Sunday Stills...100+

The old Johnstown Court House

This week's challenge is things over 100 years old. Not hard to do in this area, where the Revolution is as close as hundreds of historical sites everywhere you travel. We hunted up a couple. 

The weather vane

Johnson Hall

Home, sweet home, well over 100 years old

For more Sunday Stills......

A Dream come True

Since I met the boss and came back to this valley where some of the happiest times in my childhood were spent I have dreamed of being able to stand near the river and photograph the conventions of birds that occur in winter and spring.

Hoodie in good company

However, the busy traffic off the Thruway and the narrow, steep, river bank made doing so downright dangerous, if not illegal. I have spent plenty of time in the parking lots on the other side of the road, as have a number of other birders, if the people you see standing outside cars with binoculars and cameras is anything to go by. However, it is hard to see down into the river from there. 

This block of ice was speeding down the river in the racing current
the geese seemed to think they were all that and then some

Yesterday the snow was melted enough and the river opened up enough to go down to the new observation/boat docking spot the village put in and look at the hordes with binocs and camera....and yes, the old Bushnells with the broken eyepiece work just fine if you are the sort who only looks through one eye of binoculars anyhow.

Lesser Scaup (with hoodies)

There were swarms of geese, a nice assortment of gulls, and good ducks. Hooded Mergansers, Lesser Scaup, and such. I constantly see flocks of small, fast ducks hurtling up the river, but I am just not good enough on ducks to id them from up here at the house. They are just speedy brown blobs. It was nice to ID at least a couple.

I am hoping to get the boss to take me down at least once a week until they shut the dams to see what is hanging out down there. 

Good Friday

It is a good feeling to reflect on the reason for this day and the coming Sunday of Celebration, as the valley awakens from winter and the warming air seethes with birds and smells of earth and last year's leaves.

It is impossible not to feel great gratitude for all we have been given and so we do. 

Hamb and Jamb and Lamb a Lot

The young shepherdess

Devoted to their mama....these will not be dog sheep for sure

Notice the river in the far background...not even an open channel yet!

Daddy's little lamb

96 Days

The weather folks are saying that it has been that long since the temperature in our region hit fifty degrees. Even yesterday, with the bright, bright sun, migrants pouting in like a wave over the land, and all the beauty that we associate with spring, it didn't get anywhere near that mark.

A few minutes outside without a heavy coat was plenty enough for sure.

Today we are supposed to hit that fifty milestone. If the wind isn't blowing hard enough to defeat the finest clothespin that is going to feel pretty nice.

To give you an idea of how late our spring has been so far, the Daffodils that Grandma Peggy planted near the house foundation are nowhere to be seen! They normally pop out a few shoots as early as January and certainly by March they would be a couple inches high.

I cut my fingers digging down into the soft earth right at the corner of the house...nothing...

I hope they are still down there somewhere.

Kickin' Butts and Takin' Names

Geese coming down the valley, taken looking at our place from across the river
That white triangle below the distant mountain is our Hickory Tree Field on Seven County Hill

I didn't want to come in this morning when it was Daisy walking time. In fact I went back out while she had her breakfast to fill the feeders and linger.....and linger.....

It is deadline day, year end tax time, and not bird watching, sunrise slurping, gobble-up-the-outdoor-glory time.

However....malingering and procrastinating are arts I have long perfected.

As always, when I walked away from the feeder the local birds, plus all the blackbirds that have been arriving daily, descended on the stump feeder the boss made me and began to hoover up the seeds.

Down came one of the lovely male cardinals we have enjoyed all winter.

Wham! An LBB, that is little brown bird, slammed out of the tree and nailed him.

He left in a flashing flurry of ruffled feathers. The little brown stinker proceeded to peck and nip and stomp everything that came while I watched. The light wasn't the greatest, but from inside the house I finally saw that diagnostic stripey breast and central breast spot.

Song Sparrow. First of the year. Usually they stay all winter, but this year has been so bad I haven't seen one since freeze up. Several of them nest around the house and barnyard every summer, hosting far too many Brown-headed Cowbird young, alas.

I'll bet he figures this is HIS yard and everybody else better get outta town. Now if only a Carolina Wren would come.

Another look at our land from the hills above Fonda

The boss pointed out yesterday that it has been just a year since we sold the cows. I try not to think about it and to just live this new life of scrambling to pay taxes on the land and watching the birds come in and the baby grow.....and the new ventures the kids are taking up. 

Even the migrants have learned to wait for the feeder lady mornings..took them about a day to find out about it.

