Waiting for LIght

This is Becky's photo of the doll she crocheted for the fair,
which she gave to Peggy when it came home.

Oh, the sun is up and all...and for a change there is some sun....but it is too foggy to tell a House Sparrow from a rooster, except that the latter is crowing his head off. So I'm waiting.

The fog will burn off soon enough as the sun creeps over the trees to the east. Then it's out for a little hide-and-seek with warblers.

I thought of my dear friend from Ohio yesterday as a little Wilson's Warbler came cheerfully out of the brush to inspect me..... thoroughly. What a delightful little fellow, yellow as a buttercup with a small black cap on the very top of his head. He didn't leave until I tried to raise the camera.

Warblers are about the most elusive birds you could imagine, except for Wilson's, Yellow-rumped (sometimes) and Common Yellowthroats. Those three will come right out of the bushes and hang around looking at you while you look at them. It is so companionable. Every fall some Wilson's or other will pop out and check me over, for all the world like an emissary from my dear friend. So, Cathy, if you sent him...thank you....

Meanwhile, it is impossible not to worry...a lot...over dear friends and close family who are in harms way with the terrible storms and fires. I feel kind of guilty planning a walk out on the land while people I love are racing for safety or battening down for the big wind, or gasping for air out west. Indeed even here in Eastern NY we are all sneezing and wheezing, I believe from the smoke from those Hell fires out west. 

Peggy's first day of pre-school today at Mom's Morning Out in Fonda is today. Becky and Alan both attended there and had a wonderful experience and lots of fun. We are all wondering if they still have the big wooden barn Ralph and I built and Liz donated....we built her another one, of course. That one is in the living room right now, full of horses and such....

I Hope

Yellow-rumped Warbler from Cape May...photo by Alan

You aren't getting tired of birds. I'm sure not!

I was just getting ready to take some laundry upstairs to hang it up when I glanced outside.

The yard was full of warblers. I have been seeing a few, but these were everywhere. Quickly saw the first two Wilson's of the year and a Magnolia, and then all these other ones that wouldn't hold still while I tried to ID them. A fat green one. A brown one with a cap...probably a Palm, but darting in and out among the dead vines on the barn too fast for me to follow. Probably another Blue-winged, but too far away to be sure. And lots that were just blurs behind leaves, too far, too fast, too dark out.....

It was like Cape May, only with more than one kind of warbler. I sure like this. Now if only I knew what the fat green one was....

American Redstart from earlier this year

For Ellie

My friend Ellie in Florida has asked me to ask you to include her state in your prayers. No problem with that. I love Florida. We have tons of  blog friends there and lots of dear family as well. Here's hoping Irma goes back out to sea or sends her waters where they are most needed... to put out the horrific fires.

Sanderling

From Ellie, "I am waiting to see if Irma gives us a direct hit or turns to the east. It is a cat 5 now and should be here by the week end. If it gets into the gulf it can turn all ways from Texas to Florida. Please add Florida to your prayer list. So many farmers here that stand to lose every thing if we get hit by a cat 5. I am on the highest elevation if the area so probably no flooding. If I flood the whole town will be under water by then. Prays please and asks your blogging friends for prayers for Florida."

Photos from our most recent trip to a state that I love

Not a Ford

I asked him to stand next to this Cottonwood for size reference....

Falcon that is, but rather TWO Peregrine Falcons at the Amsterdam Gateway Overlook Bridge. They were seen Saturday on a bird walk that I missed and we went down to see if we could find them this morning.

The light was questionable, the air heavy and full of a sense of the storms this afternoon may bring. The boss is good to me though, and joined me in a walk all the way from the Port Jackson boat launch to the east end of the park.

It was fun and we saw some birds here and there, but nothing special. Still a good morning walking out for birds is a good morning and that is all there is to it. By the band shell thingamabob the boss sat down on a convenient bench. Once I got done running around looking at Song Sparrows I joined him.

