But I didn't...
So Happy Birthday, Liz! Hope you have a wonderful day and a joyful and productive year to come. Hang in there....
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| This deer and the one below are not the same deer, or even the same day |
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| This one was here on the farm a while back and the one above was today out on the road |
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| And these are bunnies. Eastern Cottontails Sylvilagus Floridanus |
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| Common Gallinules |
Many miles were driven that day in hopes of seeing birds we didn't see. Common Gallinule, Grasshopper Sparrow, Double-crested Cormorant and Black Vulture were featured prominently. There were others, but we looked pretty hard for these.
Guess what we saw when we went out this morning...or heard in the case of the Grasshopper Sparrow...
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| Double-crested Cormorant |
Yeah, all four of the above. The only species I was able to photograph were the gallinules and cormorant, but the vultures sailed right over my head when I was hanging out the laundry, and the sparrow sang to us from the edge of the road on a farm we visit often.
It's okay. I will take them any way I can get them.
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| Wood Duck...just because he was pretty |
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| Optimistic Osprey |
This incorporated rising at 2 AM to go owling and lasted until after eight PM. I'm an early riser anyhow, nearly always awake by 4, although I stay upstairs until 5:30 because Mack barks when he hears me. I hate to rouse the whole house.
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| Broad-winged Hawk |
However, 2 was reminiscent of midnight calf check days, when I stumbled to the barn in boots and bathrobe, pulled a calf if necessary and stumbled back to bed, attempting to open only one eye at a time in the process.
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Upland Sandpiper disguised as a Killdeer |
It is amazing how fast you wake up though when you get a life bird on one of the first stops...at least as far as eBird is concerned. I've seen and heard many Eastern Screech Owls, but all before I started eBirding, so it is going to look new on paper. Score.
It was a long and eventful day, with many new county birds for me for the year, and one I have been looking for for five years in our home county.
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| Eastern Meadowlark |
That was a Virginia Rail calling up a storm on Sara Lib Road in the place that Ralph refers to as "The place where that tree almost fell on your head."
The tree was a small one and still languishes at the edge of the water next to its luckier, still-standing, Red Maple neighbor. It probably wouldn't have done me much harm if it had hit me, but I'm glad it didn't.
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| Through-the-windshield-on a-busy-road Orchard Oriole |
Anyhow, it was an adventure, but we lost that hundred-and-second bird. It was, by its call from its spot hidden in a shrubbery, a Golden-winged Warbler. Alas however, according to eBird review, only possible to be definitively identified by being clearly viewed, as it hybridizes with Blue-winged Warbler (we found lots of those) and both purebreds, plus the hybrids, mimic each other's calls.
It's all right though. I'll take the Eastern Screech Owl, the rail, the bittern, the Orchard Oriole and the like, and be contented indeed.
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| Willie Marsh |
Meanwhile, it is great to be home too.
Note to everyone who lives here...Do NOT close the pony barn door! Barn Swallows are investigating!
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| Strange bird at Yankee Hill Lock |
I atlased the occupants and checked them out now and then, but thought little of it until...
One afternoon about a week ago as we pulled into our parking spot behind the house a dove shot up from the ground and flew straight toward the mulberry trees.
I was watching idly when WHAM!! a hawk hit it so hard there was a cloud of feathers lingering in the air as it passed. I was unable to identify the predator, but I think it might have been a Merlin.
A couple of days later we noticed the little guy above hanging around. He seemed to be kinda close to the right age to fledge, but not quite right somehow. Really tame, begging all the doves that landed to eat on the tray feeder to feed him, and only able to fly a few feet.
We quickly became enamored and more diligent than ever at chasing away the stray or dropped cats that pass through regularly...although I have yet to see that big Siamese take anything but rodents, so I don't chase him too hard.
Then I found a matching birdling drowned in the garden pond.
Aha! I'll bet they came from that nest, which is much torn up with dangling twigs and grass now.
