I may have Mentioned

The Great Sacandaga on a calm day

One Particular

One of the sweet spots. Nothing here this year though

Trout ponds at Hale Creek

Trout pond overflow

Sunset in Mom and Dad's side yard

That I have a  ❤ for water light. There was plenty of it yesterday.

More on the Bird Count

A bad hair day in the swamps

We had perhaps the nicest weather ever seen on the count, and since it was after Christmas the traffic was not as bad as some years.

The most exciting birds we saw or heard, for me at least, were two Great Blue Herons Matt and Alan saw, a Brown Creeper Alan and Jen picked up in Gloversville, and a Carolina Wren heard singing "Tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle" loud enough to be heard over traffic in the Mayfield part of our area.

Matt's bluebirds

Oh, and the Bluebirds Matt got on perhaps my favorite bit of the area, Ashler Road. Sometimes Ashler is impassable, but this year it was hard and dry.

Other than that it was more large birds than small as the light was terrible for two-thirds of the day. it took real hard work to even be sure about a large flock of Goldfinches behind Mom and Dad's house early in the day. They weren't talking, so we had to peer really hard at them. I knew...and yet.....of course as soon as we were positive what we were seeing they began to call like crazy, "Che wink....che wink....."

Lots and lots of Crows. The ubiquitous Chickadees. Kegan has gotten as good an ear as you could ask for hearing the little guys. Many flocks of Canada Geese flying over. More ducks than is normal, including a good-sized flock of perhaps fourteen that flew right over the truck in the really dim light in the morning. I'm sure they were Mallards, but I didn't count them as such, not being able to see them well enough.

Ashler Road

Alan and Jen took some roads and Jen drove while he counted. They got a nice representation, plus that Creeper.

I only started keeping a total of all birds seen a couple of years ago, but this year's 1251 is certainly a respectable total, especially since we only saw a very few raptors, a handful of gulls, and not one single Robin, Cedar Waxwing, or any of a number of other normally counted birds.

A good day, and thanks to everyone who drove, made incredible chili for the starving hordes, peered through windows, and sang out for all those elusive garage eagles.

  

And an outboard motor in a motor tree

Johnstown Christmas Bird Count 2014

We saw domestic birds

Plastic birds..... this guy had me fooled until I put the binoculars on him

Drastic birds

A yellow pelican

And every single garage eagle and fake butterfly in the Town of Mayfield
At least there weren't any mailbox cardinals this year.

We also saw 1251 real birds....226 American crows, 2 White-breasted nuthatches.....etc.....etc.....

Because my Mother told me To

Pre Bird

Some birds before the birds.

The boss saw a huge wheel of gulls when he was down in town, so he ran home and got me and the camera to do what we could. 

It was pretty dark, so what I could do wasn't much, but there sure were a lot of them for this small inland village.

Merry Christmas

Plans

And so the plans are more or less made. A little north, a little Gulf Coast, hopefully a few beaches and a lot of birds. 

Alan just decided to go to Florida because he has some time off. And to take his mother and his slightly older sister along. I am nervous on one hand and utterly thrilled on the other.

Haven't been south at all since a spring break during the college years. Yeah, that long ago.

It's time.

Help

Probably taking a flying trip to Florida over New Years. Suggestions for good hotel or motel in safe area....maybe one night in northern part of state and one night in the southern.

Thanks, we are hoping to avoid particularly dangerous areas. Best advice on places to stay away from would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

Last Night was the Longest Night

Hay for sale

Or one of them, depending on who you ask. 

Amazingly, this means, that despite winter having officially arrived, days will now begin to lengthen.

This is good.

Been having a lot of fun researching the reason for placing oranges in the toes of Christmas stockings.

Very interesting. We always got oranges for Christmas when we were kids, great big things full of seeds that were hard for little hands to peel. We loved them anyhow, and I am still fond today.

elliek, can you help me with anything on how citrus greening has affected your family? I know you have mentioned it a few times, but I can't find the comments. Trying to tie oranges in Christmas stockings to the financial contribution of the citrus industry to the national economy. Thanks.

