Trying Hard

Bird of the week...after the Blue-headed Vireo of course.
This is the fifth Lincoln's Sparrow I have seen this year, but none of the others sat still for the camera

To remain cheerful.....but it seems as if "it" never stops. You know what I mean. Disaster after disaster, bad news heaped on more of the same, day after day, week after week.

Liz and I were sitting here at the kitchen table with Peg and heard some odd noises from just west of the house. Mentioned them...thought it was roadwork. 

But no, it was a horrible accident on the Thruway. The boss saw the smoke and flames from Rotterdam and thought it was our house. Then he saw what had actually happened when he got home and came up the barn driveway. This is happening way too often these days....seems as if every week there is another bad accident just in the few miles between Canajoharie and Amsterdam.

Anyhow, I really need to get something done, even if it's wrong, so I will leave you with some things I've seen around the farm this week. Take care of you!

Waiting for the Sun

The Farm Side for the week is done and submitted, a mixed bag of signs of fall, omens for winter, and corn harvest news. 

It is still pretty foggy and not so very light out yet.

However, as soon as the sun clears the fog the least little bit I am out of here. Yesterday, after an early week so busy there was little time to get out and look around, I spent around a half an hour birding as hard as I could.

Oddly, in all seasons, the area right around the house yields the greatest number of species almost every time I go outdoors. That is understandable in winter when the feeders bring the birds in, but seems weird this time of year. What is it about the hedgerow right in front of the house that brings the warblers and fall sparrows in when they are so much less common out on the hill....where there are similar hedgerows everywhere? Nine or ten species in fifty feet or so.

A friendly Eastern Phoebe, one of many that live around our buildings

I don't know but yesterday there were so many small birds in the short stretch directly across the driveway from the house that I literally didn't know where to look. While I was following a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, hoping for a photo, a different bird popped into view. Despite never having seen one before I knew that it was a Blue-headed Vireo, a life bird for me, but one that is quite distinctly marked compared to many fall visitors.

I was happy all day on the strength of it, despite our failure to find Ring-necked Pheasants during a long drive later in the day. After this week's events we all needed some happy.

And so today, as soon as the light makes it feasible, I'll be out there again. Wish me luck.

The only pheasants we found....

Just Because

They were beautiful against the fall colors.

All-County Haircut

Or should I say corn cut? All over our county, and indeed the state, corn is being harvested apace. Hay too. Today we saw many methods, from the most modern to the not so modern.

One thing they all had in common was hurry. The weather is still good, the ground is fairly dry, and a lot of the crop is ready. I wish them all the best whether they are driving a giant self-propelled chopper or a team of mules.

Farmers face many of the same challenges no matter how big or small the scale of their operations. 

This Weekend

Our boy and his lovely girlfriend came home...which in itself was delightful. Made me really happy. They went right out for a rainy Saturday, enjoying our woods and fields and just getting out on the land after too much time in big cities here and there. Then Sunday they took me up to Montezuma for a spin around the wildlife drive.

Great Egret Photo by Alan

Finally got Northern Shovelers, which have been eluding me all year, and as we turned the next to the last corner we were treated to a ballet of fifty or so Great Egrets capering among a motley crew of ducks and shorebirds.

Also by Alan

They were literally breathtaking and gasp-and-point inducing. I suppose it is trite to love these huge, clumsy, yet elegant and graceful at the same time, white-feathered birds, but I always get excited when I see one. Seeing that many all at once was wonderful.

Thanks for a great day, kids. I loved it.

Will She or Won't She?

Freeze that is. Only the One who controls it all knows for sure. 

Thus decisions must be made. Many of the tender house plants have been brought indoors already. Most of the heirlooms, many of the prettier geraniums, especially Grandma Peggy's old doubles and the ones I've grown from seed over the years. The big jade has been sacrificed, beheaded, uprooted, all in and all done. I was sick of it tipping over its pot and taking up half the living room. I can get a new one going in case I feel like I need a plant with fifty pounds of greenery.

Maybe we skate by at 33 as we already have a couple of times. Hard to say, but there is a frost advisory for tonight, then a stretch of nicer weather to come. Guess I will be hauling plants in and covering the big tomato and the sprawling little purple ones, and whatever else can't come indoors.

I sure hope we don't lose the Heavenly Blue morning glories. No way to protect them and there were EIGHTEEN blossoms yesterday. 18! So pretty.

By way of our little almanac, I spotted the first two winter sparrow species yesterday. In the morning a White-throated Sparrow was hanging out with a bunch of Song Sparrows over behind the barn. Late in the afternoon, a White-crowned Sparrow bopped into the bushes with another little flock of same right in front of the house.

Seems as if Song Sparrows form nuclei, around which less common sparrows gather. All through late summer a single Field Sparrow hung around with the same little SOSP flock behind the barn. Before they left, the very loud chirping Indigo Buntings seemed to serve in same manner, particularly attracting migrating warblers to the good eating spots. 

It is quite a thing to be outdoors these days, what with the colors changing, fall flowers blooming, insects racing to be ready for the silence, and the magical flux of passing migratory birds. I love it. 

Somewhere out There

It has been hot over the past week or so....felt like the summer we never had. It made it hard to drag myself out on the hills, but I walked as much as I could every day.

Today we awoke to cooling temperatures and as the morning advanced a cool breeze sprang up and it became almost cold.

And just like that Fall arrived.

You can see it. The sky is so bright you can barely look up. Leaves are just beginning to change down here in the valley, but the Virginia Creeper and Staghorn Sumac are waving flags as red as Rudolph's nose.

You can hear it. Swish as leaves fly by. The flap, flap, flap, of the hay wagon canvas, whipping in the breeze. And overhead wild and wonderful beagle barking as the geese pass east and west and out of sight.

And you can smell it. Ice cold air, soft, warm ponies, drying leaves, a faint tinge of ripening apples, and under it all, the tiniest hint of wood smoke....that is autumn right there.

Happy Birthday, Amber

Thud

Leaves from the box elders fall with a rustle or even a rattle if the wind is blowing.

I can't wait for mulberry drop when all the leaves from all our trees rain down over just a few hours like a green and golden waterfall.

However the leaves from the cottonwood by the driveway clunk down, thud, thud, thud like a herd of ponies on the prowl. 

A Race

It's been a race between the blue morning glories and the first frost this fall. Everything has been so late all year. The flowers are no exception. 

Then a certain rooster, which seems to have finally disappeared somewhere, came up every single day and dug the seeds out where I plant them under the bird arbor. He cleared out most of the scarlet runner beans too, but I plant some in a barrel near the arbor so we got at least a few of those.

In desperation I planted a couple of seeds in a hanging basket on the front porch and guess what! One flower the day we went up north...missed that one, as it was melted by the time we got home.....and SIX yesterday.

Yay.

Planting in the basket worked great. I put some other sorts in there last year and they thrived too, but this year, just the pale blue traditional variety...I like them best. With dark blue lobelia in the basket too, it was nice all summer even before the morning glories.

Next year....four baskets!

Self Portrait

Lately Peggy has been using her magic wand to turn me into either a dragon or a frog.....guess which it is today......

Off to school...a little sleepy, but she loves it