Porch for Rent....Cheep

White-throated Sparrow warming up on the back porch,
 sitting on the mop wringer, surround by a cattle weighing tape.

Remember the bird that landed on the boss's hat the other day? Yesterday Alan was working on getting us better heat, building a new fire and all, and going in and out a lot.

One trip through the porch yielded a White-throated Sparrow, which obligingly sat in the mop wringer for a moment while I took a photo, before he let it out the door. The porch is enclosed but we deliberately left a big crack open when we buttoned 'er up this fall, hoping that the wrens would partake.

And sunning outside the porch

Later I came in from walking the Daisy Doodlebop to find not one but two Carolina Wrens snuggling down for the night. One was up in a little tin pie pan the boss's late mom put up to discourage House Sparrows from nesting and one was under an old laundry basket on the floor.

Daisy was sure taken with that one. I had to drag her into the house! And Jonna, the red feeder you sent last year? It took a while, but the wrens come every morning to gobble orange suet balls contained therein. My heart rises each time I see one.

Thank you!

There are a lot of them around this winter, down from the far, far north

And thanks to Alan for cleaning all the wood and ashes and coals out of the stove, building an entire new fire, cutting load upon load of wood from various places, and washing the stove plenum.

The last was the deal maker. He jumped up last night, as we were all sitting around shivering in our blankies in the living room, grabbed his dad, and they ran downstairs and ran water through the thing. The boss had cleaned it with compressed air the other day, but evidently that was not sufficient.

The water did the trick. 

This morning the house was toasty...toasty I tell you. Warm enough not to wear my winter hat. Warm enough for no outdoor vests instead of two. Warm.....enough.....

It's grand. Wrens on the porch...and White-throated Sparrows are just icing on the cake.

Carry on...

If the Downy Woodpecker sees his shadow.......how much more winter?

Aunts and Uncles are Cool

Especially if you are a baby with a full complement of same living with you.

You get to read really good baby books, about kitties, and bunnies and firemen with hoses.

You get to snuggle on the living room floor and learn how to use the shape sorter barn.

Honorary uncles come to visit and hold you and bounce you and talk to you.

And around here you have a gramma and grandpa handy whenever you need one.

And that's not to mention mom and dad.

 All in one day. You gotta love it.

Cheerios

Are a big hit! That gooey stuff is banana. From a grandmother's point of view, one could use the cereal as structural material and the banana goo as Spackle or mortar. 

Sunday Stills....It's a Mistake

This might not be the worst photo I have ever taken, but no amount of bumped up contrast, cropping, or highlighting will save it. Believe it or not it was a Black-capped Chickadee that was trying to get something insecty and tasty out of a clump of gunk on a post in the little garden outside the back door.

For more Sunday Stills Fail Week Spectaculars.....

Back to Reality

New York style.....

First Bird

I was so excited about my potential first bird for 2015. We were staying in Orange Park Florida. Florida! The possibilities for ooh-ah birds were endless.

 Got up early so our boy could take us to Cracker Barrel for breakfast...which was fun by the way....I hadn't eaten there since the 70s....

I was careful in the motel parking lot not to look up. It was barely dawn, but the street lights might illuminate a European Starling or some such unwelcome creature. I wanted at least to wait for the Boat-tailed Grackles at Walmart, where we went to get some fruit to take home. (And yes, the grapefruit were fantastic.)

And then, we got to talking, I stopped paying attention and my birder habits kicked in. I accidentally glanced up and there it was....a plain old Rock Pigeon.

Dagnabbit! Later in the day we saw so many good ones and I have to accidentally spot a pigeon first. Oh, well, it was an exotic Florida pigeon at least.

Tallied up our annual farm count for 2014. We got 73 species, which although the highest yet was a disappointment. We missed so many common birds that I know were there. Never saw a Common Raven, few gulls, few ducks, lots of flycatchers though, which was cool.




