Thanks for our Freedoms

 

All who served...

A Morning on the Marsh

 Liz needed a ride to work after dropping off her car for some maintenance, so we were already well west in the county. Be a waste of gas not to turn it into a little birding trip, right?

The choice was Beardsley Reservoir or Cline Road Marsh?

For me it was easy. I love the marsh.

The sun was hanging low in the morning sky. I could not look east. It is November after all. However, the colors were as joyous as if September still reigned, just different...glowing red-gold cattails, soft grey and tannish phragmites, oaks as rusty red as the denizens of an old tractor graveyard. Late maples punctuated the grey stretches with lemon yellow, and tamaracks the same.

Just standing beside the car on the gravel road that runs there brought deep peace.

And the birds....in the time it took me to walk to the back of the car a swirl of Black-capped Chickadees had me lined up for inspection. Tufted Titmice dotted the flock. Common Ravens quothed out at the edge of the forest, with crows and jays quarreling everywhere.

I found the quietest bit of road to walk upon (gravel makes an awful crunch) and stepped slowly along the reeds.

There was a warbler in here, somewhere....

There! Just up ahead, low down in the phragmites! Something yellow!

I trained the bins on the busy little body, to find, much to my delight, the brightest Palm Warbler I have ever seen. His breast and undertail were thick, rich yellow, brighter than the nearby trees, his cap as delightful a russet as any forest oak.

I tried for a photo...or twenty...but the movement of exchanging binoculars for camera sent him whirling off into the marsh like a distant memory of a long-lost friend.

He never reappeared....

However, that dreaded...or anticipated, depending...yellow bar for a rare sighting appeared in the eBird window. I waited until we were in the car and within reach of cell signal to fill out the required data for the listing. He was not really all that rare, just late, but it is fun to make the state rare bird alert just the same.

Dark-eyed Juncos, Eastern Bluebirds, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and more and more chickadees appeared as I walked. A Common Yellowthroat showed up to cuss me roundly, and also to refuse to sit for his portrait. It was fun...cheap, easily obtained, really good fun.

As I stood beside the car at the end, not wanting my marsh time to end, something flew over calling. Not a sound I knew, so I whipped out my old hear-the-bird phone (new one doesn't pick up bird sounds well, so I carry the old, unconnected one to record sounds, then upload them home with the wifi),

Merlin said Lapland Longspur. I would have been skeptical, but saw three Snow Buntings yesterday so anything is possible. I hoped to post the recording on What's This Bird? when we returned home, but alas, it junk.

So I'll never know, and didn't count it.

Still it was a great time. We stopped briefly at Beardsley on the way home, but as has been the case for the last couple of years, it was a disappointment...a few Mallards and not much else. Oh, well, it's been a really weird migration so far with winter sparrows here at the same time as lingering warblers. I am loving this late warm weather, call it what you will. It is great to get outdoors every single day and be able to enjoy the beautiful, if more subtle, colors of late fall at the edge of the Adirondacks.

Stay focused....and get out there when you can.

Oh, we also passed a Water Buffalo dairy on the 
way home, so there's that.

History

 

I got to thinking about my old boss, Dr. Mark R. Crandall the other day. I learned a great deal from him in the 8 years off and on that I worked in his hospital, first as kennel help, later as receptionist and helping in treatments and in the operating room....how I hated that darned autoclave. Got one of the two best dogs I ever had when someone abandoned him at the kennel. Brandy would do anything I asked him as long as I could communicate what I wanted.

Anyhow, I Googled him and came across this interview and listened to it....couldn't believe I could actually hear his voice again after all these years. And I do mean years! I was 15 when I first ended up at his hospital because the guy I was dating worked there as weekend kennel help. He had never had a pet and I was animal crazy to the bone, so I went to work with him, and did at least as much as he did, cleaning cages, running dogs in and out, etc.

Even though I wasn't old enough to have a job in NY I ended up taking his place when he got sick of it.

I heard some of these stories in person and many others not included here. I think my favorite might be about the time Doc, as we called him, went on a farm call in a blinding snow storm.

He made it all the way to the farm driveway only to have a mishap when he tried to turn in. I don't remember too many of the details, but the farmer came out to see if he was okay and peered into his car.

