Even in Winter

Northern Cardinal

Elksquatch

That deer in the headlights look

Blood on the snow?
No, the remains of some sumac berries

The aqueduct at Schoharie Crossing

Owl fail? Tracks led to and from this print in the snow. Could have been a hawk too
but looks as if it missed its dinner.

There is so much to see.....

Ice harvest is going on apace

Preaching to the Choir

Telling it like it is 

A commenter recently suggested that it might be a good idea to share some of the sources mentioned in the other day's post about the demise of the Farm Side.

Seems like a pretty good idea, so here goes.

For New York and local ag news you can't beat Morning Ag Clips. I will certainly be continuing to subscribe to that excellent compilation of stories as long as it's available. Here is a link to the subscribe page: Morning Ag Clips

I subscribe to everything Agweb and Farm Journal publications will send me...and it is a lot. Dairy Herd Management, Drovers, and any number of other farm magazines can either be accessed through subscription, or if you don't qualify for that, Facebook pages, which offer links to stories almost endlessly. I have an email address pretty much dedicated to farm news and it is filled every day.

It is also helpful to subscribe to daily emails from the NY DEC. Not everything is related to farming, but it is a way to keep up with environmental news.

It is by no means a bad idea to follow Farm Bureau pages on Facebook, which is free and easy. New York is a good place to start but there are pages from all over the country, as well as AFBF. There are many other ag organizations that have web pages and a Facebook presence as well.

Here are some Facebook pages, which you might miss that are useful sources of information.

The Calvary Group

Farm Watcher UK

Green Shirts

97 Milk

Farmers who are tired of....

Dr. Dairy

Protect the Harvest

There are more. Many more. I will share them as I come upon them if anyone is interested.

And the Painted Ponies go up and Down

A dear friend of ours restores carousel horses with astonishing skill and passion. She somehow finds their hearts and brings them back to life. When finished they are alive and full of personality and vigor. It's magic.

We are big fans of her and her work.

Liz and I stopped for a moment at a carousel of local fame yesterday when we were out running errands and looking for birds. We grabbed a couple of photos while we were there.

 I have fond memories of Sherman's Amusement Park in its heyday, especially the carousel. I always looked fondly at the brass ring as we passed, but I was far too timid to let go of the reins on the prancers I chose. 

It is now shuttered and still and has been the subject of much acrimonious local controversy. 

It is still beautiful though, even from outside.

This one's for you, Grey. 

And here is a song I like on the topic.

If you Missed the Farm Side last Week

Here is my fellow columnist's take on what happened. I thank him for doing such a fine job of saying what has been on minds here at Northview Farm. He is very eloquent.

I can honestly say I am okay with losing my job. I will miss the paycheck. It wasn't big, but it paid about one small bill a month.

However, I was writing books when it was offered to me...none of them published, alas....and maybe I will go back to that. Or maybe I will just blog here and share the photos I have so much fun taking. And it was hard to come up with a topic every single week for so very long.

That being said, I now realize that whenever I read anything I am watching for material I can use. Did the president speak to Farm Bureau? Yeah. I will read up on that. What are the animal rights people up to lately? Nothing good. People need to know. Who is hosting Sundae on the Farm? Will there even be one with the farm economy what it is? And if so what stories can I tell about their farm and family?

And so on. It's hard to stop doing that, but sometimes it's a relief too. There are a lot of email newsletters that I don't have to read any more if I don't want to. I used to put at least four or five hours into each column, and sometimes much more when some topic required deep research. 

It would have been 22 years in March.

No one bothered to tell me or the other writer that we were no longer needed. I actually wrote and submitted a column last Friday. It wasn't published so I was able to assume that I wasn't quite going to make that 22-year mark.

All in all it's been fun. I have met a lot of nice people and worked with some wonderful editors who pretty much gave me free rein.....and believe me I used every inch of it. 

If you have been a reader, thanks. If you are one one of those editors, thank you as well. You sure came up with some great headlines over the years. 

The best part of all those years, besides the cool people, was how much I learned. It is amazing how much information is out there if you are willing to dig. I read newspapers from all over the world, Great Britain, South Africa, China, Japan, and often Russia. My advice for folks looking for trends is watch Europe. So much political shenanigans and animal rights madness starts there and then migrates here like a mess of demented lemmings. 

I think I will keep on studying the wonderful world of agriculture. It is too important to ignore.                  

The Color of the Cold

The sun is sliding slowly nearer, floating up from below the horizon and slicing the sky like an orange......or maybe a really cold, frozen, peach. 

These very cold days are events of great beauty, if equally intense discomfort.

Such colors! Especially at the bookends of the days.

Lyker's Pond, good birding in all seasons

Raw blue and turquoise. Oranges and golden lights that defy description.

The evenings are equal to the dawns, like a rewind of the emerging beauty, folding the flaming tents and tucking them below the rim of the earth. 

We went out early yesterday, as Liz didn't need our car...no school, the bus does not seem to be exactly Peggy-friendly..... and although we saw few birds, every single vista of frost rimed farms and steaming chimneys, cows' breath pluming, snow sparkling, made the trip amazing. Like a slide show spectacle of wonder. 

Same pond, different day, facing in the other direction

A short run for owls in the late afternoon was similarly fruitless, but at least equally gorgeous.

I am ever so thankful for birding even when we don't find birds. It gets me out. It keeps me watching. It gives me a reason to go, when my entire instinct in winter is to hibernate like a good, fat bear, and wait for seasons a bit more to my liking weather-wise.
 

