We took to the Woods

The first thing i saw. I have been looking for this particular mum for ages
and look who has a yard full

We went visiting this weekend and had a high time. We were wined....literally...good stuff too....and dined. Ditto. We visited local attractions and I got to bird some new places, including this one.Now I have 24 Steuben County birds!

Couldn't decide which of these views from the backyard I liked best
so here are both

Anyhow, we had a nice weekend visiting two of our favorite folks in the world....thanks kids...

Grey Poupon

Swamp Sparrow

I have a heated hoodie by Milwaukee that Alan bought me about three years ago. I love it. Even with the heat function turned off it is warm, roomy, and super comfortable. It's also in the washing machine just now.

You see, it is the perfect shade of grey for going birding....kinda blends in with everything else this time of year.

Thus yesterday I did a wonderful long, long walk on the farm, way up to the Old Pasture Lot and Old Spreader Field.

There were about a bazillion birds, including hundreds at the spring in the field behind the barn, the place I call my "hot spot" since I have seen so many goodies there.

Just one of the many fruit bats European Starlings there

Everyone, particularly myriad robins and starlings, was feeding on vitis riparia.

A distant Eastern Bluebird

We have a lot of that festooning everything that will hold it upright, and even running along the ground. The trees at the spring are dark purple with a veritable cornucopia of so much fruit you could fill a silo were you so inclined.

Birds eating grapes and flying overhead resulted in the title of this post, which you will find above.

 I guess I should be glad they weren't eating grape shot or cannonballs. 

Princess Peggy

Spooky

A shrubbery down at McDonald's getting into the spirit of the season

Rustle, clatter, shatter, shake

What's doing that spooky sound a make?

Something in the bushes is scaring me away

Wish the sun would come up this Halloween day

Star shine, rain drops, the sky is all confused. 

Ain't gonna lie, 

It ain't got me enthused.

Been quite a morning, the sun is not yet up. 

Going back indoors to coffee in my cup.

Excuse the bad rhyme. Here's a better one. What a strange start it has been to the strangest day of the year. All that noise was mulberry leaves....leaving.....they seem to all fall down the same day every single year. I was out with Mack in the starlit hours before dawn and heard all these strange noises from the Mulberry Express area. I was sure it was a deer or at least some bunnies, but it was just leaves falling all in a bunch. I'll bet most of them will be down by tonight.

The stars were out bright when I got up, but by the time I went out to hang up laundry...still in the dark...it was freezing raining. Yippee Skippy. And now the forecast is for 80% rain. As if it hasn't rained enough already.

Update: a little later the sun peeked over the eastern horizon, pretty much on schedule. It treated us to a cloud ruffled red sky auguring who knows what in the way of weather, and to a gigantic, brilliant rainbow, stretched all the way across an orange sky to the west. Pretty awesome! Now back to your regular programming....more rain....

Couch Potato

Small farms grow all kinds of crops to stay above water.
With all this rain that's a lot of water.....

Could this gigantic thing be a couch potato?
Kinda looks like one after a long session of X-box and X-Men

But, no, thankfully it's just a puffball gone to spore. When I saw it while walking down from the field the other day I thought we had been invaded.

Imagine huge aliens that come down from space to occupy your couch, lose the remote down in the cushions, let the dogs up on the furniture, and eat all your snacks.

I'm glad this was just a regular fungus.

The Things you See

Our buddy the Bufflehead. He didn't see me leaning on a maple tree with the camera

Big Doin's

This is one of the river flats fields along the approach to
Schoharie Crossing. Mowed, conditioned, chopped and hauled away
over just a couple of hours

The Little Canna that Could

If you look closely you can see where the roots ripped the tree pot

For many years we have grown cannas even though you have to dig them every fall . They are tall and glamorous and hummingbirds love the bright flowers so....thank you Mappy for the first ones.

A closer look

Usually they go in the ground along the side of the kitchen. However, last summer I stuck four or five of them in a tree pot that I grew herbs in the year before The corms were six or eight inches long and maybe an inch in diameter....normal size for several-year-old cannas.

Because they were in the pot right next to the back door they got watered and fed with the house plants. To say that they responded would be an understatement.