Sunday Stills....Walking in a Winter Wonderland

These are from last winter, as we are still all green and brown here, which, btw is just fine with me.....

For more Sunday Stills......

The Bandit

These photos don't do this grey squirrel justice. It was the biggest one I have ever seen.

It came in from the east yesterday, shouldering its way along like a bully in the hallway. When I headed out to do chores I threw some stones at it, as it was eating under the bird feeders. 

Missed by a mile. It looked at the stones, looked at me, and went on eating. When I stomped my feet at it, it finally sauntered slowly up the honey locust, casting scornful glances at me the while.

Then it peered at me from about two feet up the other side of the tree and waited for me to go away.

And then it hit the feeders.

Share a Little Happy

So many gloom-inducing things going on these days. None of them life-threatening, none of them blog worthy, all of them misery-inducing and joy killing.

So I will share with you this photo of some fabulous navel oranges, sent to us by kind and thoughtful family members who live in a state where there are oranges.

A little peach too

Thank you! They are as sweet as candy only better, and only a day and a half later I could no longer take this photo.....yeah, they are that good.

And meanwhile, back to misery. It appears that I must sign up for some form of health insurance or pay a substantial penalty....i guess even if you are not getting a tax return they keep track of your stuff and get you some way, somehow... At our income level, which is frequently more on the negative than positive side, there will probably be government involved, which as we all know, makes everything simpler and smoother and easier to understand.

That being said, I have tried several times to do this thing through the state exchange. The website crashes a lot and I can't equate farm tax documents, where everything is on different lines and has different names than regular ones, to the questions asked. 

Maybe I should just let them haul me to jail and get it over with. Bah humbug,

With a brand new "toy box"....er....muck bucket

Let's Get Rid of all Purebred Dogs, Except Pit Bulls from the Shelter

I hope folks who want to own a purebred Border Collie to do farm work or raise a litter of Dachshunds and sell them can get to the public hearing on the proposed animal cruelty law at the county tonight.

Because, it is just about to get real expensive to own a dog, or a couple of dogs, or to sell a few for pets or to breed anything.

Cats too. What are these people thinking!!!! 

Read about it here. I am on page 14 and going. Good grief!

First Bird

Mom's doing chores

The past few months I've been having fun noting the first bird I hear or see each day. In summer this often happened before I even crawled out of bed. The honey locust by the window is popular with passing avian creatures.

Sometimes I didn't know the call and raced downstairs to go out and look up....and usually miss whatever it was. More often than not though, it was some familiar flycatcher or the Carolina Wrens.

Now that it is winter, first bird doesn't usually occur until I have been up for hours. And then it is generally a Black-capped Chickadee or a Tufted Titmouse. Today it was a flight of Canada Geese.

I'm gonna help

Thinking about this, and working on a Farm Side about introducing Miss Peggy to the wonders of nature got me trying to remember what my first bird ever was.

And I can't. I suppose it might have been a House Sparrow on my Grandma Montgomery's lawn. They were called English Sparrows then, but by whatever name....we call them Sassenachs around here...they were ubiquitous pests just like today.

Could have been a Rock Pigeon. They were just pigeons then. Or maybe a Robin. I just don't remember, although many milestone birds stand out....the Barn Swallows in the barn at the house on 5S. Barn Owls ditto, the only Barn Owls I have ever seen. 

That Cardinal on Dad's feeder that really got me interested. The Anhinga in Georgia that puzzled us all day back in the 70s when I was lucky to have one well-worn field guide. I have a box full now, and read them like novels. The Great Grey Owl on the picnic table in Medicine Bow National Forest. I will always regret not having my glasses on yet when we saw that one.

But not the first bird.

Hey, Ma, I got this

 I wonder. What will Peggy's first bird be? I am going to make every effort to be sure she knows as many as possible. With all the feeders in the yard and the wild lands all around us, it ought to be a good one. If it isn't a pigeon or a Sassenach. 

Me 'n "My" Dog

We have had Daisy about a year and a half now. She came to us as a six-year-old, third-hand, hand-me-down, because she entertained herself during her free time by killing poultry and because I was kind of, sort of, maybe, ready for another dog.

