Schoharie Crossing

Birding tends keep me tilted toward the sane side at the best of times. These are certainly not them. Is it any wonder that this is one of my favorite spots to visit when needing a dose of therapy?

Besides all the amazing birds that is. 

Common Goldeneye, male and females, Wood Duck, and Canada Geese

Not Panic but Plenty of Precaution

How are you all doing? Okay so far? Have what you need? Hanging in there?

We are, at the moment, all right, although it is impossible not to worry.

Of necessity we shop every Friday for my folks and for us.

It is rarely entertaining, mostly because I am uncomfortable in crowds.

Yesterday morning we headed out early, having been deluged with photos of empty shelves and reports of panic.

We did indeed find bare shelves. There was no bathroom tissue to be had at Walmart . There were few disinfecting products, although we scored a bottle of spray cleaner, which we use even when there isn't a pandemic.

Staples like flour were absent or in short supply, perhaps just for the moment, as there were dozens of stockers hard at work all through the store. 

We also found universally pleasant, kind, helpful, cheerful, people, whether they were store employees or early morning customers like ourselves. 

It was a relief from the social media free-for-all that has become the norm.

And we found TP at Hannaford, thankfully, because we were actually out and needed to buy some. One pack for us. One pack for the folks.

Call me crazy but I think whenever this disease outbreak plays out, and however it does, we are going to be profoundly changed. I think if systems are put in place for distance learning and telecommuting for those for whom it is possible, they will not be abandoned even if and when things get better.

I think there may be a lot more preppers than there are now. I hope though that we don't go crazy ceding control of our lives to others, particularly government, and find freedom gone forever in the future. It is easy to let others take care of us, but it tends to come with a cost.

And by way of update we went back in late afternoon to take Becky shopping when she got off work and to pick up prescriptions...what a difference. The store was mobbed and people were miserable. Not one person smiled back or even acknowledged nods and greetings.

Pretty darned grim.

You Can't Make this Stuff Up

I can't believe I ate the whole thing

Free-range pig plus pedometer (to prove that it is a free-range pig) plus depraved appetite and resulting valuable organic fertilizer.....

Equals barn fire!

First of the Year

Dawn Chorus this morning.

After a quick airing of the Jerk Russell Terrier (not my phrase, but so very fitting, second walkies of the morning) I walked outside to photograph the setting of the moon.....

...To the first robin song of the year. Half a dozen Northern Cardinals were boxing the compass in cardinal speak, North-by-Northwest, and all the Souths, Easts, and Wests they could sing.

Song Sparrows were doing their thing from the pear tree by the stove and the heifer pasture fence. And of course the Carolina Wren was shouting his "Judy, Judy, Judy" song from the mulberries by the driveway.

The rising dawn and the setting moon were spectacular.

A fine way to put problems in perspective and a beautiful morning indeed.

***Please excuse the traffic noise in the background. We live on an Interstate....this morning it was really loud. 

All the News

Or maybe not. Have you noticed how few interviews with survivors of the disease du jour are available? I did a search as I was curious what it felt like. They are pretty scarce....

Or that most people who fit the description of "elderly" have "underlying conditions"? Seriously, how many people over sixty aren't on some medication for some age-related impairment, however minor? That description takes in a lot of territory...and a lot of people.

Or that the Iditarod has started? I am going to miss my dear friend, Jan, this year, as it will be the first time in many that she hasn't shared news and generally hilarious commentary on the last great race. You can find good info here from another longtime blog friend: Way up North.

Meanwhile, our car is dead or at least severely incapacitated, and we have no way to go anywhere or do anything. Many thanks to Lisa, our dear sister-in-law for getting the folks' groceries taken care of as we have been grounded since Thursday.....

I sure hope they find the gremlins soon, and get them under control! Things are changing way too fast around here. It would be nice to at least be able to cope with the day to day necessities.

That is all.

Out on the Hill

For the first time in a long while. I've tried, but the lane where the boss unloads hay has been clogged with ice and snow. It is steep and kinda dangerous at the best of times, so even getting out of the barnyard has been impossible.

Then came mud. Or I was babysitting and couldn't go out.

However, this morning the lane was open and the ground was frozen so I could climb the hill behind the barn.

Birding wasn't stellar, but it's always fun, and especially so on our familiar roads and fields.

Best encounter was four deer who meandered out of the field behind the barn, never  figuring out what I was until I took all the photos I wanted and moved a step. I think they would have walked right down to me if I had waited, but I wanted to see the hilltop before the ground melted and turned to slippery mud.