To his horror Doc was dripping with watery, red, ichor.

Or at least he looked like it.

Turns out the crash had broken several bottles of scarlet oil, a topical wound dressing for livestock that is bright, bright, red.

Actually there was no harm done.

I doubt that I was the greatest of employees. I was just a kid and didn't know a darned thing about medicine or animals or much of anything else. However, he was patient with me and kind in his way.

And as I said, I learned a lot in those years and used that knowledge all my life. Thanks Doc.

Give this a listen if you have a few minutes. It offers a view of a world that is long gone.

Something Spooky this way Comes

 

As I sat in my lawn chair on the driveway in the space I make into a "patio" in summer I could hear a nibbling, crunching sound behind me.

I don't like to move when I am out there...for about an hour and a half most mornings...because I am counting birds and and I want them to think I am just part of the scenery. For the most part they do, and sometimes Song Sparrows hop right up to my feet seeking the seeds of the weedy grasses that sneak in along the herb and flower beds.

Thus despite the somewhat uncomfortable feeling of something behind me, I tried to interpret the sounds rather than getting up to check.

Deer? I speculated. Probably not. It is bow season and we are not seeing them. Besides, what would they be eating there among the frozen cosmos and California poppies?

Bunny? Yeah, could be. Mr. Bun, Liz's tame domestic rabbit that escaped and lives among the wild things has no fear of me and seems to enjoy my company out there. But, no, he was over by the sheep in the driveway to the barn.

Birds! It had to be birds. Maybe sparrows shuffling leaves for buggy tidbits. Maybe the Golden-crowned Kinglet I have been unable to photograph so far this year was just that close.

I tried to concentrate on the waves of titmice and chickadees shuttling in and out of the feeders...but that weird shuffling, crackling, sound made me kinda nervous.

Finally I stood up and turned around to find.....dum, da, dum, dum.....the mulberry trees were dropping their leaves. Sometimes they do it like that, just shrugging off every single leaf in one single day, almost in a single hour. There was a steady, ruffling patter of them joining their cohorts in golden-green heaps on the ground behind my chair.

I went back to counting, but no matter how long I sat there, that sound, so reminiscent of something...or someone...creeping up behind me, kept the hairs raised on the back of my neck and my mind on high alert.

I gave up and went walking instead.

Clean up on Aisle Five

 I first noticed that many of the pumpkins in this field were broken. 

Then I spotted the sheep.

I wonder if they open them by themselves or if the Amish kids go out and smash them for them.

They seem to like them anyhow.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing....

Liz's sheep love vegetable scraps and leftover bread from the house as well, and it is a lot of fun to go stand by the gate and call, "Sheep, sheep, sheep."

They come boiling down the hill to snatch eagerly at whatever I bring. You can tell who is the head sheep by who grabs the donuts first. They are big favorites. Tomatoes are not. 

And surprisingly they would rather nom a slice of stale bread than nice, crispy, apple peelings.

 Who knew?

Mistake

 

Last night I played a message on the answering machine, not surprisingly from a politician, inviting me to a town hall.

I attempted to delete it and instead deleted my last message from my mother, asking us to pick up something for Dad at the pharmacy.

 I was shattered to lose it.

I knew I had made this recording when our old answering machine died, so I knew I still had her voice...somewhere.

Trouble was I had looked and looked for it before, but didn't find it. See I was looking in the files on this computer. Never thought of YouTube until Becky reminded me that I had probably put it there....this morning I checked....and there it was.

I am still sad to have lost the much better quality one that was on the machine, but this short clip of family members leaving me birthday recordings, and several short messages from Mom make me feel a lot better.....

Do you ever stop missing them?

I also slept a lot better after receiving a 3:43 AM text telling me that my boy had reached his destination safely. Never, ever be afraid to text your mama. She wants to know...I was actually awake and thinking that it was about time for him to be there...so....

Random fisherman on the great Schoharie...just thought it looked cool

It was as if

 

The moon was sweeping the stars away on this dark and frosty morning.

Stars that bright are only seen here, so close to the lights of the towns, when wintery air descends upon us. 