Nick, the last of the three collies had died. Mike, Nick, and Gael, they taught me so much and gave me so much, and needed me so much.......I had been dogless for several months for the first time since I was a tiny kid. She needed a home. I needed a low-maintenance dog.

So she came. Life had made her independent. Well that and the whole hound thing....As long as she was fed 1/3 can of Pedigree minced dog food twice a day, walked on occasion, and had a soft bed, that was it for her. Oh, and the baby. Babies are hers and must be protected. The boss can't even speak loudly to Peggy in fun, without a little red dervish barking up a storm and pouncing at his feet.

Grown up people, meh, she was all generic dog. You could pet her. She would accept it. But she loves to run away and has a real handle on the whole selective deafness thing. She very obviously thinks Alan is all that and a bucket of rice but.....but she could get along fine without even him. 

For all those 17 months she has simply been her own dog.....which has been fine with me. Serving as a mere doggie valet after so many years of the intense connection between Border Collies and their person left me okay with just being the can opener driver.

And then....just lately....she began coming when I call her....and with such joie de vivre. Well, except for the times when I have to get Becky to yell for her. Voice of authority or something..... But sometimes at least, the red ears are flapping in the wind generated by her delight when she runs to me. Happy, happy, happy. Could be the Pedigree, but she started meeting me at the kitchen gate each morning too. Once when someone left the gate open she even met me at the bottom of the stairs.

When no one is looking I pet her and roll her around and ruffle her nose and ears.

And she play bites and goes cracker dog through the kitchen, racing round and around me with her toy Dachshund clamped firmly in her tiny jaws.

Do you suppose? Could it be? Has she decided to be "my" dog?

Maybe. I guess we'll see.

Then again, she is awful happy to go off to chores with Liz and to get in the woodshed after rodents.....

Sunday Stills, Sixth Anniversary....Pets

The kids' English Shepherd, Ren....
always worrying about coloring between the lines.

A big thank you to Ed, who has kept this going so long.

Mini Dachshund, Daisy, "Lines, what lines? We don't need no stinkin' lines

For more Sunday Stills......

"You want lines? Put out your arm and let me sharpen my claws.
I'll give you some lines."
Tangerine....

"Did you say my fur has lines?"
Kiwi the fluffy cat

"Oh, noes, let me get my brush, my gel, my styler."

"Did I get them all?"

It's the Coffee Stupid

Marv and his big sister Cinnamon

I was wondering this morning why I had so much energy. Went out to the barn early to help the boss and enjoyed every minute of it. Busy, busy, busy..... What was up with that? (BTW he got Marv in and put in the pen. Hopefully, he will stay in said pen and he and Bruce will be headed off to what our good friend up west of here calls the Hosking Career Counseling Center for Bovines on Sunday. Time to pay some bills and give Marv's poor mother a break.)

Tantalizing taste of summer

Anyhow, all that gumption was a puzzle to me. This time of year I tend to drag slowly through the days, forcing myself to do what I gotta, never accomplishing one extra iota.

Then I realized. Our boy got home from Washington DC this morning at two and when he came down later he made us coffee. REAL COFFEE.

Yep, that stuff would fuel the International Space Station for a week, never mind an old farmer. Yowsa!

And yowsa number two,...the boss found the feather-end of a broadhead arrow in the hay. Must have been left by some hunter who lost track of it and it got baled up in the hay. The boss had already fed the cows the hay when he found the arrow. Now we wonder where the head is. Hopefully not inside a cow.

Also been wondering where the feeder birds are. Normally they clean them out in hours...past couple of days not so much. Then Alan spotted what we thought was a Cooper's Hawk hanging out in front of the house.

A little later I was in the kitchen when a bird hit the window and slid down to the sill. Not an everyday thing as I have made an effort to place the feeders safely. I went out to check...a Tufted Titmouse was sitting on the sill, flew away just fine. And so did the Cooper's Hawk.

Ouch.

The girls are still doing pretty good