Blue Jay soaking up the morning sun.
There were 22 in one tree and more flying in as we watched

Good Morning Bird Day

Blue Jay

Mourning Dove

White-throated Sparrow

Downy Woodpecker

Seen out and around the yard this morning. 

There's a Storm a'comin'

Not taken today, alas

Train horns mellow as old cheese resonate across the valley in the cold morning light.

Jays sound strident as a squawkboard with sharp fingernails applied.

Urgent hustle in the traffic, whether birds on the feeders or travelers on the interstate.

It's coming, says the East wind.

Almost here, call the cardinals.

Dee, dee, dee, oh dear chirp the racing chickadees, pecking open seeds as fast as they can find them.

In case you wondered.... Winter's back and it's bringing its friends...snow, sleet and wind. 

Somebody had better run out for toilet paper, bread, and milk and hurry!

It's getting pretty shiverish.

Hurry, hurry, hurry

Hey, who's that Walking

1

2

3 (Fox no doubt)

...All over our place? Here are some tracks found on my most recent walk up behind the barn, except for the great big one, which is from Yankee Hill Lock. I actually know that that one is, but it might not be what you would expect.

Looking for expert opinions here. Thanks

Da BIG track

Illustrations

8-mule hitch up in Fordsbush

Drying corn

For this week's Farm Side....I keep thinking each week that this one will be the last one, but so far I have not heard one way or the other from the new owners of the paper.

Combining corn

Even though it is January people, both English and Amish
are plowing all around the county

So I keep writing them....You will be able to read the story on Friday at the Recorder, but it is behind a paywall. 

Portent

I was out with Jill, dog number 3, yesterday morning when a sharp crack came from the Northwest. A meteor slashed through the sky and vanished over the Adirondacks.

That'll wake you up in a hurry. Sure spooked poor little Jill.

Another portent?

Coming on the heels of a failure to function on the part of the skid steer, upon which we depend for feeding stock and moving wood, thus keeping us from freezing I was just a tad concerned about  what it might portend.

However, the repair guy that came later fixed the machine right quickly, new tires fixed a hellacious wobble in the front end of the car, which had been worrying us mightily, and we found a cute little robin at Lyker's Pond, first of the year.

Wish you could have heard the ice talking on that little pair of ponds out on Goldman Road. Yowsa! As the boss climbed out of the car, a great pressure crack snapped open right next to him and zipped across to the beaver house. Then when we were walking up the road that forms a sort of dam between the ponds a little wind began to move the whole ice shelf. It ground against the land bridge, boom, boom, boom. Sounded like a ten-thousand pound grouse drumming. 

Coming home from the pond we came across these fellows talking out their plans for clearing brush and trees under the power lines. As we slowly pulled up past them a gigantic military cargo plane roared across the road at barely treetop level, completely filling the view through the windshield. Even though I had the camera right in my hand I missed it completely, so quickly did it speed past. Darned near blew their hardhats off!

Recess

Anyhow, I guess the morning excitement was just a bit of something crashing in from space with no rumors or humors attached to it.

Later there was venison stew for supper, with humongous, sweet, carrots from Mary's and some nice little yellow potatoes. A good time was had by all. 

At it Again

I'm writing the Farm Side on Sunday, as we have a busy week ahead and no idea if there will be time on the usual days.

Normally I would share several links to news and informational stories for your perusal.

However, although I have a mess of them bookmarked for the gleaning of facts and figures, just one has enough to say to keep anyone thinking.

The real story behind Australian bush fires.

I am now reading the stories linked at the bottom of the article. What has happened and is happening on our west coast is all too similar.  

Reset Recap

Laughing Gulls on the Outer Banks

Sometime in the middle of last night, eBird statistics reset. All those amazing birds we found over the past 365 days were relegated to last year's old news and it's time to start again.

It is still dark so first bird of the day, year, and decade has yet to be counted.

Winter Wren

What will it be, what will it be? In Florida a few years back I was so excited for the opportunity for first bird to be something incredible and wonderful. Maybe an ibis or a Boat-tailed Grackle. We set out before dawn for the beaches and bays, eager for manatees and magical new birds....

Merliln

Only I wasn't paying enough attention to not looking and got a starling in the pink lights of the predawn parking lot. Last year it was a Canada Goose flyover. This year, who knows? The sun isn't really up yet and there were no owls calling at dog walking time...although I surely was hoping. 

Sandhill Crane at Montezuma

2019 saw us traveling to the Outer Banks for the first, but hopefully not the last time. A couple of runs out to Montezuma, where we lucked out and got the White Pelican, which showed up as a life bird for me, although I have seen them many times on trips to the South. Real honest-to-gosh first time life birds included Lapland Longspurs, an Olive-sided Flycatcher, Winter Wren, and Short-ear Owls....man, did we ever work hard to get the latter!

Common Yellowthroat

Yesterday for the first time in ages the boss and I actually got out and drove around some of our favorite spots and had a high time. Lots of nice raptors!

Anyhow, I am eager for another year of pursuing birds in the county, state and country. Hope we are healthy and wealthy enough to keep playing the game. Wish us luck...and thanks for being patient with our adventures.

***Update: As I was typing this, waiting for the washing machine to jingle the little tune that tells me that it is done, I heard my first bird of the '20s. What are the odds that just as the sun came up on the first day of the new year my favorite bird would begin to shout to all the neighbors that he was up and hitting the ground running or the air flying as the case may be when you are a bird? I do love me those Carolina Wrens.

Good Year to You