The Things you See

Snow clogged soybean fields, not looking good for harvest any time soon

At least this corn is in....

It's still November

There appear to be a lot of new horses in the Amish world this month. This driver
is braced this way because this pair nearly leapt out into the road seconds before this
and then they wanted to take off down the hill. A few weeks on that manure spreader and they will have a whole different outlook

I think of it as the mirror month of March...opposite ends of winter but so alike in fluctuating ambiance and frequent changeability. However, March is closing in on spring and the good days can only get better.

It is well above my pay grade to tease the rarities out of flocks like this
unless they are close enough
and the light is good enough
to get decent photos to look at later

With November you know that the nice days are just teasers, lulling us into a false sense of comfort and joy, while the weather gears up for lots more misery.

November is not my favorite month atall, but the drive to get outdoors and look for birds has rendered the iffy weather and short, gloomy, days a lot more bearable.....

The nigh horse in this pair is pretty hawky too. Didn't much like
the look of us.
Which I suppose is understandable, dangerous characters that we are.

Got Atmosphere?

November does....

So Cool

Red-throated Loon

Today I received one of those dreaded letters from the eBird reviewer. I had yet again misidentified a bird. I am pretty careful to run anything I am not sure of past an ID group or two, so it doesn't happen real often.....still.....I hate to make mistakes.....(and I appreciate the nice folks who keep eBird honest and try to let my mistakes serve as a learning experience for me.)

However, sometimes I see something that looks a little different, pooh-pooh myself as overthinking it, and list it anyhow.

This time I photographed a loon out on the river by the confluence with the Schoharie and called it a Common Loon. It actually looked a little different to me, but it was in eclipse plumage and I have been wrong thinking commons were something more uncommon all too often. Saw the darned thing four or five times over successive days and photographed it, but discarded the pics as too low quality. It was a lo-o-o-n-g way out in the river....

Comes the letter. The bird was a Red-throated Loon, a lifer for me and the first county record. I'm kinda kicking myself that I didn't go with my first impression and put it up on What's this Bird? to be sure what it was, but on the other hand I am just so darned excited that I can live with getting it wrong. In fact, happy dance....literally.....Hope we see it again

ScarySpace

Cyberspace is like the Wild, Wild, West these days.  Innocent people get caught in the crossfire, causing stress, fear, and sometimes financial damage.

Today we came home to a message on the machine from a close relative about another close family member. Seems this individual was in Maryland and needed bail money. His lawyer told the geographically distant relative not to tell us, but after agonizing all morning he did anyhow. 

For a moment panic coursed through my veins.

But then I thought.....wait a minute....person #2 was just here last night and I know right where he is. He is on the road but he sure isn't in Maryland. And besides he would never not call us if he needed us. After everyone calmed down we agreed that it was a scam. The same thing was pulled on my mama a few months ago saying Jade was in trouble....he wasn't, but he was on the road. Thankfully Liz is pretty much always in touch with him.

Then the mail contained a bill from this company.....it was a very official-looking document, but something about it gave me a hinky feeling. I looked it up, and lo and behold, it's another scam.

We are fortunate to be reasonably up-to-date on the various scams and schemes going around, but not everyone is. I feel terrible about this happening even though there was no way we could have prevented it....anyhow, if someone calls you for bail for an out of town family member, check before you send it.

And stay away from Records Recovery Services.

There's a New Chef in Town

Chef Peggy

The judges at her cooking show

A Very

Happy Thanksgiving to all.....

Will the Circle.....

Part of the flock....part!

Be made of Snow Geese? Thank you all for your many kind thoughts and words on the loss of our longtime internet friend. We came so close to actually meeting up so many times. He wanted to come here, but that didn't work out, and we went to Boston a few times, but couldn't make the connection. We will miss him.

A blue morph bird among the more common white ones

Yesterday, as most mornings when she doesn't go in at 4 before the sun is up, I rode down to town when the boss took Becky to work.

A youngster

Was I ever glad that I did. In the river, right in front of McDonald's, was a tight, round, white flock of something. Thousands of somethings in fact. 

More of the flock

As we approached the flock spread out to stretch all the way to the river bridge. I estimated 1800 to 2000 Snow Geese.

What a sight! (If you drove by and spotted the boss and me between the guard rails and the river as the traffic slowed behind us to take in the spectacle...well, that's what we do.)

And then they flowed apart to form a necklace of white along the snow-rimed river.