They exited right quickly once they realized that I wasn't just a log or the skid steer.

It's nice up there on the hill although it will be a while before work can begin.

Out in the Night

The Moon

And its shadow

Last dregs of the sun

And down in the barn.....

Somebody wants dinner....

Ein Footinger

Normal Black-capped Chickadee opening a seed

Early in the winter a Black-capped Chickadee showed up at the feeders that just didn't look right. It was always fluffed and ball-shaped and just.....wrong....somehow.

I thought it was sick and considered taking down the feeders for a few days, but I didn't and somehow it persisted.

It would cling, upside down, to the meal worm block for hours, picking slowly at the feed. It rarely flew when I went out to fill feeders or had reason to be out in the yard. It is normal for chickadees to be quite bold and ours even congregate as soon as I am near the feeders to they can grab some seeds when the big birds aren't around. However, this guy was much more so.

One day it got down in fresh inches-deep snow and lay there panting and struggling desperately. When I approached, thinking to pick it up and perhaps deliver it to a rehabber, it managed to flutter off, but it only went a couple of feet before perching.

I laid it to illness.

It was instead desperate and necessary trust.

The other day, despite being kinda, sorta, blind....ish....I finally got a good look at it.

It is not sick.

It only has one functional leg. The other is withered and useless. It holds it up under its body and uses the good one for everything.

Since chickadees open seeds by holding them with their feet while they peck them apart, this bird has a pretty tough time eating on the regular feeders. However, the mealworm block has hulless seeds along with the dried worms. It can just peck them out and eat them.

So it does.

I took a photo the other day when it landed right near my head when I as doing the feeders. Poor valiant little bird. How awesome is it that it got through the whole winter so far with such a great handicap? I named it Ein Footinger. 

The bad leg

Guess Who's Six

Miss Peggy Ann Marie is six.

Happy Birthday, Peggy!

The NY Plastic Bag Ban

Gonna be an endangered species now.

Went into effect a couple of days ago, but today was our first experience with it.

It went exactly as expected. 

It was hard to know how many bags to take into the store. We didn't think we wanted much stuff, so we took two. Of course once you are inside the store you see a dozen things you forgot you needed......

At the checkout there was no place to put items that had been scanned except on top of a tiny little paper bag holder.

Thus while the boss put up stuff I had to bag at full speed just to keep up. Neither of us was able to even glance at the readout to make sure the right price was charged for each item. 

We took the jacket we got for Peggy's upcoming birthday out without a bag...I will not give the state their 3 cents for a paper bag....because when all is said and done this is just a tax. (Somebody ran up a huge budget deficit so somebody else has to pay....)

It is also a massive, pointless, PIA. People behind us in line were grumbling furiously, faced with the same nuisance. It took significantly longer to get out of the store for each and every person in each and every line. There is just no way to do your own bagging in your random, squashy, tippy, kinda useless, politically correct, bags and do it quickly.

Surprise, surprise.

However, I see a great opportunity for some entrepreneur, (which, alas, I am not) to print  "reusable" bags with protest slogans, (The bag ban s**ks for example) political rhetoric, and/or anything that will help us all vent. It might cause rioting at the checkout, but I don't think so. So far Facebook is the only place I have seen or heard anyone happy with the deal. Checkers and shoppers sure aren't.

Personally, I would gladly buy bags that offered an opinion matching mine on our esteemed governor's rules and regulations, including this one. Or maybe they could mention bail reform.

 I've been thinking about this concept since the ban was proposed, and I did see some bags of that sort....may have been photo shopped, but maybe someone is already making them.

If so I would like to invest....

Here is a well-researched article on why the ban is ill-conceived and probably won't work anyhow.

Bag the Ban. 

Well worth a read....

Here's an excerpt, with numbers I have seen quoted in several other places. 

"According to Recyc- Québec, nearly 78% of people reuse their “single-use” plastic bags, most often as a small trash can liner or to pick up pet waste. Research from the University of Sydney found that after California’s plastic bag ban, the sales of thicker, more resource-intensive plastic trash bags skyrocketed.Once plastic bags were banned, Californians started buying trash bags for their everyday use instead of reusing the shopping bags that they were previously getting at no charge. Coupled with an increase in paper bag usage, the research found that California’s plastic bag ban increased in carbon emissions."

In other words, the ban is not just intrusive and annoying, it is counterproductive.

Which has been obvious to anyone who actually thought about it since it was proposed.

March Roars In

A lot like February. Cold, windy, uninviting.

