Chance

I nearly always turn on the yard light when I walk the doggies before dawn. Kinda creepy out there you know.

However, this morning, what with the barely waning moon, I left it off. I was hoping to see the deer that have been coming down to look for leftover bits of hay around the yards. With such short snow cover this winter there are still a lot of them hanging around even this late in the season.

I was quickly rewarded by ghost bunnies drifting silently into the bushes after cavorting on the lawn all night. For some reason the dogs never seem to see them.

Frost outlining the cars seemed lit from within, its haunting luminescence casting an eerie glow over their mundane shapes.

Shadows from the house and trees were stark, sharply defined as ink drawings, and the lights across the river seemed almost magical.

It was almost ten degrees, which felt like summer after the cold and winds we've been having....back to that tomorrow night btw...and for once I didn't mind Finn's usual Border Collie deliberations about just which "spot" was the right one. 

Then as I looked up at the sky for who knows what reason, except that I look at the sky a lot, a shooting star blazed and winked out, right over my head.

Amazing. I don't believe I have seen more than one or two since I used to take the kids out on the hills when there was a meteor shower...... I had to come right in and tell you about it, even though I am supposed to be racing to complete the Farm Side, having goofed off with the CBC yesterday and the holiday on Monday.

CBC

Looks like a moonscape, but not far from home

We did our portion of the Johnstown Christmas Bird Count today, and alas, it was far from exciting. We saw perhaps a fifth as many birds as normal, possibly due to the extreme cold. It was supposed to hit 22 but never surpassed 9 degrees!

The fact that ALL our favorite open water spots were frozen over and covered with snow probably didn't help. The boss was kind enough to drive and Becky tabulated birds....we didn't work her too hard...while I ID'd. It did not strain my skills much to pick out crows, jays, juncos, and a few other birds. Best birds were a few Wild Turkeys huddled on a brushy hillside. Credit goes to the boss for spotting them.

From out of the far, far North, the little KeeKee birds.....
Snow Buntings.
Some years we are lucky to see any. In the past few days we have seen at least 800

Oh, well, better luck next year and we had a fabulous day yesterday looking around our own county. I didn't list them, because I was not 100% positive, but I am maybe 80% sure we saw both the Short-eared Owl that was spotted on a road we know, plus a Lapland Longspur among a group of Snow Buntings and Horned Larks...great incentive to get out there and look again when we have some time.

New Year's Day Traffic

In Upstate NY.

Happy New Year from Northview

The last bird I saw yesterday as the year ended, and I believe the first for the New Year as well
Or at least there was a White-throated Sparrow sitting in the same bush this morning as the sun came up

And the New Year's Eve moon, putting on a big show to send the year out with a bang

This Song

Because Yankee Hill Lock isn't supposed to look like this

Because it fits perfectly.

Especially the lyrics....."Canadian cold front movin' in....."

And staying, and staying, and staying and staying.....

BITD

We showed bulls at the fair

Walebe Jewelmaker, by SWD Valiant, out of Wiilsondale Citation Jewel

Showed ponies in halter and harness....this is Major Moves

In a calf halter....elegant, no?

Had to learn to put the harness on first....looking perplexed here

With Deranged Richard

And sometimes painted horses for friends

A Christmas Bird

Common Yellowthroat

Warblers make for tough IDs. They change plumage from bright to dull between spring and fall...or at least some of them do. Males are often glowing rock stars while females are drab as dirt. They hybridize sometimes, in the shadowy alleys behind the trees and bushes. Their kids are odd. Really, they are worse than Indigo Buntings for sporting a dozen different looks over the course of the year.

Even experts argue over them often.

Thus this fall, during migration, when our yards and fields were graced with gazillions of them, I struggled.

And struggled. I saw life birds, almost daily, as I learned to recognize Blue-winged from Tennessee and sorted the myriad Common Yellowthroats in all their variations from everybody else that looked just the same...only different.

One day, out in the foggy morning, I saw a Connecticut Warbler. Well, actually I saw two, but more about that later. My bird was almost like a Mourning Warbler, only different. And almost like a Common Yellowthroat, only different. Saw it, couldn't photograph it, shared it on an eBird list.....