Today at pre-dawn dog walking time there was a center line in the sky, bright, gleaming, glowing stars sparkling on the west, foggy blue-grey nothingmuch to the east with the moon holding court just east of center.

But no, it was the sun, wielding the broom from his hiding place just below the horizon. No stars now, just clear, icy blue skies with a narrow touch of lacy ice fog around the edges.

First Frost

 

Someone's horse all ready for the coming season

The latest I can remember, one full week after the usual on the 12th. Hard ice on the car windows....brrr.

Now we will have to dig the cannas, a job I heartily dread. I have bad knees and hard shoveling is terribly unkind to them. However, their high-flung red flowers, feet above my head, are like magnets to hummingbirds, and beautiful to boot. Also I need to plant some garlic in one of the rows.

It won't be long now

Been putting up plastic and the like over leaking windows and doors and in the course of so doing found out why my bedside sheepskin became so moth-eaten as to need to be tossed out.

See, last spring we found flying squirrels, mama and babies, living in the closed off space between the windows and the plastic in our bedroom. They were cute and tame, and Liz caught them all and released them in a more appropriate environment...that is to say, outdoors.

Anyhow, down behind the chest next to the window, I found a sweet little nest, round and fluffy and golden....not to mention woolen...made up of curls from my bedside rug.

Dagnabbit. I've had that rug for nearly forty years. And I never heard them pillaging it as I slept. Unless maybe they did it in the daytime. Wretched creatures.

Redhead

Best birds of recent weeks were Surf Scoters in two counties, plus a Redhead duck with one set of scoters. Redheads are usually late winter/early spring ducks for us, but this lovely male has been hanging around Lock 12 for at least a week.

Also the flotillas of sparrows of various sorts eating weed seeds in the yards have been quite entertaining. I marvel at the variations in color in the Song Sparrows. From pale tan through rich honeyed golden tones, to cinnamon and chocolate. No wonder people have trouble identifying them...myself included sometimes, although I am getting better. And there are a LOT of White-throated Sparrows around, at least twenty each morning. They often come in to the feeder when it still dark and then disperse out into the fields for the day.

Anyhow, the growing season is done for us, hopefully the yellow jackets as well. They seem to love me and want to get all too friendly. Happy Fall to all.

This ewe is ready for the season,
Sporting a fashionable jacket of fun fall grasses

Well, actually, the sheep ate the center of the round bale first
and it appears that some of the outside fell on her.

Iris was unconcerned and enjoyed her newfound popularity

October BIG Day

 

Winter Wren

We started out yesterday to hit the river and then see what we felt like doing. Turns out there was a bass tournament at the Crossing, thus nowhere to park. We went straight to Yankee Hill instead.

And turns out like we felt like driving around all day.

You can get an idea of our adventures here: eBird Trip Report. If you click on the little green icons on the far right you can see more detail plus photos.

It was an amazing marathon of great fun, with the added benefit of peak fall color on area farms, woodlands, and fields, which was pretty spectacular. I thank Ralph for patiently driving, and then sleeping in the car while I hiked...although he did walk with me in the Lost Valley State Forest, which was an autumn cathedral of stained glass leaves, and whistling winds. (Hardly any birds there, but the beauty was well worth the walk.)

Mystery Tracks
Pad shape says canid but no claw marks?

Highlight birds were first of all, amazing good fortune in seeing lots of birds that, while not rare, are certainly not seen every day, such as Double-crested Cormorant, two of the commoner falcons, TONS of Wild Turkeys, an early morning Killdeer out in the yard (completing our set of common migrants seen at the house this fall) and a lone Hoodie.

Best birds from my point of view were an obliging little Winter Wren that came out to the bike path to scold me and pose for photos and recording, and TWO Pied Billed Grebes at Goldman Road.

All in all it was a spectacular day that I will treasure long in memories. Foggy today, but I will go chasing here at the house as soon as it gets a bit lighter.

BTW, I am so impressed by how fast local farmers got the corn harvested this year! Wow! Well done!