Take a closer look....

However, migration has started, albeit a little sluggishly.

The sun is out...today at least....

Gadwall

Makes you want to get out even though once you do you want to get back indoors just as quickly.

See what I mean?

Adding Insult

Y'all know how I got fired....and they didn't even bother to tell me, just stopped publishing columns that I took the time to write and send....

Well, it appears that even though the Gazette ran two of my columns in the Recorder which they purchased....back the first two weeks in January...nobody is going to pay me.

Nobody is even going to answer my emails.

Am I ticked off? 

Why, yes, yes I am. Don't really need the stress, do really need the money.

That is all.

Finding Joy

Tundra Swans

It's not much fun to get old.

Doing tax bookkeeping is also not on my list of delights.

However, interspersed among the miserable chores and the inevitable consequences of life there are joys.

Over the past week we have been blessed with several of them.

First we found Tundra Swans at Schoharie Crossing boat launch. It appears that they have never been reported in this county before, although they are not rare elsewhere. Lifers for me for sure.

Then last night, after several weeks of driving Lynk Street and Columbia Road where found them last year, we "got" a Short-eared Owl. It flew right next to the car, giving us great looks and me a major thrill. Any and all owls fall under the joy heading in my word but I LOVE Short-eared Owls even more than Snowies. 

And then there was yesterday afternoon. We went down to the Crossing as we often do...it's a lovely place and a great birding hot spot. Not surprisingly, what with the nice weather and all, it was busy with dog walkers, snowmobilers, and folks just taking in the sun.

There was a massive collection of gulls out on the gravel bar and I was chomping at the bit to get some photos to peruse before they flew. Gulls are hard, but enough patience in pouring over photos will sometimes find rarities. I like to find rarities.

Just as I hopped out of the car two fellows on the fanciest 4-wheelers I have ever seen bombed down the point across the river and the gulls blew out of there as if their tails were on fire. Looked like fun, although one of them drove right out into the river. (Kinda cold for that.)

Dagnabbit.

Anonymous buteo last night against the setting sun

However, a few gulls came up and landed on the water right by the car. I didn't have many good gull photos so I grabbed a few....looking through the camera made me realize that there was a while gull among the common jobs. I thought it was a Glaucous Gull, not super common but I have seen several already this year. Good shot though so I saved the pics.

Today when I was going through adding pictures to my bird list I realized that the bird just didn't look right. The long feathers at the ends of the wings, the primaries, not to be confused with the one in Nevada last night, were grey. Glaucous Gulls have white ones and Herring Gulls have black.

Not wanting to look like an idiot I posted it on What's this Bird, on Facebook, a resource I love, as second-guessing myself on bird IDs is one of my favorite hobbies.

Turns out that it WAS different. It was a Nelson's Gull, a hybrid between a Herring and a Glaucous Gull. How cool is that?

When you add yesterday's dancing deer, the fisher, the bobcat, and all the beauty of the long winter sunsets, I guess I shouldn't be complaining, should I?

And shhh....I am just whispering here but have you been noticing how the willow branches and the red osier dog wood and the poplar trees are beginning to glow with new life? I think it may soon be spring.....

Thanks for reading.

Nelson's Gull

Have fun, Deer

We were out on our usual Sunday morning bird quest...take Liz over to work, then drive around our favorite haunts until she is done....then bring her back home...

We stopped at Lyker's Pond to see what was shaking...nothing exciting, a few crows, first of the year Red-winged Blackbirds, some jays.....

We sat for a minute then I turned to open the car door and out on the ice were five deer. Or maybe six. I was so enthralled by their prancing and play that I plumb forgot to count them.

They were unconcerned by our presence and only left when they got bored. Then they flung up their tails and departed right vigorously.


A good time had by all.


 

Discovering Winter

Most of my life I have hated the season of cold and snow. To be fair, from the time I was in 3rd grade I have usually lived in cold houses. Most of them were heated with inadequate wood or coal stoves. Often there was a shortage of fuel for same. Brrr......

However, birding has changed all that.

Shivering is still not a favorite and we still do a certain amount of it, what with living in this beast of a house built for summer, and heating with an outdoor wood stove.

Now though, I am awake to the blinding beauty of the season. If you get a chance, drive in the country on a clear day, dusk or dawn. Besides the opportunity to find exciting birds...last night we think we spotted two Short-eared Owls!!!!...the colors are heart-stopping.

Colors that don't have names yet surround the horizons.

Snow is said to be white but, early and late, colors reflected by the low-hanging sun stain it with a magical palette that defies such a simple description.