73 different kinds of birds in one year, on one farm doesn't seem too shabby and I know there were ones i either didn't see or couldn't identify.

Now, over a week later than I should have, I am starting the 2015 count. Wish me luck.

Not Much to Say

Great Egret Cedar Key boat launch

It is just cold and our days are spent finding ways to make the house warmer. Yesterday this included putting bales of hay along one part of the foundation.

Black Vulture Manatee Springs

Getting some furnace tape and taping up still more cracks made by the big explosion a couple of years ago.

Black and Turkey Vultures

Moving the plenum that transfers the heat from hot water from the wood stove to hot air for the ducts to make a tighter seal.

Ever more plastic in ever more places. 

Stealing some pallets from calf stalls in the barn to get the stove cranking like it means it. No calves any more so no need for the pallets and they burn fiercely.

And an old pizza box bent to deflect warm air from the kitchen register into the actual kitchen as opposed to the ten-foot-high ceiling.

Not exciting at all, but necessary. Stay warm.  

A Bird on the Head

Summertime and the livin' was easy

Is worth two on the porch.

The Carolina Wrens seem to be enjoying the porch as much in winter as in summer. I hadn't seen them in a while, but night before last we heard the boss screaming when he went out to get the water taken care of.

"There's a bird on my head! Come get it off."

He went out wearing his big thick John Deere hat with the ear flaps and a bird landed on top, walked down to his neck, and started cruising around his ears.

Must have been the wren because they are in there every night now. In fact there is one there right now. They nested in Alan's old hard hat. Hopefully they don't have design's on the boss's winter hat.


  

Hatched and raised on the porch

I'm Not a Robot

I keep telling Blogger this, but it simply won't take my word for it.

I am cold though, and if you enjoy life here in the Great Northeast, no doubt you are too.

Not a good night for sleeping, as the house was just plain cold. We finally closed off my portal on the night sky...the window on the stair landing...with plastic yesterday. I will forego Orion and the passing moon for a little bit less of a draft.

Heck, let's be honest, Yesterday that draft would have made a four-master strike her sails in terror.

However, as I read the long range forecast I see that after a few more frigid ones we are returning to more bearable winter weather. From nine below, thirty degrees looks real good.

And meanwhile, as I go to sleep at night I remember white beaches and silver sands and skies full of birds that I am still looking up.

Muscovy Duck..I believe you can count these in Florida under some circumstances

I Blame the Moon

It was full the other night and is still fat and sassy. I swear it brings the cold right with it, just pours it out over the land, then walks away without a backward glance.

Walking in to Manatee Springs

Sure is pretty though. It rises in the evening right outside the big windows in the living room and sets just before dawn out by the heifer barn. Although I hate the cold I can't help but enjoy the difference it brings to the landscape.

Nothing is the same by moonlight, ever. Mundane objects take on an ethereal glow as if touched by distant magic. And the shadows....ah, the mysteries they conceal, and the wonder they reveal. 

Cormorant by Alan...that boy has steady hands, as this was very far away
Suwanee River

If it hadn't been so cold I might have gone outside with the camera, but instead I huddled under my spotted cow blankie..thank you Tawny....and shivered at the sight of it painting prisms on the icy frost on the window.

Manatee Springs

At least the house is pretty warm this morning. The boss brought down some different wood last night and it was warm when I got up and lots of hot water too. I shamelessly grabbed the first shower. Liz and Jade both fell on the ice yesterday with attendant damage, so nobody going out on that front....and Becky has a late start today...so it was mine....all mine......

Complete with Manatee

I hear that a lot of the country is going to join us in the deep freeze....ouch.......
stay warm good friends, and endure. Spring is coming.....it says here in fine print.....

Wild Winds

Sunrise over the St. John's River

We had 'em. And they were awful. When a house this big moves in the wind, you know it's a danged stiff breeze. No one slept too well, night before last.

The house was cold all day too as the stove didn't want to burn. One of those hang on and get it over with days.