October Big Day and Global Bird Weekend

Immature White-crowned Sparrow

Everyone had big plans for this weekend (that didn't involve birds). We were going to have another sale up at the house, trying to get the place empty. No go. They paved the road a while back and never striped it, so you can't tell where the shoulders are. Thus folks are afraid to pull off the side to become customers.

So no sale. Ugh.

However, that leaves me free to participate in Global Bird Weekend to my heart's content...even if I end up staying home to do so. 

It's foggy this morning so I am lazing here at my computer for a bit before I go out and do a little haunting in the yard.

Lincoln's Sparrow, basking on some firewood

 However, soon now...the Carolina Wrens have already been yelling from the mulberry trees so I know they will want to be counted first...wings in the air and all like eager school kids. I can't wait to call on them.

You can find the details about the main event, October Big Day, here. It's fun. Go out and count as many birds as you can find and submit a checklist...or ten...to eBird. Easy peasy.

I don't expect to find anything wildly exotic today. However for the past couple of weeks I have been able to count most of the expected area migrants right in the backyard. Right in three particular trees in fact, although they frequent other spots as well. However, I can park in my chair near the honey locust, Winesap apple, and blue spruce trees and catch the morning show almost every day. Many of the travelers eat insects. The sun hits those three trees early, warms the bugs up so they become active, and the breakfast bar is open.

The only birds I haven't seen in the yard from the list for our county during fall migration (here) are Killdeer, and those we get in summer. 

Anyhow, I hear Canada Geese rising up from the river, so time to go out to see what I can find. Happy birding!

Cute little Nashville Warbler

The Ghosts

 

Of tender house plants haunt the yard.

Mack barks frantically at the last of the Norfolk Island pines, shrouded in rose-studded white sheets and a length of gauzy red fabric. It's kinda tall and scary.

We brought the other big one in last night.

The little yellow cherry tomato huddles under a thin blue blanket, still making sugar bombs of cozy gold that never, ever, make it into the house before they are eaten.

Brrr.....

Ghosts of Ian sent us strangely brilliant, odd white clouds the other day. I couldn't stop looking up, except when accompanying rain showers were shivering down.

The ghost of summer past left behind its shawl of rich and satisfying purple asters and brilliant goldenrod for our enjoyment...if only it wasn't a reminder of what's to come...

And the ghost of my dad visited me the other night in a haunting dreamscape made of what their house is really like and of cold, lonely farm houses we lived in over the years before they bought it.

He was wearing a blue plaid summer shirt he liked that I wear now because I like it too and it reminds me of him. He warned me that we weren't charging enough for the Collier's Weeklies they left behind and started to help me price some other things around the house.

Then the boys came and he vanished and they thought I was a little crazy.

Until we went upstairs and found a piece of ghostly furniture, surrounded by piles of sawdust and wood curls where he had been working a favorite craft again. The haunting scent of pinewood filled the air.

Frost Advisory

 

***This was written on the 29th.....

This year I felt it coming. In recent years we seem to have been getting our first frost around the 12th of October. Usually I wait until the first advisory to start scurrying around finding room and getting stuff indoors. However, at least two or three weeks ago I started bringing in the house plants.

I just felt it coming. Right now all that is still outside are one spider plant that I can't reach because of the gourds and tomatoes climbing up the side of the house, one geranium, one pothos, the pony tail palm, and Liz's foxtail fern.....

And the trees! Three Norfolk Island pines, potted, taller than I am. They used to stand in front of the northeast window in the living room. I grew them from those little tiny jobs you find in the supermarket during the Christmas season.....kinda got carried away and all....This year I put them out for the first time in many years and I liked being able to see out that window from my chair. 

I decided to sell them. However, I mentioned them to Liz and she thought she might like them....now she needs to get them indoors and promptly. Tonight's the night.

Oh, and about why I was up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by 4AM. I was reading my email on my phone in bed and thought today was Friday. I was up in minutes and out the door to haul those puppies in, only to realize that it is NOT Friday after all.

Whew! Another few hours to figure out placement for still more plants!

Checking these Twice

 

Fledgling Northern Cardinal
brought into the feeder by dad yesterday

Fall migration is moving forward...and so are the birds...only southward. 

