Nine

Rough-legged Hawks in one day's birding, all in our home county.

Forty White-tailed Deer nibbling corn in an Amish field

Four young girls walking in the road (with escort).

One pretty little Red-tailed Hawk, not a great photo, but a cute bird

Two different Barred Owls, two different nights. 

And other signs of the season that just won't quit

The Golden Hour

We didn't see any owls but....

Importing Rabies

This week's Farm Side, which will run tomorrow in the Recorder, was written about a recent spate of rabies cases in nearby counties, and about the risks associated with importing dogs from not so very developed countries with less stringent rabies rules than ours.

Since I sent the column on Tuesday yet another rabies case has cropped up just west of here, bringing the total in the past two weeks to four and ANOTHER (!!!!!) dog imported from Egypt has rabies.

 I think we need a better screening process if we are going to fill our shelters with dogs from overseas.

Here are some links on the topic.

CDC on the first rabid dog from Egypt and several others

The new case of a rabid dog from Egypt

200 dogs imported from S. Korea

Rumble

Feel a low growl through the leash, too soft to hear. 

Rumble, rumble, grumble, mumble.

There's something out there. Something that causes the Border Collie concern. If you're a dog you worry about stuff.....however.....

There are fresh, new, tracks where a deer rummaged around under the bird feeders....I left an apple and some spent lettuce out there for the bunnies, but I guess there are opportunists everywhere. Then it strolled right up on the back step, and although only the crescent moon and its favorite planet are lighting the sky so far, I suspect it is out there yet.

Of more concern is whatever left the strange turtle sort of track parallel to the deer path. Possum? Skunk? Tis the season of love for the latter, which used to be a weasel, but now has its own family.

There have been several cases of rabies in nearby counties in the past week. Two raccoons, a fox, and a skunk so far. Must remember to look before I allow the leap off the porch and into the stack of new fallen snow out there.

And in other news, Meatland burned last night. We just started shopping there a few weeks ago...it is kind of out of the way for us, but we were sick of what passes for beef in the grocery stores....the service was wonderful and the pork and beef could pass for homegrown, which is the gold standard for us.

And now it is gone. So sad.

Different Morphs for Different...er....the same...Birds

This is a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk, the darkest I have ever encountered

And this is a light morph. We see a lot of these

Bad Photos, Good Birds

We found this guy first. Not the FOY, but I never tire of seeing them

So...for the past two years we have wasted invested hundreds of hours looking for a Greater White-fronted Goose or a Short-eared Owl. We have driven to the far side of Fort Plain and ventured out into the wilds and sat for hours on a roadside looking for the latter.

I have taken and carefully pored over thousands upon thousands photos of Canada Geese, searching, ever searching for that elusive GWFG. (Or a Cackling Goose, but that is another story.)

To no avail.

Greater White-fronted Goose

Then on Saturday some really nice folks whom I had never met, but who were pursuing  county birds the boss and I had found and posted on eBird, called me up and left a message that they had found the goose down in town.

I returned the call and had an absolutely delightful chat with one of the bird folks....I don't get to talk to other enthusiastic birders pretty much ever. Really fun.

And then we went chasing the goose.

No go. No geese at all. Same deal yesterday morning.

However, yesterday afternoon there were a few geese at the spot where our target was seen. I climbed out and began the tedious process of photographing every single one, just in case. But I already knew that I wasn't seeing it. While I was doing so I heard an odd call right below the high riverbank upon which I was standing. Couldn't see any birds because of a huge snowbank so I dismissed it.

Until I got back in the car and Becky said, "Did you hear that? That was something different. I'm going to play that goose call on my phone." And so she did.

And that was it. Out of the car, up on the snowbank, and there it was...about fifty feet from the car.

Who could ask for more?

Whoooo Me.....? Short-eared Owl

However, there WAS more ..... The boss suggested taking a little ride late in the afternoon. I think he gets restless and wants to get out of the house but it is just too icy to do much outdoors. So we did.

Northern Shrike in the near darkness

Just a handful of miles from home I spotted a little bird in a tree across a field. I still get cold chills thinking about seeing my first ever Short-eared Owl. And because I was taking lots of photos of it I discovered that there was a Northern Shrike sitting about two feet underneath it in the very same tree. I needed one for my county list and there it was.

Terrible shot showing shrike and owl

We went on to find three more owls a couple of miles away, swooping around a big hay field like giant feathery moths.

It was probably one of the best day's birding I have ever had. I am still kinda stunned by it all.

Like giant moths or really big bats

Sugaring

Sapcicle

Alan and Amber are tapping some trees this year. He sent me this video of the clean, clear sap dripping into the bucket.

There's Always a Story

Whenever we can we shop for the folks. Saves them going out and getting stuff to the car and from the car and fighting icy parking lots and all that kind of thing.

Today was one of those days.

A Friday.

I think it was also some kind of special payday because the store was crammed with people, most of whom missed out on Manners 101.

By the time we got to the checkout I was grumpy.

 I admit that grumpy is my default setting and it doesn't take much to return me to that spot, but let's just call it extra grumpy.

There were only five clerks running checkouts; self-checkout was clogged with a dozen carts, so we picked a line and waited.

And waited.

And waited. 

The boss hurt his hip and it was about killing him. He is not a lean-on-the-cart kind of guy normally but today he kinda had to. 

I enjoy the casual, and perhaps ill-mannered, habit of sneaking a peek into other people's shopping carts while shopping, especially after twenty minutes in line. 

Speaking of stories....carts tell them you know.

The lady in front of us had a number of huge bags of pet food, tons of cleaning supplies, and several small blankets.

