What is this Stuff?

Anybody know?

Thanks in advance.....

Almanac

Not one of our hay fields, but it might as well be

Yesterday I was watching the resident Red-tailed Hawk pair with their youngster. The adults slowly spiraled higher and higher into the sky with the young one following them, keening wildly, feed me, feed me, feeeeeeeed meeeeee......

Suddenly a large..... and I do mean large...... raptor flew into view over the neighbor's tree. I could not believe my eyes. It was an Osprey, flying just at treetop level and peering slowly back and forth at the ground. I know it's been wet but WOW! What kind of fish was it looking for in our yards and fields I wonder....

It was low enough and close enough for me to look right into its bright yellow eyes. Simply stunning.

Not an Osprey....just a gull

Meanwhile, up in the hay field where the boss was tedding some sadly doomed hay the Red-tails were hunting...and catching...baby rabbits. Hooray for them!

That is not the only hunting going on.

All week long I've been watching a Grey Catbird eating ground bees at a nest out by the Mugo Pine. We are much plagued by these aggressive little horrors and we watch carefully for their nest locations. Liz once ended up making an emergency trip to the hospital when a mare she was riding put her nose in a nest we hadn't seen......

This particular nest seemed busy one day and nearly deserted a few days later..... 

The catbird showed me why, spending ages perched right on the bare ground where the tunnel is, snapping up bees one after another. He comes back several times a day to eat more and more of them. I hope he finds the nests along the driveway....

Speaking of hay, I just don't know how we are going to put up enough baled hay for our own stock let alone to sell. The daily weather forecast is about as accurate as a fortune teller on the back lot at a third rate circus. The boss had some beautiful stuff mowed, tedded, and ready to rake and bale for today, then we got an ungodly downpour yesterday. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that Osprey found a carp or two right on the lawn....

It is getting worrisome.

Research is Fun

Well, sometimes it is. Other times it is a misery and I have to read way too many articles about things I really don't want to know.

However, while working on next week's Farm Side, I stumbled upon this lovely, illustrated list of NY wildflowers.

I stink at plants. I can remember the undertail patterns of warblers I have never seen and most likely never will, and the pedigrees and registered names of cows that died decades ago, but that fern along the foundation...not so much. I found the list only because I had to hunt up the name of the big lily in the center of the flower garden for a couple paragraphs about lily leaf beetles. Yeah, it's pretty bad. I read this lovely blog whenever there is a new post, but I just don't remember all that I would like to about plants and flowers.

With the plant list bookmarked it looks as if I will have a quick, handy, reference to help me remember the stuff that grows all over the place around here. Or at least I hope so. 

A Palm Warbler, right here on the farm.
Quite an appetite for such a little bird

Here is a little teaser from the Farm Side for next week, which is pretty wide-ranging and broad based. 

"I learned something amazing about my other favorite pastime this week as well. Mom and dad gave me a one-hundred-year-old bird book, The Warblers of North America. In one chapter a contributing author described one of the many woods warblers, in this case a Palm Warbler he was watching, eating forty to sixty insects per minute for four hours. He extrapolated that it ate over 9,500 bugs over that time.

Imagine what a flock of such warblers, some of which nest around here, with others that migrate through in spring and fall, do to control pests in our woodlots and backyards."

eBird Tracker Feature

Yesterday the eBird app on my phone, which I have come to use most of the time when counting birds, updated.

Now it tracks the distance you travel, rather than leaving you to estimate how far you walked or drove. I have only used it twice so far, last night when I hiked up in the fields to count since the boss was over at the speedway at the races, and this morning hiking around doing, down the driveway for warblers, to the barn, and chores and such.

I discovered that I was fairly accurate in estimating the long walks...I always counted the hike to the 30-acre lot and back as a mile and a half. Turns out it is 1.77 miles. Close enough.

However, my normal morning perambulations I estimated at .3 mile to .5 mile depending on what I did. Imagine my amazement when a normal morning's walking with birdies and doggies turned out to encompass a whopping 2.85 miles.

Who knew? I think I am going to like this feature.

Tumble Wheel

I saw a Chimney Swift go down the old chimney the other night when I was out with the dogs.

No big deal right? Chimney? Bird that lives there? To be expected.

However for the first time in decades we have not heard swift activity in that chimney at all this summer. Normally as we sit in the kitchen we can hear nestlings begging, and gentle evening twittering as roosting begins when the sun goes down.

This year....nothing....literally not a peep. It's been a great year for swifts and I have counted twenty or so at a time at Stewart's in Fonda, just none in our chimney.

Then a trim, no nonsense, bird spiraled out of the sky the other night, pinwheeled like a bright lawn ornament, and tumbled between the bricks. Hey presto, now you see him, now you don't.

I'm a cheap date. It made my day.

A Mourning Dove does dusk

Focus

Skreeeee.....

Doesn't look much like a 'baby" does he?

Busy day yesterday, with hay for the boss to bale, broken elevator to fix, hay to unload, and the usual gamut of stuff to do.

However, I found time to investigate the gull-like, three-note screaming coming from the bottom of the driveway for hours on end. It sounded just like a Red-tailed Hawk, but was stationary. Usually when you hear a hawk cry, the sound moves around as the bird is circling overhead. (Of course I found time; it's what I do. lol)

I walked up to the edge of the old horse pasture but couldn't see it. As I said, we were busy so it was a while before I could try going down the driveway itself to look for the screamer....eventually I did however. There it was, in the neighbors' blue spruce tree...it was indeed a Red-tailed Hawk, but it was just sitting there.