Because of this I check the Cornell resources below fairly frequently to see what might be passing through our area and when. My personal exciting finds do not always coincide with peak migration nights, but often they do.

Yesterday, or really this morning, I got a nice surprise when I reported a Nashville Warbler. They show up around here fairly often, but I was still happy to spot it in a small mixed flock of warblers over on the land bridge between the cow barn and the house yesterday afternoon. However, I had no idea that it was the first one reported in the county for the year until this morning when I checked the county eBird page.

Cool! Now to find a Canada Warbler. I have only ever seen a fleeting view of one, which I didn't report as it was indeed only seen for about half a second, and not very well. Necklace on breast is diagnostic but...

Swainson's Thrush in the Honey Locust

Anyhow, linky, links:

Migration forecast for home.

Migration forecast for the whole country

Who's flying when

Our county top 100 page

Right now I am just waiting for the sun to come up. When it does I will dry the dew off the lawn chair by the car with the good view of the old honey locust and the Winesap apple, and a partial view of the nearly dead blue spruce. I will park my butt there for a while and look up, usually getting a nice case of warbler neck.

Those three trees catch a lot of the insectivore traffic most mornings though so.... 

After I watch them for a while, if things get quiet, I will walk over to the the barn and maybe up the hill a bit, and then down the driveway. I think there is a rough average of around 26 species or so most mornings, with good days yielding over 30. 

The cow barnyard and the cluster of weeds down by the heifer yard gate are good for sparrows. Right now that is mostly Song Sparrows with a few Field Sparrows (cutest little things you ever saw) thrown in, but later you never know what you might see. I check there almost every day.

Sky's getting white in the East. It won't be long now.

Common Yellowthroat in the yard

Your Dog

 

This is NOT the bird, I am sparing your
sensibilities. 

You know how she's been rolling on the lawn under the clothesline? And how she smells worse than...well, I can't come up with anything bad enough to describe how she smells...even Dad complained? Yeah, that particular mystery is solved.

I took her out at half light this morning before anyone else was up....while you were sleeping so to speak. She took care of bidness and then went for a nice roll over in her usual location. I let her because if she is rolling she isn't running away on me and besides the grass has been combing out a lot of the excess hair she would normally shed in the kitchen to be tracked all through the house.

Then I called her in so I could brew a magic elixir of morning for myself...Even weak coffee is better than none.

Plop. She dropped a treasure right at my feet.

It was a dead bird. A very, very, very, very, very dead bird, so far gone as to only be recognizable by the beak that adorned a blackish, reeking, disgusting blob. Nicely soaked by the rain too.

With paper towel in hand...after she tried to steal it from me a couple of times...I conveyed it to the barnyard...cow barnyard...and disposed of it there. I don't know if I will ever be able to wash my hands enough to feel clean, despite the paper towel.

She looked at me accusingly when I came back and then demanded that I throw the ball for her.

I politely declined while I washed the kitchen floor in the places where she had dropped it.

Just so you know....

I thought

 

It would get better...easier somehow. It hasn't.

The gnawing feeling of something missing has instead gone deeper and become so much more complex.

Today would have been my mother's 89th birthday. She left us just under two years ago.

I still miss her.

Alice the Wonder Woman.

I miss Dad too, but daughters, and sons too, seem to have a special connection with their mamas. As I get older and life becomes ever more challenging, I miss her amazing wisdom more and more. Things happen and my mind wants to run them by her, hear her thoughts, learn from her knowledge and understanding of life. We talked almost every day for the vast majority of my entire life. 68 years worth. The conversations in my head are not the same, nor is singing to her picture on the kitchen wall. (We shared the tragic inability to sing on key, along with the sheer joy of doing it anyhow.)

All I can do these days is my own personal best but I am not a lot like her. She was bold and strong and sassy, but joyful with it. She was always delighted with life and babies and fun, and so darned loving to us all, especially Dad, but all of us. I am quieter, more introverted, a worrier to the point of inertia. Not only did she get things done, she got me to get things done too.

Life is shallower without her, duller, less rounded and well-formed. I thought it would get better.

But it didn't. I miss you, Mama.