They were gone when we drove by later....wish we had seen them fly.

Well, Damn

Found out this morning that my very first Internet friend passed away last month. I'd been worrying, but because he was in and out of the hospital a lot over the last few years and often vanished from social media, then reappeared after a few weeks, it took a while for me to find out.

We met via a game site, It's Your Turn, and had played games like Battleship and variations of Scrabble since December of 2000, although failing vision on his part had slowed this down a lot. When Facebook came along it was even more fun to communicate. And there were better games for our friendly competition as well....

We lived in different worlds, big city vs country, farm vs urban, and a lot of other cultural differences that could have influenced our friendship but didn't. I will never forget how he once got in an argument with someone at the grocery store over how farmers treat their livestock and how dairy and beef products are produced....and about how much farmers are paid for their products. He knew better than most you see.....

He loved dogs and hated beets and once sent my best-ever Border Collie, Mike, a stuffed hedgehog that became the most fought over toy in the house. We exchanged cards on holidays and even talked on the phone once. The kids and the boss got to know him too.....he felt like family.

We will miss him a lot....RIP Mike B

From out of the Far Far North

Evening Grosbeaks

The little kee kee birds come down.....

Pine Siskin

And so do the northern finches, sparrows and other goodies, either migrating through or irrupting because of a poor cone crop up north.

Fox Sparrow

We have been seeing Pine Siskins for several days, Snow Buntings, Horned Larks, and today a Fox Sparrow, but the piece de resistance came today in the form of four Evening Grosbeaks.

Snow Bunting

Been 22 years since we've seen them.

The geese and ducks down on the river were all covered with snow the other day
when we took Becky down to work.
Must have slept through the storm.
Something I had never seen before

Meet the Grandpuppies

Remy

Cam

Sam

Ren

Big Day

First and foremost, if you see my dad, wish him a very happy birthday! Today is his big day.

Secondly, all of you out there celebrating opening day of the southern zone big game season, be careful! Know your target and where your projectile will project should you stumble and miss. We've had livestock shot and heard lead whistle over our heads while out working or riding horseback so.....




And good luck. There are plenty of deer out there, hope you bag the big one.

It's a Yes Kind of Storm

As in yes, it's cold. Snow is still coming down. I need to start wearing gloves to walk dogs and feed birdies. Fingers is frozen after just a few minutes....barely long enough for the coffee to get done....Soon now...

And yes, school is closed. Even though our youngest baby has helped build an addition to the Smithsonian, shored up more bridges and dams than I can remember, and will be 29 in a few months, the school is calling me about closings. At 5:30 AM. See, we are rightfully an emergency contact since Peggy goes to school there and I guess we need to know. And I am awake then anyhow...

Yes, the snow is odd. Thick and heavy, almost gummy, but not a bit packy. Not going to see many snowmen today unless it warms up a lot. It's more like dense sleet I guess.

And yes....oh, yes...the birds are hungry. Enough that a chickadee landed on my fingers to grab a peanut this morning in the not-quite-light. A day maker for me any time that happens. This bird didn't even hesitate or make me wait. I put up my hand and he popped down on it. There is magic in the sensation of those tiny claws on cold, damp skin.....

Now there is a White-throated Sparrow singing about Canada, or Sam Peabody, depending on your interpretation of sparrow dialect, from the tray feeder in the kitchen window.

Calendar be hanged. Yes........it is winter.

The Things you See

Ice Crows

Slowest moving Canada Geese I have ever seen
Look closely now...

These guys were fooled too and seconds after this, shots rang out

Neat, huh?

Horned Larks are winter birds... at least around here

Rough Legged Hawk, also winter visitors.

Quiet Invaders

I walked down the concrete apron of the boat launch on the Schoharie on the first of this month. The state had just pulled the dock there and the pieces were stacked on shore.

Crunch! Crack! Snap, pop, pop, pop. I had stepped on something on the otherwise smooth concrete. Lots of somethings in fact. I looked down to find a pair of tracks the width of the dock pontoons consisting of thousands upon thousands of zebra mussel shells.

Anyone who walks the river when the dams are open has no doubt noticed that the entire river bed is paved with shells when the waters abate. Still it was once again surprising to see the sheer numbers of them.

They are thought to have arrived in the Great Lakes in ships' ballast from Europe or Asia during the 1980s. Obviously they have been kinda busy since then.....