Emphasis on Ag

Our kids all went to SUNY Cobleskill, studying subjects as diverse as Animal Science, Fisheries and Wildlife, Diesel Technology, and Archaeology. There are so many great programs offered there.

In fact I wish I had known that I could have gone there back in the day, rather than studying Liberal Arts in the county to the north. I learned to type reasonably well but....

Now instead of turning away from ag and ignoring local needs and issues as so many entities are, the school is adding innovative programs that I think are downright inspired.

Read all about it here. 

All in the Family

Dad

Mom

And three scruffy teenagers

Indigo Buntings, last night behind the barn.

Focus vs Situational Awareness

After most of a lifetime on a farm around potentially dangerous animals, definitely dangerous machinery, and possibly dangerous unexpected situations, I'm reasonably aware of what's going on around me....

Except when I'm on birds.

It's gonna get me killed some day.

The other night I was out on the gravel bar on the Schoharie after they let the river down for the rain event. Sandpipers, Yellowlegs, Killdeers and the like were gobbling something out of the mud and I was taking photos as fast as I could click.

A person walked up just out of my peripheral view and stood quietly waiting for me to finish....which took a while.....

Don't know how long she politely waited while I went crazy taking pictures, but I never saw or heard her at all...until I stopped to go back to the car.

Thankfully it turned out to be a nice lady who is a longtime friend of ours.....

Had it been a serial killer at least I would have died happy.

Some of us are nuts...

Another Week

Mysteriouser and Mysteriouser. Is it actually possible for a private citizen..of Connecticut no less...
to post state forest land? Hmmmmm.....

....Another bunch of research links from the Farm Side.

Feeding PA

China can't count on soybeans

Michigan donates too

Snapping up cheap soybeans

The real skinny

There were more....but I seem to have deleted them to make room for next week's fun...now to go delete all these.

That New York Traffic

Slow

Slower

Slowest

A Good Mistake

Cliff Swallows

Although, thanks to one of the county's finest birders, we know where to find and count Cliff Swallows each year, photographing them is a whole 'nother ball game. The place where they are known to nest is on a scary busy road. Stopping to point the camera can be life threatening.

And then...

The other day I rode up to L J Hands with the boss to get some paint to mark the wood pile at his cousin's house. Someone is pilfering when no one is there so.....

On the wire in front of the store were five swallows. A quick glance marked them as Barn Swallows, another species of which I had no photos....point, click, and then off to look and listen for other interesting birds to make a short list while the boss got his paint.

There was even a Wild Turkey crossing the road next to the parking lot....really you can bird anywhere......

Imagine my surprise when I took the photos off the camera a couple of days later and found that four of the five birds were indeed Cliff Swallows. Score!

Immature Barn Swallow...short tail with fleshy gape still visible at the corner of the beak

Just Another

Black-billed Cuckoo, the first I have ever seen, although I have heard them

....walk on the farm

Mourning Dove

Indigo Bunting

Juvenile Cedar Waxwing

Downy Woodpecker

Savannah Sparrow

Common Yellowthroat

ET

Interlude with Sunshine

Feeling enough better to do some porch birding with grandma

Ruby-throated Hummingbird isn't scared of her

Checking out big bird

Osprey Flyover

Ark

We may need to build one. Sure am glad they let the river down this week, because man, oh, man, has it ever rained. It's like being in the Forrest Gump movie where you get every kind of rain there is....

Here we are getting soft rain that barely gets you wet. I went birding in that yesterday and barely had to keep my hand over the camera to shelter it, even though the river was dimpled with drop marks.

Heavier rain that makes the dogs smell funny and assures that the camp towels "drying" on the clothesline will never actually do so.

And duck drowning rain that will practically knock you over if you step off the porch.

A whole summer's worth of rain crammed into just a few days. It is raining now. It was raining then, it has been raining for a long while, and I am afraid it will be raining for a while yet....it can stop if it wants to though, any time now. I am tired of conjugating rain...