And dog toys.

I speculated to myself....I'll bet those are for a shelter. How nice....

Finally her turn came to check out. She was obviously a pro at getting multiple large items scanned and quickly and as she flopped bags and flipped bottles, I overheard her speak to the checker.

Seems her father had passed away several years ago. Today would have been his birthday. Since she couldn't buy him a gift any more, she and her three cute youngsters hit the mall and bought a big pile of things for the shelter dogs and cats.

I congratulated her on such a selfless and wonderful act and she said...."oh, don't make me cry."

I gotta tell you, she wasn't the only one with tears in her eyes.

See there's always a story, even in a humble shopping cart in a crowded Friday noon mall.

Flipping

Black-capped Chickadee

Northern Cardinal

American Goldfinch

Eastern Bluebird

The bird (s)....no disrespect intended, of course....

In Summertime

I sit becalmed 

in trackless heat and rude humidity....

and dream of....

........anything but winter..

Anything at all...

In summer I allow no thoughts of winter to intrude.

It is as if six months or even eight vanish into a magician's cabinet never to emerge on the stage in my mind.

Looking out on sun baked green I hold at bay all thoughts of wide, white wilderness where nothing walks but the ice cold wind.

It is just as well to do the same for summer in winter, though harder. Imagining green only leads to wistfulness...

However, along about February, when it ought to be spring but isn't, damn the torpedoes, here's some summer.

You Can no Longer Say

Last night's giant super moon

Moonset this morning

That you have never been mooned.....

I Should have Known Better

Jack Russell Terriers come straight from the factory with the recall button replaced by the enthusiasm pump. They are enthusiastic about everything from yellow snow to green cow poo. However, they are selectively deaf and only know their names if there is a treat involved. That they grab quick and run away.

But still. I can sometimes get away with letting Mack run loose for a few minutes when the snow is deep and the temperature is low. Those dangly bits are pretty close to the ground and all.

This morning I was trying to write. I get paid to write...at least sometimes....and I was really into it.

The dogs decided they needed to go out.

Again.

So I put the leash on Finn...much more fur and higher off the ground...and let the little one run.

Great plan.

He instantly vanished. But for the highways nearby I would have let him. However, I didn't want to ruin anyone's day by putting him in their path. Otherwise he would eventually get cold and come barking at the door.

Instead I heard him barking down by the heifer barn. Tracks said there was also a cat. We have no cats, but evidently one has us. He was alternately barking at a hole the snow and jumping the fence to run down the hill.

I tried to lure him closer with a cough drop. Alas, although he is a greedy dog,  he is not stupid.

The cough drop was a fail.

The whole deal was a fail. I had on crocs without socks. Adequate to stand in the shoveled path with dogs. Not so much in ankle deep snow. 

The little creep kept coming back to check out the cough drop just in case it had somehow morphed into a sirloin steak, but alas, it was still just cherry and menthol. 

I knew I HAD to get my hands on him before he headed down to the road. He has no car sense atall...well actually no any kind of sense atall but...

There in a tree on the other side of the fence in deep, deep snow was a duck skin. See that weasel I wrote about a couple months ago got in the barn and killed all but a couple of my very favorite poultry...the Call Ducks. Evidently something had made off with a skin and left it dangling.

I climbed up the bank and leaned way, way out over the waist-deep snow and managed after several tries to get my hands on the flimsy scrap of feathers, lamenting the late duck as I did so. I really loved those ducks. Quacky little sillies all noise and flutter....

Then I basically fell off the bank into the barnyard.

I shook the thing at the dog. 

He was on it in a flash and I was on him even quicker. I lugged him back up to the house on frozen feet, while he wagged and smiled and was happy as a pig in mud. 

He is in his crate now contemplating the error of his ways (letting me catch him before he caught the cat and ate the duck skin) while my feet thaw and a second cup of coffee soothes this savage beast. Dogs...ya gotta love 'em. Sometimes more than others.

Eaves Akimbo

Roof shadows lean on the barn siding, poured across gravel and snowfield by the porch light.

Sad ghosts of frozen water buckets dot slumping snowbanks, mere skeletons of robust ice blocks that had to be half-thawed before they could be banged out of the buckets. But for the coming storm they would have been gone, exorcised by the howling wind and sometimes apricity of the late winter season. A new word for me this year, but a welcome one full of love and promise. Soon the snow will cover those ghosts preserving them for the next round of sunshine.

A seething snake of a water hose snarls itself in the bathtub. Animals come first in the farm world and if you have to postpone your shower so the sheep can drink, well, too bad for you. They are thirsty.

Hoses and buckets are constant chores in winter no matter how warm and cozy the barns.

The East Wind is already getting frisky all these hours before sunup and storm-due. Best send the boss to town for extra milk and eggs.And soon.

A storm is coming.

But hark! Lo! On yonder street side, down in the village in TWO places yesterday, we saw the first sapcicles of the season. Snuggled up against the river there the maples are warm enough for the sap to begin to run. It's a sign. I know it is.

As yet Unresolved

Many of last week's issues that is. No idea why. Meanwhile we are all a little bit better, thankfully, enough so that I even cooked yesterday...Italian Sausage Soup. Going to take a chance and take some up to the folks. Big storm coming....they can probably use some soup.

Birding has been okay. Got a Merlin yesterday, always a really hard one for me...only saw two last year. And a Common Grackle. Those are not nearly hard enough to find, but he was at least the first of the year.

Meanwhile, they can talk about how cruel April is all day long, but for me February is almost as bad as it gets. Kinda like a second December only colder.

Ugh.