And then deleted it. The bird was right. Greyish head. Yellowish belly. Bright eye ring. However, similar birds were causing excitement among better birders down in the  Big Apple and all.

Who was I to think that I saw such a bird right in the bushes next to the driveway?

And then there was the green warbler in the heifer barnyard. It sat there, back turned towards me, fat, happy, and the prettiest off-green you could imagine. I got the binoculars on it for mere seconds, but there was no mistaking that it was something different...and cool....Never figured out just what it was though.

Fast forward to Christmas. Besides Herkimer Diamonds and tools, foodstuffs (they know me, don't they?) and my amazing lamp, people gave me birding things. Suet blocks, fancy seed concoctions, all sorts of goodies......I am smiling even now, just thinking of them.

And The Warbler Guide. I wanted that book so badly and it made me really happy to find it under the tree so to speak. I put it next to my chair and every night I read a few birds. Peer at plumage. Stare at stories, songs, and photos.

Fat, green, and visiting our barnyard last fall

The other night there it was...the green bird in all its glory, just like the one we had in the barnyard, plump, pretty, and a Connecticut Warbler, all day long.

I know I'm gonna love this book.....

Now, if only these pests would migrate south and leave the birdseed for the northern birds

Back to the Grind

The road not traveled

700 words written of 1000 that are due tomorrow, all about what's going on in farm politicking. From the president speaking to AFBF next month, to NYFB's Circle of Friends, to the new Farm Bill website put up by the House Ag Committee, it's all fodder for me and Google Docs. I need one more short topic. Or maybe two if they are really short.

Wood is going through the stove like salts through a goose as they say, bird seed vanishing ditto. Looks as if we are in for some chilly weather the next week or so. Dunno what it is with Upstate NY, but we are often colder than southern Alaska.

If you were wondering where all the birds were during the long, warm, calm autumn, wonder no more. They are on or around our feeders from before I put them out in the morning until after I bring them in at dark. If you go out before dawn you will literally almost step on Mourning Doves and Dark-eyed Juncos waiting for the seed.

And then, while I was working on my writing chores, the bank called. Someone in Florida has been using the boss's debit card.....wonder if this story had anything to do with it.....

Just Because

When you share Christmas with someone who is only 3 there must be photos and videos

Merry Christmas

You Won't Believe It

This beautiful lamp is made entirely from recycled glass except for the light mechanism. Amazing huh? Made by Amber and her mama.....thanks!

Gifts from my Father

A close look inside the one Becky chose. Do click for added detail

We took a little Christmas to Mom and Dad yesterday, fruits, nuts, a few cookies and candy canes......

While we were there I was admiring some Herkimer Diamonds Dad had in a container on the table.

He offered me and Becky the chance to choose a few and it was impossible to resist. I do love rocks, stones, minerals, and particularly lovely shiny crystals like these. Guess it's the magpie in me.

I have wonderful memories of collecting these with Mom and Dad, of chaperoning school trips to do the same, and digging with my younger brother too. Finding them is at least half the fun. Thanks, Dad!

Best Bird of the Year

There have been any number of times when I might have said that. The Snowy Owl my friend found. The Black-bellied Plover at Schoharie Crossing. Surf Scoters, Pied-Billed Grebe, White-winged Scoters. Lots of exciting birds.

Today marked the icing on the cake though. The boss and I went out to do our rounds, hit the boat launch, walked Yankee Hill, and then settled into the public parking spot on Riverside Drive to enjoy the goose and duck show. On any given day you might see a couple of different kinds of mergansers, hundreds of geese and gulls, hundreds of glowing Mallards, and lots of other goodies.

I was picking out the American Black Ducks from the Mallards, when an eagle swooped over, strafing the ducks and sending them swirling. I watched it for a minute, then grabbed a quick photo as it was pretty close and went back to counting and sorting.

When I looked at the back of the camera I would have sworn that it was a Golden Eagle. However, I didn't dare believe it until I put it on What's this Bird on Facebook. Fortunately my impression was correct and it was! Only the third I have ever seen other than out west! A big day for the Northview bird pursuit crew.

Great Black-backed Gull

The Peggy Channel....Santa

L J Hand Farm Store had a magical Meet Santa and his Reindeer event today. Peggy liked it. We all did.

