Bucolic

Kind of a motley seven-horse hitch we saw

Note the spanking on that big pinto.
We see this fellow working his horses all the time...since winter...and he is
always, always, having trouble with that one.

Go Out

I never can resist this arch...cottonwood fluff on the water there too

Go out young man! Or young woman! And old fogy as well.

Go out!

Take in all that is offered by this, one of the finest weeks of the year, outdoors-wise.

Riverbank Grapes came into bloom yesterday. Each breath of soft valley air is perfumed by their sweet magic. How such a tiny, plain, greenish blossom, the very definition of nondescript, can smell so amazing is a mystery to me, but it is a happy one.

Cottonwood trees are flinging fluff willy-nilly. It's like a snow storm of warm and fuzzy wafting gently down the valley. We crossed the river just eastof here last night and there were floating rafts half-a-mile long or more of seeds upon seeds and more seeds. It almost looked like winter when the ice is just beginning to form.

It is garden time, go, go, go. I love to grow things, but oh, my word, how quickly new work appears. The wind lifts the landscape fabric off the bean garden. More stones needed.

Pond gets low. More water needed. Green things that are not beans pop up in the bean rows, more weeding needed.

I was desirous of empty hanging baskets to fill with all the good things I started from seed this spring..(Thanks Linda Brown I am so excited about having Moon Flowers galore to plant for late summer blossoms.) However, I was plumb out of baskets and it seems you can't buy them anywhere anymore.

Then we took Mom and Dad some rhubarb yesterday. While we were there Dad gave me a nice bunch of them that he doesn't need anymore. Soon as I get a couple of other things done I'm gonna get planting.

Got to go out there! Hope you can too.

Slightly soggy Tree Swallow. Must have been dipping in the river

Ta Da

Birding yesterday, standing very still, and this girl walked right up to me

It is June. 

The cows went to pasture yesterday with much fanfare and foolishness on their parts. They are both 11 this year, fairly elderly for cows, and you might expect a certain level of decorum on that account.

Ha! 

Bama found a mound of dirt and after proinking  around like an antelope fell to her knees and dug in with her head. Grind grind grind. If she had horns they would be polished mighty  I'll tell you. 

Thankfully she doesn't so she got up, shook off the dust, and slalomed up the lane, slamming into things and bounding up and down like a fool. 

Moon is clumsier and not as silly, but she put on a nice show of a level trot, head held high and nostrils flared.

I haven't seen them yet this morning, but with the whole heifer pasture to graze and the bugs kinda bad, they are probably down in the heifer woods among the cherry trees. The wind always blows there, down in the fence corner, and the cows have always chosen that spot for a nice lie-in in summer time.

There is a salt block out where I can see it from the kitchen window, so they should come into view fairly often.

Hopefully.....

The Robins fledged yesterday too. You would think that would mean I could start to enjoy the sitting porch without feeling guilty. Alas, the House Wrens are incubating eggs now in the little decorative bird house, so my presence is most unwelcome still.

Battered shell notwithstanding...

This painted lady was laying eggs beside the road at Lykers Pond yesterday
Judging by the many roughly covered holes in the sand there, she is not alone
Eastern Painted Turtle

Slither In

Birding at the historic site boat launch, tip-toeing down to the river's edge through creepers, vines, and thistles....

Something moving a few feet out in the water....ripples shifting near a tiny stump....what is making that water move?

A thick, striped, body rolls over the stump and back into the water.

Oh, my word. These photos don't do its size justice, but this is a really big Northern Water Snake.

It swims right over to me, takes one look, then hastens away.

Maybe it likes polliwogs....

Little Lawn Zombie

The Common Grackle parents didn't seem too concerned with him though, no matter how he begged. They flew off and left him shortly after this.




The sound you hear in the background is Peggy playing with some glass discs on the table next to me.

Gobsmacked

Big bird of the day yesterday for the boss and me
A Common Gallinule.
They are just that up at Montezuma...common as cattails, but I had never seen one here in our county before

I was crazy excited to find a single Blackburnian Warbler down along our driveway a couple weeks ago...a life bird for me, a first for the farm, and a general big deal here at Northview.

"My" Blackburnian

Then this morning I read about some folks who went birding yesterday in Quebec....they saw over 28,000 of them! 

In one day.

You can see why Yellow-rumped Warblers are sometimes called
"Butterbutts".

Plus staggering thousands of other warblers and various migrants, passing by and landing around them. 72,000 Butterbutts, or Yellow-rumped Warblers!!! How can I type enough exclamation marks for such as that?!? We sometimes see 20 or 30 of them, and maybe saw a hundred at Cape May last year.....