Lake Sturgeon in NY

Lake Sturgeon

Road trip Saturday to Bass Pro in Utica. They have the most impressive fish tank there, full of large, fat, sassy individuals of all sorts of native fish.

Alan suggested I take the camera into the store with me, and I was glad I did, as there were all sorts of opportunities to take pictures of all these cool fish.

I enjoyed the big catfish, the various trout and salmon, crappies, sunfish and other critters, but I was enthralled with the Lake Sturgeon. They are just not something you see every day.

I was raving about it to Al at the firearms counter and a nice young store employee began to tell me about the sturgeon in Onieda Lake. Of course they are protected, and he said that they have become so successful that it was hard not to accidentally catch them when jigging for walleye.

He also told us about modern stocking programs and how successful they had been.

It was fun to talk to this knowledgeable young man and to come home and learn about these interesting fish.

Sunday Stills...Rivers and Creeks

Most of the water around here has been frozen for a while, although things are beginning to open up a bit. The river is still largely ice-covered so we went down the other afternoon to take some pics of the converging water fowl in the open bit in town.

Do click and enlarge to see the many species of birds

There are many species of birds hanging around there. Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Canada Geese, Mallard Ducks, a single Lesser Scaup, Common Mergansers, many sorts of blackbirds and American Crows, Bald Eagles, and lots more.

It was dark and snowing, but the birds didn't care

We didn't see all of these, but there were a lot of them to see. It is as if there are two rivers this time of year...the river of water, mostly still iron clad in ice...and the river of birds, moving ever more north.

The one that got me

One of the geese left me a nice reminder not to stand under water fowl when they are flying by....had to race home to the washing machine. I guess you are truly a birder when you can get crapped on by a large goose and not really care all that much.

For more Sunday Stills.....

A river of ice, where the water seeps out of our slate banks

It's Lambing Season

And Northview has more bum lambs...which is fine with me. I like sheep.

Wanna share my bink?

These new babies are Scottish Blackface, and the cutest lambs I have ever seen. They look like stuffed toys...too cute to believe they are real.

At least it is warm enough for this lot to live in the barn. They have the softest wool you can imagine...and Peggy is wildly a fan.

When she went to the farm where they were born yesterday she went wild when she saw all the dogs and sheep. She is a farm girl for sure. 

Cat for size and scale comparison....the infamous Kiwi...you've heard of fruit bats?
She's a fruit cat.

Barn Babies

It is warm enough now for our Miss Peggy to visit the barn sometimes.

The babies in the brooder are getting big.

As are the lambs.

The air this morning is simply seething with birds, enough Red-winged Blackbirds to awaken me from a sound sleep just before dawn. Grackles. Brown-headed Cowbirds. 

Their calls are ringing all around even now. 

And the barnyard was full of Robins when I walked over.

Now if only they can get that weasel.

Check out this fox in the barnyard. Bold huh?

Divergent

Talking on the phone this morning to our boy who drove off to work a few hours ago. He was sitting in his car on a street in Harlem waiting for someone to open the gate to the job site. I was in my room waiting for morning....which was actually kinda, sorta, here.

He was struggling for air...I could hear him breathe...and we  talked about it. How thick it was and hard to breathe down there. Up here, with this cold rolling down from Canada, the air is like cold water or some amazing magical elixir that inspires and invigorates. I find myself dragging in great lungfuls when I take the doggy out or go for a short bird walk.

It's as if you can feel it all the way to your toes. 

I asked him what it looked like where he was, so he texted me a photo. Tall buildings, a scattering of construction equipment, Christmas trees of lights clustered here and there. 

I could hear buses grunting and puffing and he mentioned a blond in airplane pants walking past.

We talked about the Latin names of trees..don't know how we got on that...the fact that the sap is finally running I guess...and got through some Acers and Quercuses before the subject changed....

A few minutes later Daisy and I were outside the back door, with a mango sunrise popping over in the old horse pasture, oh so delightfully farther north than just last week. Inky outlines of the trees in the hedgerow stitched a pattern in dark and light against it.

Red-winged Blackbirds were singing for the first time this year. 

A Northern Cardinal pumped out a song so frantic I wondered if he ever stopped to draw a breath. And, oh that air...

It isn't quite nine degrees here....8.6 in fact. Down there it is 22. There the light comes from security fixtures, here from the rising sun. They have cruddy air, we have air so clean it squeaks, I swear. They have blonds; we have blond coyotes. Buses or bird song, take your pick.....

It's all NY, but what a divergence...and in much more than temperature.

I am grateful that we get to live on this side of the divide....

Happy Birthday

To my favorite Renaissance Man....

Love you, kiddo, hope you have a wonderful day and many, many more.....