We talked and rested from our walk. Suddenly an unfamiliar cry came from just across the river. Two duck-sized birds were racing by, under the bridge and away. Two Peregrines! Just the birds we had come to see. One was carrying a small prey creature, looked kind of fish-like although it was probably a bird. It was grey anyhow.

Don't know why they are visiting Amsterdam, but wouldn't it be great if they nest nearby next year? I saw a pair earlier this summer in NYC, and have even counted them over the farm a couple of times, but it was really neat to find them like that.

I Stepped Out

Into this eerie green and yellow light, hoping to somehow capture it on camera. (Fail) I am supposed to be working on the Farm Side, but some weeks it is a struggle even when I know what I want to say....this is one of those. (Fail again.)

As I opened the back porch door a Ruby-throated Hummingbird paused in mid-flight to inspect me....and stayed....and stayed.....almost within the door opening.

We contemplated each other, her bright fringe of white edges on her tail feathers glowing against the greeny-black of the mulberry trees. How apt to name these tiny birds after jewels. Even without the gleaming red gorget of the males, this little bird fairly burst with colors like diamonds and emeralds and bright obsidian. When she finally flew it was obviously reluctantly. She kept buzzing back at me.

I took down the feeder last week, as the nectar seemed to be spoiling too quickly, and with the plethora of flowers, the birds weren't visiting much anyhow.

She doesn't seem to hold any hard feelings though. Or maybe she just wanted me to go away so she could visit the bright red geranium hanging there by the back door......who knows....

Btw, I see as many hummers up in the fields and in my favorite warbler spot as I do down here near the house...maybe more...they are intrepid little creatures for sure. I'm going to miss them....

Little Brown Birds

Two little brown birds. Two different species

This one is an Indigo Bunting

And the one on the left is a House Sparrpw

They're everywhere, they're everywhere!

Carolina Wren,
This year's hatch I believe,
based on the little bit of yellow at the base of the bill, and its behavior,
 all begging baby flutter and very tame.

Song Sparrow, also a youngster. We seem to have pretty much all the
Song Sparrows in the world, gathered here at the farm,
and almost every one of them has a different feather pattern.
They drive me nuts.

Cold Enough

Common Yellowthroat, a favorite warbler, so confiding and friendly

To charm the feathers off the crickets. If you don't believe me, go out and check your yard. I'll bet not one single cricket has any feathers left. They are quiet too, stilled by the chill, or perhaps just embarrassed to be featherless and all.

First ripe tomato yesterday, with BLTs for the supper the result of that. Second crop of lettuce is ready as well, in a window box on the sitting porch, so that worked out pretty nicely.

Enough string beans to fill a shopping bag to overflowing have been frozen. Hopefully the frost will hold off so I can get a few more. Pulled out all the squash yesterday though. Squash mosaic virus doesn't affect the edibility of the fruit, but, my word they are ugly. It's a disease that is hard to avoid. It comes in on infected seed and lingers long in the soil Oh, well, I didn't really want to freeze squash anyhow.

Cold enough that I am washing and airing blankets for winter....

You should see the Black Walnut tree our friend gave me as a seedling that is planted down below the driveway. Just hanging with enough nuts to fill a hundred squirrels.

Every Box Elder tree is hung with enough samaras to bury a small car. The Winesap apple is burdened down with fruit, small, but in wild quantities. This may be its last year as it is splitting badly. Hey, Mappy, do you want to make cider again this fall? Any time after first frost those apples will be getting juicy.

One of my self-appointed daily tasks is to kick all the fallen fruit down the hill to the lower driveway where the chickens will find it and gobble it up. The hard, green and pink orbs are a menace to old fogies walking down the hill on the walkway under the tree, so I get rid of them. 

The kids did good at the fair with birds and crafts. Liz won both grand and reserve grand champion with the Call Ducks. I do love those silly birds and miss them now that they are over at the show. They are all noisy, Mallardy, splashy in their pool, and bathtub-toy-cute all at the same time. I get a giggle every time I walk past their coop and they announce my presence to the world.

Becky got blues with both the crochet projects she entered, a mermaid and a little Teddy horse, both cute and well done. She has come a long way for a woman who taught herself using YouTube videos. 