Our other good find yesterday, an Orchard Oriole...not rare either, but
not always easy to come upon

This is the stuff dreams are made of...if you are a birder that is...and I do dream of birds all the time, although even in my dreams numbers like these would be unlikely....however, I am contemplating getting an enhanced driver's license so I can cross borders and get on planes. Both are highly unlikely for this farm girl hermit, but a sight like that might just tempt me.....

An Eastern Kingbird from yesterday. Not rare either, but so obliging about posing

Because I Could

I made Rhubarb Crisp yesterday. Recent coolish rains have made
the rhubarb plants go downright crazy. I had to get at the McDonald next to the bird feeder path in self defense. Alas we must move two of Grandpa Lachmayer's plants, as they are being strangled and chewed on where they are.

And because I picked way too much rhubarb (without even making a dent) I made Rhubarb Sauce as well

 I thank my favorite aunt for teaching me to do so, lo these many moons ago.

I had almost forgotten how amazing it is!

Remember

Even Closer

The Grey Ghost

Male Northern Harrier

And the little cutie...female Yellow Warbler gathering fluff for nest

An Unexpected Assortment

It is not unusual to find horses and cattle grazing together in this area. If the horse is a good boi and doesn't chase cows everyone seems to get along just fine.

However, this guy is a whole 'nother ball game. He seemed pretty happy but the fence, being only three strands of wire on T-posts with a little bit of electric didn't make me feel too secure.

We only paused for a moment for these photos.....

 

To the one who does it all

Happy Birthday.......wife and mother, farmer, worker for the disabled, daughter, farmer's daughter, relief milker of other people's cows in her spare time, and all around good person.....hope you have a great day, Liz! We love you!

And for your light reading for the day, another birthday long ago.....

Nearly June

American Goldfinch

Northern Waterthrush

A guy named Tom

And migration fun is almost over.....until fall, when those of them what travel head south for the winter again....

Secret Weapon

Montgomery County is heavily birded for such an ordinary, rural sort of place. Perhaps because of the river or the ease of access from the Thruway, the big guns visit often and bird hard. Then there are the local people, who simply know a lot more than I do.

It is a real challenge to keep up.

However, I have a secret weapon.

I am married to a guy who can spot an American Bittern, at sunset, from a car going 40 miles an hour, in a half-acre swamp clogged with cattails, having never seen one before, and just knowing from my description what one looked like in general.

Yeah, we were belting down a certain road we haunt, headed for our new favorite swamp stop, when he slammed on the brakes.

"What did you see, what did you see?" I exclaimed all excited.

"I think it was a White-headed Egret, you know, those birds you asked me to look for....."

As the car stopped, the bubbly Ke-honk Ke-honk of just such a bird, better known to me as a bittern, rang out from right beside the road.

I clambered down off the edge of the road onto the border of the swamp for photos. So well camouflaged was the bird that I could see it but the camera couldn't.

However, eventually I got a few acceptable photos.

A hen Wood Duck in a tree, something I had never seen before

The guy is amazing. Never saw the bird before, acted from a description..."the color of cattails, points the head straight up in the air...kinda stripey-like...." and he not only saw it, but spotted it while driving me off to hunt birds. When he was young and played ball, he says he could see which way the stitching on the baseball was turning when standing at bat, thus knowing just what pitch he was facing.

I think I'll keep him. He's worth at least a spotting scope any day. 

Chestnut-sided Warbler

What did I just see

In his element...liquid beaver at sunset

Got up extra early to fix my computer as it crashed last night while doing the huge new Windows update. While walking doggies I spotted some deer, maybe three or four, along the pasture behind the house.

No big news; we see them every day. However, one looked....well....funny. 

When finished with the doggos I went for the binoculars. She was straining hard, as if to have a fawn, her hocks stained with results of same. However, the odd shaped-ness of her was that a much larger, darker, doe was attending her during the process, licking her neck and ears, arching her neck over her back protectively, and seeming to encourage her.

I watched for a few minutes before most of the deer, including the dark doe, faded into the woods like the ball players in Field of Dreams. 

While I watched them go, the little pale doe...she was an unusually light tan color....simply vanished completely. Did she lie down in the tall grass? Hide in the bushes below the leaning tree?

I don't know.

This is going to be a busy day as we inter Ralph's aunt and do a lot of other related stuff. However, I will keep an eye on the pasture when I can. Just in case. 

Who knows what I might see out there today.

Caption This

Not a lot of small conventional dairies left around, but there are some.....