole best friends deal. Who is anyone to say? Supposing you do have one person in your mind that is the superlative, "best" of all your friends and acquaintances...and they don't feel the same way? Suppose they are closer to someone else, like you a lot, but not the most? Then what? It's all so very middle school-ish.

It's always bugged me, especially since I am not exactly the queen of social interactions, have a mouth big enough for both feet, and fast enough to outrun my brain any day of the week. Who am I to think I am best of anything?

However, favorite...that's a whole nother concept. Someone can be my favorite friend without any commitment on their end. I can have a couple, three, or even a dozen favorites, and enjoy them all quite specially. Of course favorite is also a superlative, but who among us doesn't have dozens of "favorite" songs, favorite books, favorite authors, favorite foods....see, it just works better than best.

If better than best is actually possible. Anyhow, best wishes to my favorite friend; if by chance you may be reading this. I am thinking about you....

Raven Quest

After a week in Seattle and flying in a plane and all that scary stuff, son and brother are back on the ground in NY. As is not unusual on a Saturday when Alan isn't working, he met me this morning with, "Where shall we go today, Ma?"

The Adirondacks were calling to both of us, so off we went to Long Lake. We weren't really in search of Common Ravens, but we saw a lot of them. They are really big birds and in the brilliant early sunlight they gleamed like the brightest of bright coal. Seemed as if they were everywhere.

There were also snowmobiles and trailers and snow shoers and back packers and a lot of lousy traffic associated with same. Thus there wasn't a lot of peeking into the woods to see what we could see. If I am riding in a car, I can't look away from the road for more than a few seconds....years of driving has made watching the road an ingrained habit....

However, in one spot I looked into the trees and saw a grey stone ledge draped with ice from water flowing out of the ground behind it. In itself that is nothing unusual. All the road cuts along the way are covered with flows of frozen water, some bright blue, many yellowish or greenish or brown, and some just a dull, almost plastic, shade of white.

However, the ice on this little ledge was absolutely crystalline and pristine and perfect. It must have been a foot thick and several feet from top to bottom, but as clear and prismatic as the best optic  you could buy. Except free....Alas, the busy highway full of grannies and NASCAR drivers was no place to slow down let alone stop, so it will only remain in my memories...

Anyhow, home again, home again, out for a quick bird list...brrr....and then not much else today. Have a good one.

January Thaw

The kitchen reeks of wet dog. 

Not that I mind. At least they are contented, napping, dogs, full of kibble and canz. 

It is raining over ice, melting all the sand that has been scattered on drives and walkways over the past couple of weeks. Not gonna complain though. Warm is good.

The sunlight is thin soup indeed most days..this was a couple days ago

A thing that I like about this time of year is going out before dawn and hearing the Mallards and Canada Geese nattering and complaining as they rock in the gentle curves of the river where the current is quiet. 

With the low cloud ceiling the sound rises clearly to us up here on the hill and it is nice to listen to the muted chatter of hundreds or even thousands of birds.

Yesterday, in bright sunshine and steadily warming temperatures I counted 354 geese taking flight and heading off to cornfields somewhere to the south of us. 

Around dusk they return, crying like a pack of hounds for their beds at the river's edge.

Mallards and Black Ducks, down on the river yesterday