And sitting there.

And sitting there. I wondered if it was stuck somehow, but then it flew.

Hmm....

Later the puzzle was solved. The photos showed pale eyes...a mark of a juvenile bird.

Two adults circling overhead offered another clue...this was evidently a youngster who wanted his mommy and daddy. I was pretty tickled to find him and to know that our local Red Tailed pair had nested successfully nearby this year. 

I do some birding from the sitting porch most days in summer

Almanac the August Blues

Indigo Bunting, blue boy of summer

Summer is winding down, even though the outdoors is still beautiful, wonderful, downright delicious......and there are blueberries. It is impossible to miss the shortening days and the south-trending sunrises and sunsets though. However, the weather is phenomenal right now. It just doesn't get any better than this....

"Sunken Horse"...or, Amish on the bike path

This morning at five a bat was fluttering around my head while I walked dogs and counted the dawn chorus. (Four Northern Cardinals, Six American Robins, two Carolina Wrens and a Song Sparrow.) It got friendly enough that I went back indoors. I had writing chores anyhow and, although I am not afraid of bats, it didn't need to get THAT close. I could hear it flappy, flappy, flapping, wings all slapping, and twittery-chirping like mad.

Yeah.....too close.

After being among the missing for weeks, the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks have appeared in the apple tree again. There are so many Indigo Buntings singing it takes some careful listening to count them. Saw the first House Wren of the year for the farm yesterday when I walked up back to check on the boss who was baling. We have seen them other places, but not here for some reason.

Meanwhile, haying season has been accompanied by the usual plague of breakdowns. The bale thrower has been causing problems, a universal on the mower met its match, and last night, as the boss was unloading the next-to-last load of hay of the day, the elevator clogged. It was too dark to see to fix it so that is a job for this morning.

This pale touch-me-not is nearly twice as tall as I am!

Ag Blogs

Here is a nice list of blogs dedicated to food and agricultural topics from Agriculture Proud.

Almanac

The constant rain has spawned an infinite number of mosquitoes, large and small. I forgot to apply insect repellent to myself and the pups this morning with regrettable consequences. Sure makes things grow though. The yard is a jungle even with Jade mowing whenever the rain lets up.

The Carolina Wrens that nested at the cow barn have found the feeders and have brought their collective sense of humor along for the show. Several scolded frantically as I changed Finn's water and cleaned his run.

Then one dive bombed a chipmunk and drove it right across the yard. That cheering you heard was me....little beggars, tramps and thieves, that tamias clan. The wrens are nearly as bold around me as the chickadees are and the latter barely fly from me. In fact if the feeders aren't full they don't fly at all, preferring to let me know in no uncertain terms that I have work to do. The wrens cuss me out every time I set foot outdoors but they don't fly far.

Alas, the local baseball season is winding down, but those among us with the patience to sit among the mosquitoes under the lights have enjoyed a good number of ball games this season. (Although I love baseball I am not included in that number. ) Peggy took in her very first game last night courtesy of Uncle Scott. I can't wait to hear the deets.

Meanwhile, although it is still high summer, migration is beginning. Alegedly only shorebirds so far, but with the spreading out of young from their families we are seeing a lot of birds....that is if I am willing to brave the ticks and skeeters. Sometimes I am....

All summer long, we in the not-as-Great-as-usual Northeast have sought a way to send rain to our dear friends in western drought and fire stricken regions. Last week a Facebook friend from South Dakota shared the video below. It is one of my favorite songs anyhow, and has been since Toto released it in 82. In fact I have it on my other computer which is out for repair. It is going back on my phone as soon as I can access all those files.....

Anyhow, this version is phenomenal all on its own, and thank you Carolyn for giving me something amazing to play on the endless juke box in the back of my head. I have played this video every day since you shared it, often more than once.....and it provides something much more tasteful than hearing jingles from kids' shows in my head day and night.

But the best part is that it contains lots and lots and lots of rain. I am sending it out in hopes that it works for all of you who are suffering the lack of water. Do turn up your sound to capture all of the rain.....

Wild

About that Hay

Our two big mows look much like the one in the video

A reader shared this nice video of how baled hay is made in the comments the other day. It is so well done that I want to make sure it is out here where everyone can see it. Well worth the three minutes it will take to watch it. 

Hand-hewn beams in the cow barn mow.

The Heifer Mow

Bull

We were driving along up on Fiery Hill when the boss exclaimed, "I don't believe it, that's a dead cow in the ditch!"

"What? Really......I didn't see it."

We turned around to check it out. When we got there though its tail was flapping.

It was a Jersey bull, chained to the guard rail with no food or water anywhere nearby. It was also quite some distance from any barn or building, just down the road from his late grandfather's old farm, but all by its loneself.

Liz noticed that he had injured his leg on the chain, which is probably why he was lying flat out when the boss saw him. Cows usually don't.

He thought about turning it in to somebody, but didn't really know if it is illegal to tie a bull to the guard rail and leave it. We still could I guess. I am sure he hasn't been moved in a while and probably isn't going to be.

This is a lot of bull any way you look at it.. .There was certainly nothing to stop the animal from hopping over the rail, which wasn't very high at all, so he could be a danger to passersby. He doesn't look too awfully comfortable either.

Encore

Since the rain just won't quit and it's still too wet to even get on the fields to mow more to get rained on and too wet to get the gravel back up the hill and onto the driveway we went birding.

It was plumb rewarding. Got a Great Egret right up the road a couple of miles. We saw dozens up at Montezuma Sunday, but they are scarce on the ground down here.