Prepared for Flooding

Killdeer

There are a couple of reasons to be glad that the state canal authority is being proactive on the flood front by lowering the river dramatically.

One is flood control of course. Our river is fed by a good portion of the state, so rain most anywhere to the west of us affects our water levels. We have had far too many major floods that might have been mitigated by lowering the water level in the river before the extra got here, so this is a real good deal.

Semipalmated Sandpipers

The other is great birding on the newly exposed mud flats. Our morning visit to the Crossing yielded good ducks and such, but not a single shorebird. We went back down in the evening mostly because we were stressed because our Peggy is sick and we wanted to relax for a bit. I usually walk around while the boss sits at a picnic table, but last night I joined him, just watching the birds go by and the fish rising on the river.

Until....a flock of something tiny flashed by in nearly geometric precision and vanished behind the point by the aqueduct.

Greater Yellowlegs

"Gotta go," I said. "We got peeps."

I hustled off up the rock and mud exposed by the retreating water after them.

Lesser Yellowlegs

I won't bore you with the long, sneaky stalking through the scrubby grass, while two guys who were out on the aqueduct (dangerous and illegal but....) watched me curiously.

Solitary Sandpiper

There were five species of birds involved in the tight little flock. They all fell to feeding on the mud flats, allowing me time to take many photos. There were Semipalmated Sandpipers, which are "peeps", one Killdeer, which is a plover, two Lesser Yellowlegs, a huge Greater Yellowlegs, and a Solitary Sandpiper, or maybe two, in the group.

I am terrible at shore bird ID. I ran them all, even the ones I knew quite well, past the experts at the ABA. I'm glad I did, because I was way off the Semipalmated Sandpipers...thought they were Westerns.

Great Blue Heron

Today it is raining so we may end up really glad that the river is way down....besides the great birding that is. And Peggy is a bit perkier, if still kind of peaked and feverish. Poor baby.

Low water and darned glad of it

Bats

Night was breathing its last gasp. The air was a sweaty tangle of humidity with sluggish east wind tickling the grass. As I went out dawn began snuffling idly around the horizon.

There were bats. At least five fluttered right over the little garden beside the driveway. There were more down by the heifer barn. I was astonished. For at least five years we have seen one Big Brown Bat around the place and only one. It has come in the house several times too.

We used to have Little Browns before the White-nose hit. They bedeviled the boss mightily dive-bombing him when he went into the barn to start morning milking back in the day. There was a cave just across the river where thousands poured out nightly too...what a sight to see! They seem to be gone now as well.

But this, this was incredible. By the time I had the doggos walked I had seen several more, and discovered where their roost is too......but I'm not telling. There are others who are not quite as enamored as I....

Then I walked over to the cow barn in search of that darned Barred Owl and didn't see him. I did see what I think was a single Little Brown Bat fluttering off to roost though. How nice. 

Home Again

Immature Common Loon

Cooper's Hawk

Belted Kingfisher adult and immature

The Loch Ness Bullhead

Common Mergansers

Feeding the ducks

But what a particularly fine time we had. Even coming home wasn't quite as miserable as usual, as it isn't terribly hot today and between us, Becky and I got most stuff put away quite quickly. Here are a few photos of our days at camp.

All good things must come to an end

Not a Dock Dog

Mack is afraid of the lake. However he really wants a duck of his own......Perhaps as an entertaining and fluffy companion. Perhaps for some much more nefarious scheme. Anyhow today while lusting after ducklings he either jumped or fell off the dock. Rescue was required. He might be a duck dog but he will never make the dock dog championships.

Glass

The lake is a calm mirror after storms all night long. Tried fishing my orange flatfish...at least 40+years old. Rock bass nailed first splash and it just keeps catch fish. Pretty amazing. Brought cracked corn for the ducks because they say crackers are bad for them. It sinks. They dive. Great fun. Decent birds. Juvie Belted Kingfisher being fed by parents. Black-and-white Warblers. Good time being haf.