Now we have come to dealing with a frozen milkhouse. We have an electric heater in there, but it is not efficient and is very expensive to run. So far this season the boss has instead shut off most of the water lines. Then each night he shuts all the water off in all the barns and then uses an air compressor to blow all the water from the cow barn over to the heifer barn and drains it there.

This has worked pretty good. We also fill the wash vats and several buckets with water and keep water in a big tub for the cows. However, this morning there was an ice shell in both vats, ice in the milkers, ice here, ice there, ice, ice everywhere. Guess we will have to turn the heater on today.

Ack.

And if we can't keep the pipeline thawed so we can milk, we may have to dry the girls off until they calve back and haul water for them to drink from the house. Have to see how it goes.

Jax Beach almost to ourselves

Anyhow.....

It sure makes Florida look good. We are slowly picking away at the mystery birds....yesterday's duck was a Gadwall, a lifer for me.

Didn't visit, what with no time and driving a Camaro and all, but it was a thrill just to drive past

More ID Questions

Is this a Horned Grebe?

And these? To us northerners they are LBBs....little brown birds,
 but I'll bet they are lifers if we knew their name.

Red Dhouldered Hawk?

Mystery Duck

For the pros from the Sunshine State.

Sunday Stills.....Legs

Great Egret?, White Ibis?

American Avocets?

Cedar Key Beach with legs

Tame brown bird on one leg, Not a this, not a that, but certainly a something or other

Florida showed us lots of legs....and lots of birdy conundrums too. Just when you think you know the local birds.....you move to a new local and know a lot fewer. So any Florida folks feel free to offer IDs or correct my mistakes.....thanks

For more Sunday Stills.......

Thank You Florida for Being Such Fun

And thank you Florida bloggers, you know who you are, for sharing your wonderful state with Alan and Becky and me for two amazing days. And for writing about the cool stuff so we knew where to go.

Virginia was for shivers

We went running up and down and back and forth, feet in the sand on both coasts in one day, Manatee Springs, Cedar Key and the Jax beaches where our family lives over two fast forward type days. Axis deer, feral hogs, unicorns...birds, more birds, still more birds.....I could have birded the Walmart parking lot and gone home happy.....more on that later....

World famous Cedar Key pelican

And thanks to the really friendly folks on the Cedar Key boat launch who made us feel so welcome and told us where to find the sights and critters.

To the nice trucker who saved us from the tire "gator" in the middle of the interstate.

To the manatees, giant fish, and monster turtles and did I mention birds?

To the people of Jacksonville Beach for sleeping in on New Year's Day, thus giving us the beach almost to ourselves.

Special thanks to the good folks who stayed home and fed Daisy and Elvis and the other critters and kept the home fires burning.

Most of all, more than my words can express, the biggest thanks to Alan for being the kind of kid who calls his mother up one night and says, "Let's go to Florida."

Could some kind Florida person help us with this gull?

And proceeds to take his mom and older sister on a wild tour of wild places (we spent a total of six dollars on tourist attractions; we wuz there for the birds and the sand and the wildlife) and takes care of them every mile. Pays for everything, food, gas, rooms to lay our weary heads after all that traveling and birding, and manateeing

 And the only time I was afraid on the Interstate was when other people created dangerous situations. Four days of safe, fun and happy, and so many exciting discoveries.

G̶r̶e̶a̶t̶  Boat tailed grackle.....(not a lifer....alas, but thanks for the ID

How lucky to have a kid who would drive nine states in 21 hours, all by his loneself, (as a six-speed Camaro on the highway of the world is not my thing)....just to get home in time to drive back to Washington DC tomorrow to work on Monday. I think we'll keep him.

There are tangelos...limes....and grapefruit too. 

  

Found on Jax beach, New Year's morning

Go here for lots more on manatee springs. Make sure to click "older posts" at the bottom of the first page for many more posts on Florida's springs.