Shaky Science

On House Wrens. They are said to be called that because they find it delightful to live around people, even inside porches and eaves.

On "our" sitting porch, whereupon we have done darned little sitting this summer, there is a strictly ornamental bird house, purchased for me by my brother and sister-in-law. It came in a set of cute patriotic stuff and I hung it out there to be....well....cute.

Over the years, Black-capped Chickadees, Carolina Wrens, and a couple of other House Wrens have been confused by its ornamental-ness, and chose to employ it for the more practical purpose of raising broods.

This is a double-edged sword, particularly in the case of House Wrens. Your casa is my casa seems to be their philosophy. I like birds. It is somewhat flattering that they choose to be near us.

On the other hand.....

At first the wrens merely come up on the deck and tweet at your toes if you sit out there too long. They scurry around like mice, looking kinda cute themselves.

Later, when they begin brooding, they get a bit more insistent, darting up on the railings, swooping around, and singing.

Yeah, the male, who seems to be a lazy beggar, (except for the whole singing fourteen hours a day thing), tries to sing you off the porch. He sits on the back of the rocking chair warbling away like it's his job. He is loud. He points his beak right at the door even if we go inside. 

Now, though....now...there are nestlings in that tiny box. A few years ago they fledged six, so I suspect it's pretty crowded.

So now they are simply crazy.

The female shames anyone who dares enter her domicile by eating whatever bug or worm she is bringing in herself, looking at them sadly, and flying away muttering. 

The male sings at you or chatters like a roasting rattlesnake. Should you foolishly think that you might water the flowers, plant a little this or that, or, Heaven forfend, actually sit on the porch, they go nuts.

It is simply not possible to enjoy the porch at all. For weeks.

Even if you stay indoors, the babies peep all day, sounding exactly like the squeaky ball joints on the car when it bounces up the driveway. 

It's nuts. 

Can fledging day be far away? I sure hope not.

Caution

Silver King

......NOPE.....

That moment when you realize that your first car was a pick up truck
just one year newer than this one.....

Look who we found on the way home.....

Happy Father's Day

To these fine gentlemen and to any others I may have forgotten to mention. Hope your special day is special indeed!

Thirty-Three Years together

Fought like tigers....or like old dairy cows that are buddies most days
...but sometimes not so much

Busy as...

Crossed many

I remember them well.

Along the way

we raised some peeps

I have to say....I'd do it all again...Happy Anniversary Ralph.

Blinded by the Light

This bit of garden has only been slightly cropped, no editing of light values

Well, dazzled actually. 

The other night, just before our first series of thunderstorms of the season, we were all drawn to the windows, or outdoors, by the amazing light show.

Sky Dragon

Not lightning, but Technicolor clouds, and orange, pink, and golden landscape anywhere the light touched.

It was downright magical.

Peggy was amazed to find her horses had arranged themselves in a tidy circle as well...

She gets even with us though, and puts all her toy fruit in the refrigerator.....

The Things you See

We have visited the old grocery store building at Yankee Hill Lock so many times, and gone inside quite often.

I have looked into this room, from the doorway and always thought that it looked a bit bare.

Last time we stopped I stepped into the room to look out all the windows....

And discovered all this.... such a marvelous mural! Does anyone know who painted it?

183

Species of birds seen so far this year in our county...not all by me, alas, although we do keep looking. That surpasses the entire count for last year, which was 182, surely proving that our area sees a lot of serious birding. At the end of last year I had personally seen 152 species; this year I have been stuck at 150 since the 28th of May.

I fail at warblers....can't get out to walk where they are, don't know enough of their songs when I do manage to do so. We get lucky finding the oddballs though, that early season Golden Eagle, Great Egrets on three occasions, and a Common Gallinule that only showed up once, even though we have been back to the pond any number of times.

What a year for Wood Ducks though. We have seen two broods of ducklings in county, and yesterday in Schoharie County we saw three broods in one pond, with a large number of unrelated adults hanging around too. Nice!

Turtles by the ton are being seen as well. So many snappers and Eastern Painted Turtles laying eggs on roadsides and in parks, as to keep half the raccoons on earth well fed and still produce lots of baby turtles for next year.

I love how stoic the big snappers are when laying eggs. We don't disturb them if we can help it, but they don't seem to care who or what goes near them when they are busy on their nests.

Little Things

Your Mission, Should you choose to Accept It

Quick, check up the Sunday horse, then leap into the wagon before it leaves without you. Good thing this boy was pretty agile, as that horse wasn't standing for one second after that check rein was done up. 

Confused Cupid

We were returning from our travels yesterday when we came across a very weird couple fluffing their feathers in the dust at the side of a rural road. They were a pretty good distance from houses and barns, although peafowl can certainly travel if they want to. 

Apparently love will overcome a lot, including that whole species thing, because this Wild Turkey Hen and Indian Peafowl male were clearly a happy couple. They seemed to have little fear of passing cars, or of me jumping out of ours with the camera. I wish them well, although I think they are doomed to disappointment in the end.

A Tale Retold

Back in the day, when the 20 and 30-somethings who live here or visit often were small, easily bored people, who needed portable entertainment, a tradition was started.

Stories. I have always loved stories, loved to read them, loved to make them up and tell them to myself in my head, and had them swirling around in my mind my whole life.

Thus a set of stories was made up around a central character, whose initials were JM. I won't say his real name as he was named after a real person, who happened to have a pretty cool name. JM went everywhere we did, keeping small people in the back seat contented for miles and hours.

Checking out the birds between chapters

He fell into a host of adventures, rescuing his dad from a tractor accident and running the farm while he recuperated, living wild for a while in a canyon, having dogs that found lost kids, finding a wild dog and taming it. 

He was a real cool guy and we liked hiim. However, as his fans grew into bigger and better stories, he languished. Just couldn't compete with Harry Potter.

For years there were no new adventures. No new stories.

Yesterday afternoon a big hay customer came. Liz and the boss had to go load out hay. A certain small person had to stay in the house. She brought her little pink chair out on the new porch, put it next to mine, and we visited for a bit. 

Then she said, "Let's tell stories. You tell one and then I'll tell one......"

Ha, she had no idea what she was in for. Out of the closet came our old buddy JM. He needed to regress a bit in age and detail, as the new audience is a bit younger than his earlier fans, but he was a big hit.

In fact my little pal kept saying, "I don't want to tell one right now. You tell another one."

So I did. JM was a hero and caught Bad Guy Brown several times...dunno who kept letting him out of jail though.....A whole new cast of other characters was born as well. 

There was a big brindle cow with long horns, who was named Belle because she wore a bell on her collar. Belle tossed a wolf that was trying to bite her calf 57 feet in the air. He came down and went splat. Next she tossed him 58 feet with the same result when he tried again. Then she threw him 67 feet, ditto. She finally pitched him up into a tree and ran home with her baby.

A dog named Reba had puppies under the barn. JM and his brother Jerrod each got to keep one.

There were horses and ponies, Cherry Blossom, Buck, and the terrible bucking horse, Devil Dog. JM rode Devil Dog to the 8-second bell to win enough money to pay the taxes and save the ranch.

Later we came inside and did a little illustrating using the Paint program.

Man, did we have fun!