I was able to lift this mass of corms into the basket,
but I had to get the strong farmer man I married to carry it inside
and it was all he wanted!

Normally this basket holds ALL the cannas rather than just one

Home

For a few hours last night all of my chicks were under one roof. It was wonderful. I sleep really well when everyone is here.

However, Becky and Jade were off to work before four this AM and the kids from Bath are just here for the service for my aunt and to pick up stuff for their new home....I'll miss the deer head on the wall right in front of my chair....have to dig out the clock that was displaced when he showed up.

Then they are off home for a busy weekend of getting settled into their house and painting and fixing. We miss them a lot, but thanks to the wonders of video calls I have seen the new house, the new woods, and all the new things they are doing.

Technology can be our friend.... Stay safe in this nasty storm they are predicting. Sure wish the river was a little lower just now.

They are getting ready to life the buoys out of the river

Close One

While out birding the other day we hit the marsh on Sara Lib Road. The road has had a lot of work done on it and is now covered with a thick layer of crushed stone. However, the surface still felt kind of questionable....we suggested to the boss that he stay well away from the edges where possible.

Standing right next to those three little maples. Keep a close eye on the middle one

Anyhow, I got out of the car to get some photos of the austere beauty of a late-autumn swamp. I stood next to a few Red Maples in various states of decrepitude while I took those photos.

Then I turned to walk to the car......just as I reached the right rear fender      CRACK    a tree broke.

I didn't take time to look, just ducked up against the car, prepared to crawl under if need be.

The middle tree about three seconds after I moved away 

However, thankfully the wind had pushed the tree the other way and it fell into the water.

Whew!

Vesper Sparrow

It wasn't terribly birdy on that road until we got almost to the end. There we found a Hermit Thrush, not the first of the year by any means, but the first I could photograph. 

Other notables for the day were Black Vultures, a Bufflehead, and lifers for me, some Vesper Sparrows. 

Hermit Thrush

Bufflehead

Friends

Scrolling through Facebook this morning when I realized how fortunate I am in the friend department. Some I have hugged and laughed with in person; others live thousands of miles away in places I'll probably never see.

They all have in common that they make me laugh, share tears, make up new words with which I fall in love, teach me things I would otherwise never know, and in any manner of other ways make my days better, happier, warmer, more human. A pretty big deal for a hermit like me.

So thank you....all of you..you know who you are. 

(Un) Available Immediately

For rent or lease.

One owner, one bedroom starter chalet at Lyker's Pond Woodland Estates.

Tastefully situated on the water with stunning views of amazing pondlife. Great neighborhood, few predators, many muskrats like-minded rodents and lovely birds nearby. Also adjacent to extensive wooded acres, large hay meadows, and a convenient roadway leading to nearby swamps and marshes.

No kitchen, but the master bath is right outside either of the submerged doorways and a fine larder of branches and small logs is situated safely under the pond or right outside the door.

NO TAXES either!

Enjoy lovely Winterberry Holly, and extensive landscaping by Maples 'r' Us. Cattail roof antenna not included.

Price to move (although kinda heavy for that) in the low 70s (70 birch logs that is).

Call 1 (800) Holy Beaver or visit our website at www.castorcanadensis/realty.com.

Yard Birds

Immature White-crowned Sparrow

What a morning! It froze even harder last night, with ice all over the cars when I went out.

White-crowned Sparrow

There was a buck on the lawn, maybe thirty feet from where I walk the dogs. It was still dark, but the yard light showed him calmly rising from his bed, having a nice, leisurely stretch, and then standing there watching me and Mack until I stepped in his direction.

The elusive Field Sparrow...looked for one all year, saw two this week

Then he took off. Brassy lad though....

White-throated Sparrow

So many birds in the yard this morning I didn't know where to look first. Sparrows and American Robins are migrating through like crazy and there is a large flock of mostly immature Cedar Waxwings gobbling everything they can find.

Ditto

It made the morning walk a lot of fun, with 22 species being counted and at least two others being almost counted. I know I heard a Red-breasted Nuthatch, but I only saw in flight and in a hurry so I won't count it. And there were grackles, but I only got a fleeting

glimpse. 

Dark-eyed Junco

Enjoy the sunshine!

Ditto