Cape May Observatory's migration radar photo. Wow!

Good birds of the week: Common Nighthawk right outside the living room window. Pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks soaring almost beyond reach of the naked eye over the old horse pasture. With binoculars I would see the white crescents in their wing tips that told me what they were. Magnolia Warbler on the feeder arbor eating spiders I think. Gave me a great view as it picked over an old deer skull hanging there. Another first for the farm.

I Wonder What the Weather Was

Sixty-six years ago today...

I wasn't there you see. Didn't make my first appearance until the following July.

 I've seen the wedding pictures many times though, mom, all slim and pretty, with her dark brown hair curling around her ears. Dad, tall, and blonde, and handsome. No doubt his bright blue eyes were gleaming.

Saying "I do" and meaning it, sixty-six years worth and still counting. Raising three kids who all turned out to be reasonably productive citizens and stayed out of jail and off the dole and all that stuff. A mechancal engineer/musician, a farmer/writer, and a professional driller and builder of important structures/farmer. Grandkids galore, all shapes and sizes, with the great grands coming along nicely now too. They still "do", dedicated to each other, together in all things, loving as they always have, standing the tests of time.

They were never stay-at-home folks....from starting an antique store, a book store that continues to this day, hunting, fishing, camping, Audubon, carving club, mineral collecting everywhere you could imagine, creating fine jewelry, wonderful paintings, stunning carvings, traveling the world in search of those Montgomery roots, and all those Scottish games, they were always busy and good at what they did. I feel pretty pale in comparison I'll tell you.

Congratulations mom and dad....You sure done good. Love you both with all my heart!

Reasons for not Posting

Year of the Dragon

I love the clicking clatter of their wings

Flies that is. We have never in our lives seen so many. There are thousands upon thousands of them, up in the fields, over by the barn, and here by the house.

A look up though the binoculars at a soaring Red-tailed Hawk reveals a dozen, laddered up to the sky between lens and bird. They can't be seen by the unaided eye, but they are there, hunting, always hunting. They fly in storied ranks before the sitting porch, bent on buggy dining.

Every single field is patrolled by a net of them, a deadly web of voracious appetites, devouring insects in untold numbers. 

I sat on a bale, watching the boss make hay the other day and saw them, jinking and jiving, grabbing beetles and skeeters and who knows what else. You could actually watch them swerve for an insect and then resume course.

Most of them are huge, front-end-heavy green things that never land long enough for me to even get a good look, let alone a photo. One flew right past my face revealing glowing golden eyes like some metallic monster machine. There are a handful of the ones photographed, but mostly the big greens. Do they hatch in the river I wonder....I have never seen anything like them.

***Update: I think the big greens are female and young Eastern Pondhawks (what a great name!) The males are blue and I have seen a few blue ones. How cool is that?

Harvey

Our valley in 2006. It was the same story then.....
people showing just how good they could be, helping each other

Thanks to Facebook I have been watching ordinary people perform acts of heroism that are the stuff epic movies are made from. Watching them graciously turn away thanks and praise and go back for another neighbor. And another. And another. Watching strangers save strangers and glad to do it.

Watching America. Because this is America, not some gang of rent-a-thugs making headlines by their sheer horribleness. You are America. I am America. We are better then those making news lately and if this doesn't show that what will?

Prayers for Texas......and good on all you people that I have come to "know" on Facebook, who are working hard there taking care of those in need. Thanks for what you do.

Not the way I would do it....

This bright and pretty pastoral scene met our eyes as we stopped at Bellinger's Orchard to buy a box of peaches....an activity I highly recommend by the way........mighty fine fruit that....

However the participants in this tableau also almost met our car. 

Head on. 

The horse pulling the cart either didn't like the pony being hauled behind or was just not well broken, so he was slatting around raising heck, all over the road. The pony took occasion to sit back against the lead rope now and then as well. It was downright interesting. Not the way I would do it....

However, they sure looked pretty in the mid-morning sun.

National Dog Day