However, I didn't connect the events until yesterday. Then the penny dropped. I'll bet the dove we saw killed was brooding the two little ones and left them not quite ready to fend for themselves.
They probably struggled out of the nest in hungry desperation, one landed in an unfortunate spot and other other right at the feeder.
Anyhow, we are cheering the little guy on, and making sure there is food where he can easily find it. I think I will make sure the rhubarb leaf bird bath is full too, although there is so much water everywhere I am sure he is getting plenty to drink.
I know the odds aren't good, but I hope he makes it.
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| Peggy's first ever soccer game Great fun! |
For more, go here.
A very Happy and Blessed Mother's Day.
With love from Northview Farm....
I recently began to reread the book by Kenneth Roberts with the same name as this post. I have read the whole series several times over the years with each rereading bringing a new perspective on the stories.
I didn't realize though, until I cracked the pages of the book...or in this case started scrolling on my NOOK...that I could envision everything that was happening in the story about a thousand times more clearly than before.
Because I'd been there. Those rock ledges? Yeah, watched the tide swirl the seaweed that clung to them as gulls cried overhead. Those marshes? Scott drove us through them every day.
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| Do you suppose one of these seals is called Eunice? |
And having been up the Golden Road with Alan a few years before...in the Camaro (!) if you remember.... I could well imagine the march on Quebec as well.
So thanks for an enriching set of experiences that just keep on giving. What a wonderful state....
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| Bald Eagle |
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| Chipping Sparrow |
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| Double-crested Cormorants |
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| Turkey Vulture |
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| Eastern Phoebe |
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| Osprey |
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| Northern Parula Warbler |
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| American Redstart |
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| Best find of the day! A Clay-colored Sparrow |
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| Spotted Sandpiper |
Wednesday it was nice enough that the boss and I took a five-mile hike up into Lost Valley State Forest.
It was beautiful, cool and brisk when we started out at shortly after seven, just starting to get a little overwarm when we hiked out. Along the way we were entertained by a sleepy mama porcupine snoozing in a tree, heard an etude of bird song, including first of the year Eastern Towhee and Ovenbird, and a probably Black-throated Green Warbler that only called once or twice, plus all the stunning beauty of early spring in the Adirondack foothills.
The boss kept pointing out evidence that the land was farmed some time long ago, foundations of old buildings, a filled in laid up stone well casing, and then a tiny cemetery he spotted.
I have hiked in alone and in a group several times before and never noticed it, even though it is right next to the road. We were able to decipher some of the names without getting down into the tangle of wild rose bushes that was slowly devouring it. Grabbed a few photos too.
Upon returning home I searched for the names on the stones, Rowland and Eleanor Bell, and to my astonishment, found them both on this page and in the 1885 NY Census.
How cool is that!
Which brings me to a bit of a conundrum. My mother was an avid and skilled genealogist. She gathered information on both hers and my father's families for most of her life. It is stuffed in folders and saved on CDs and probably stashed in the innards of their computers. It is a lot. Civil War records, cemetery records, census, immigrant records, records going back to Ireland, Scotland, France, and who knows where else!
What on earth are we going to do about this? It would be a terrible shame to waste all that work. For now we are piling the stuff in one place and saving it. If I was 30 again and had time on my hands I would study it and continue with it. In fact back when I actually was in that age group we chased gravestones for Mom over much of Fulton County.
However, I am simply too darned old. And too darned busy. By the time I got up to speed on the material it would be time to hand it off again. What to do...what to do...any ideas friends?
Anyhow, I digress. We had a great day Wednesday and birding has been spectacular since, new arrivals every day. Making up for lost time due to the cruddy weather we have been having I guess.
And now today. Wild, whipping, winds, snippy, cold, creeping, rain, making the boss move the car away from the trees. And snow in the forecast!
Three species of birds at the feeder this morning...three! Guess I will do housework and hope for Spring to leave Swinter behind....and soon!
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