Stubble from last year's corn and grasses punctuate that snowy canvas in shades of pure, rich gold.

The rarely seen Pink-butted Goose, not
to be confused with the better-known Pink-footed Goose.
Nothing like sunrise.....

I won't say that I love winter now....see above about shivering....and after all, it isn't spring is it?

But I have warm clothes...a lot of them, hot water bottles for the worst days....and most days I just can't wait to get out in winter. 

And as a bonus-no ticks!

Another kind of winter fun

Brandy and the Squeegee Men

Brandy and the Chevy

He was a rescue in the truest sense of the word, about to be put down the very day I persuaded my boss to let me have him. 

I guess he rescued me as well. Every college girl should have a fierce yellow dog to keep her safe from harm.

The wild little fellow had been brought into the animal hospital where I worked with claims that he had "fallen down the stairs."

Kicked down the stairs was more like it. The veterinarian I worked for put a pin in his broken leg, put all the other broken, twisted pieces back together and sent for the owners. They never returned. The teenaged pup was messy and barky and kind of snappy so his fate was sealed. Until I begged so long and hard to have him.

He was one of the best two dogs I ever had. I took him everywhere I went, college, visiting, out at night, every single place. He was not popular with some, beloved by others. Stole ham, learned to climb ladders, dig when and where directed, and tops in his obedience class. He never saw a ball, stick, or Frisbee he didn't want to chase. 

He would not let anyone he didn't know touch me or my truck. To reach for the door handle was to trigger a display of gnashing teeth and fierce snarling and slavering at the window that would back pretty much anyone right straight down. Came in handy now and then.

It was the early 70s. My Chevy pick up was the best vehicle among us so off we went to the Big Apple to buy cheap textbooks.

There is not much about that city that appeals to me and in those years it was even more lawless than now. Scary stuff was commonplace.

Cramped in traffic on a back block off the mainstream streets, the truck was overrun by squeegee men. They climbed all over all the cars and trucks, grinning and slapping dirty rags on windshields. Being a child of the boondocks I was terrified. The boys were just disgruntled, because, yeah, there were quite a few of us crammed in that cab. College kids and all, you know.

Did I mention that I was a strong proponent of love me, love my dog? And that he agreed? Thus even NYC was his oyster. 

A leering face loomed over our window as a nasty rag slopped some nameless substance across it. Several tattered men clambered up on the truck from all sides. We were stopped whether we wanted to be or not. Yikes!

Up from the floor, where he had been stuffed among the feet, came a screaming  fur missile. 

Teeth slammed the inside of the windshield, nom, nom, nom, while paws scrabbled for purchase on the dash. Drool flew.

It was awesome. He was only a 35-pound fluffy yellow mutt, but Brandy was a mighty fierce boy. 

Squeegee men tumbled off the truck as if they had received a terrible shock.

Which I suppose they had.

We grabbed a green light and hustled to Barnes and Noble, where we parked illegally and bought a lot of books. 

I won't call it fun exactly but it sure was an adventure.

And every time I see a headline about the new onslaught of unwanted car detailers these days, I remember that bright golden dog. What a good boi he was. 

Let's all Point and Laugh..or maybe just Cry.....

Widely divergent

When I was a yearling a president was elected who said, "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."

At that period in my life I thought that my paternal grandfather was the president, partly because his first and second names were Theodore and Roosevelt and partly because he looked a lot like the gentleman responsible for the above quote. (I guess the only resemblance was that they were both bald, but hey, I was a little kid.) Plus he was a pretty important man in my life, always willing to let me sit on his lap at the kitchen table while he drew stick horses for me. Oh, how I loved that guy.

Nowadays, however, the folks who feed the world....literally feed the world...plus grow fiber, care for land, livestock, families, and communities, are not quite as well considered by those in power.

Check out the contrast between the first quote and this one, from a surging candidate in the current presidential race.


"I could teach anybody, even people in this room no offense intended, to be a farmer. It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.”


I could point out soil testing, seed varieties, weather, excess water, lack of water, fertilizers, weed control, and a daunting number of other factors involved in growing corn. Then there are the other myriad crops and animals raised by farmers and pests and plagues and problems that they face each day. Plus functioning in a global economy that places little value on their efforts.


We don't have land grant colleges for nothing. Farming is complicated and becoming ever more so.


For 20 points and a virtual Willkie button, who was responsible for these widely divergent statements about farming?

And here is a virtual Willkie button
sent to me by my mother.
Thanks, Mom!