If You See

 

This guy...at the races tonight, in the grocery store where he does the shopping so I don't have to people, or parked along some desolate back road, listening to talk radio while I look for good birds....wish him a Happy Birthday if you would. I hope he has a great day!

We farmed together for somewhere over 30 years and are still good friends, which is a true accomplishment, as those who have tried it know. Never stopped enjoying talking together in all those years. He taught me 99 percent of everything I know about breeding and judging dairy cattle and I still get excited if I see a good 'un on some Facebook dairy page. I sure loved 'em when we had 'em.

Now that we don't have them (and couldn't even if we tried) he is always willing to drop everything and take off in hot pursuit of whatever rarity has been spotted within our limited driving distance, or to just head out for a ramble. Yesterday he drove me up to Cline Road Marsh, where I had a spectacular time finding rarities and soaking up the haunting beauty of the singing swamp, while he slept, uncomplaining, in the car.

Speaking of good 'uns...he is one of them.

Happy Birthday, handsome. Becky is making you those amazing waffles tonight before the races...just so you know. 

The Wind Beneath your Wings

 

Makes a breeze upon my knees.

You hang before my eyes

As if checking me for size.

Attack or eat

That is the question

Slow to make up your mind, you come back several times,

But in the end nectar wins out over the revenge of the dinosaurs. Off you prance to sit on the red feeder, sipping and glaring at me.

Or at your own reflection in my glasses, whichever comes first.

(The hummingbirds are extra bold and funny this year. The one below hovered about ten inches from my face for the longest time and came back repeatedly to check me out. I think the same bird is involved in a lot of the confrontations I am seeing around the place. Bravest one I've ever seen and that is saying something.

Maybe our current yard birds are young-of-the-year with more chutzpah than common sense.)

A Black-capped Chickadee rests on the string on the porch, placed there for hanging of plants and birdy convenience. You whir and buzz and poke and pester until he gives up and flies away.

You fluffle your feathers, flounce a bit, and take his spot quite smugly.

A Monarch butterfly drifts over the mulberry tree just at dusk yesterday. Out you boil, stab, stick, and scuttle. The poor thing wings away, but bumbles back.

Off the roost and into the onslaught. Out, out, damned Lepidoptera, begone, begone.

I'm gonna miss you when you be gone, little guy, too darned soon for sure.

 

Targeted

 

Coopers Hawk, spruce tree behind the house

Birding....

What with the cost of every single thing being so much higher than it used to be and income not keeping up, we have been forced by circumstance to bird differently. We used to at least go down to the river almost every morning, year round.

Now we go out maybe once a week, and otherwise I bird at home. We also target exciting birds that other people find in the three-county area where we do most of our birding, and now and then hit places where we think we might find something good.

Broad-winged Hawk, bottom of the driveway

This hasn't been all bad. There are birds everywhere, including in and around grocery store parking lots (Gloversville Walmart has a view of an active Osprey nest, and I have found all kinds of interesting birds along the edge of the parking lot at Runnings, including Fish Crows on a routine basis and once a Peregrine Falcon.)

Over the past three or four days there has been a decent showing of migrants right here in the yard. Vireos are everywhere! They are ridiculously hard to count, always on the move, and blending in with the surroundings really well. 

Up until the day before yesterday warblers were like vitamins...one a day. However, now the trees are full of them. Alas, they always seem to be on the other side of the tree from me, and the lighting has been awful. Also....fall warblers... so some days I see forty and identify...you guessed it...one.

However, even with this targeted method of chasing birds, we are running ahead of 2020 for total number seen this year, and just behind 2021. Not terrible.

Chestnut-sided Warbler next to the clothesline

Also getting a Sandhill Crane yesterday in Montgomery County made up for a lot of non- chasing days. We got two in Schoharie County a couple of years ago, and there is that family up in Fulton that we have seen two years running now. However, until last night we couldn't find one here. Happy me.

I do miss those morning trips out into the wilds. However, after hauling all the way to the other side of Amsterdam last night, and what with the fog today, it's the backyard for me this morning. 

Wish me warblers...

...on the right side of the tree, in good light, and sitting still for more than 1/10 of a second.

Thanks!

Sandhill Crane from a targeted trip