Back in Town

In recent weeks the birdy webs have been afire with wonderment over where all the birdies went. Empty feeders, barren woods, more birds seen in Central Park each day than were seen in all of Central NY, or so it seemed. (Central Park is a great spot for incredible rarities, perhaps because it is so heavily birded.)

It was no different here. I have to bring my feeders in nights due to assorted varmints and vermin, some of which carried whole feeders away last spring.

I put them back out when the first birds of the day request same by sitting on the arbor outside the window over the sink, peeping. Some days the morning request wouldn't come until nearly noon. Some days I didn't put them out at all. Waste of effort.

While a normal walk to the back fields would net at least nineteen or twenty species I would be doing good if I got three.

Then the cold and snow struck.... It is barely dawn here, a thin edge of cold, crescent moon lingers on the eastern horizon. The day is like a big pink cake with silver frosting....the village like a sprawling fruit sprinkled with seeds of orange, white, and blue light. American Tree Sparrows have been jingling outside the window for a while now, and Mourning Doves scattered in front of my feet when I walked the dogs in the early still-dark.

As soon as the yard light goes on, so the boys and I don't trip over coyotes in the dark, the peeping in the shrubbery commences. I guess the birds are back in town....now if only the boys were.

Fishermen's Crop Circles

We went down along the Mighty Mohawk yesterday to find that she is trying on some winter wares. Everywhere ice was forming in this frigid weather, water-logged, greasy-looking, greenish lumps in some places, half submerged and moving sluggishly down the current.




Other places, crisp blue-and-white sheets raced eastward, hurrying to form up with their buddies and start the freeze-up party.

And at Lock 12, as we crossed that hairy-scary bridge we spotted this huge ice circle revolving slowly in the water rushing under the dams.

This

Amazing baby blanket was crocheted by Becky. Love the color combination even though I am not usually a fan of pink.

Why

....did we not learn this trick for filling buckets with a pool noodle years ago?

For ages we have lugged heavy barn buckets up into the kitchen sink in the winter to fill them. Ugh! A hard and dirty solution to the frozen water bucket situation that bad weather brings. 

With this nifty noodle buckets stay on the floor and we don't even have to take the dishes out of the sink to fill them.

Price- $1

Thank you Internet

Scouting

This story was written on November 7th. However, due to the cloak-and-dagger nature of deer scouting, you had to wait to read it until deer season ended here. Now it can be published.

November 7th, 2017:

It is getting hard to get my walking in these days. 10,000 steps is more than it seems. It takes a lot of time to cover enough ground, and on these rocky hills a good deal of effort to get it done.

Thus this morning I started early, while the rest of the house was asleep, almost as soon as it was light. It was cold compared to recent weeks, and grey and rather gloomy. 

The birds were nothing exciting. The usual winter sparrows plus a few leftovers from summer. A couple of geese, a handful of jays, some lingering robins and the like.

I didn't mind a bit; just getting out and seeing them is reward enough for me.

Thus when I was done and headed down behind the barn I was content and full of happy comfort.

Suddenly I became aware of a loud rattling in the dead, brown goldenrod behind me. Now, even a Downy Woodpecker can make a lot of noise in dead vegetation, but this was loud. It made me a little nervous as it kept coming and coming and yet I couldn't see any thing at all.

I realized that it had to be a deer to make as much noise as that and then I smelled it, the rank stink of  buck deer. A buck smells a lot like a goat only less sharp and more musky. Alan taught me to recognize it on a trip to Montezuma a few years ago and now I find a lot of deer that way.

I waited and waited as it crashed around out there, still seeing nothing but I sure could hear it. Eventually all went quiet and I started back down to the house.

However, something made me stop and look back up the hill. Out of the western half of the field sprang a little four-point buck that lept across the farm road. 

Hot on his heels was a magnificent, calendar-picture, six-point, or maybe even an 8. It was hellbent on catching him, flashing fore hooves slashing at him as they ran.

They were so close. 

They never saw or smelled me though and only got out of camera range so quickly because they were intent on other things..one on getting out of Dodge, and the other providing the impetus to do so promptly.

I would share this with you today, but alas, I scout for just one guy....and he is in New Jersey right now.

Anyhow, that is the scouting report for the first week of this past November.