New Year, New Birds

New Year, new Northern Harrier

The past few weeks have been busy ones for all of us. I did two Christmas bird counts, one, Schenectady County, with a friend, and the Fort Plain one with my brother Matt.

Both were great fun. The latter I have always wanted to become involved in, but never knew anyone who did it...or at least not well enough to ask. This year I did some research, reached out to the coordinators, and offered to help if needed. They were really nice and were willing to let me tag along either on their territory or someone else's, but the circle was clearly well planned, and staffed with expert volunteers. Thus I thanked them, and said that I would be available next year if needed.

A couple of days before the count one of the counters became unable to cover their territory, so Matt and I got to do it after all. It was one of the best counting experiences I have ever had. It reminded me of back in the day when I did counts with Dad, before our Johnstown circle territory became overrun with a plethora of crazy drivers, hundreds of them. There were a number of really rural roads, some of them not even paved. Miles of farm fields, swamps, marshes, and brushy overgrown areas that just bustled with birds.

 Our very first stop just before daylight, we had an Eastern Screech owl, my first of the year! A couple of miles later we found a Barred Owl perched over the road, hunting. It was like that all day, although we ran out of territory before we ran out of enthusiasm. What a great way to end 2022.

We saw a lot of interesting Amish activities that day
some of which would had been eye openers for city folk
I have pics, but am not sharing. lol

Now we begin the long, slow process of building up a new list for the new year. it is not one bit birdy these days. Nothing on the roadsides and few at the feeder. Either they are elsewhere, or the warm weather is keeping them out on the land.

We did find 14 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Rough-legged Hawks, a Northern Harrier and an American Kestrel on New Year's Day, which made me pretty happy.

Now to try to be patient until the birds start moving again. It's not easy but someone has to do it.

Happy New Year!

Two years ago today my brothers and I joined the orphan train. That was when we lost Mom. 68 years as somebody's kid, gone forever. No childhood left at all. I played the Dutchman for them in the kitchen today and thought about them...but then I always do. 

I think

 That we could all use a little bit of this!

Merry Christmas

 

Ornaments

 

Reminders of Florida BITD

Ralph made this by attaching a wire to one of his toys
when he was little

Mom made this angel. She creeps a lot of people out
but I don't mind her......much

As suggested by Shirley....

The Shrinkening

 

Has ended for the year. Despite the foul weather coming our way, with no doubt lots more in abeyance, the days will lengthen now...

 I, for one, am very glad of it. As an early riser since I worked at Saratoga Race Track when I was a kid, through a lifetime of dairy cows and dogs and chickens etc. I wake up whether I want to or not.

Might as well be able to see.

Meanwhile, we are doing what we can to prepare for the next couple of days. Double round bales for the horses, a fresh one for the sheep, a new load of firewood. Full tanks of gas for the cars. The potential to lose power in a storm like the one predicted is pretty scary. 

Stay warm and safe out there...

NY Climate Action Plan Links

These may help you form your own opinion. 

NYS Press Release

News Story

Farm Bureau Statement

I read the whole press release...warning, it's long, and uses a lot of government speak....

My personal concerns include: funding-this plan is incredibly ambitious and the state already has fiscal problems. Who is going to pay to make all these things happen? I'll bet I can guess.

Then there's the whole walking and biking to replace using vehicles..." increased active transportation such as walking and biking". It's just a tiny part of the whole proposal and is fine perhaps in good weather in the city, but how does that work in rural areas? I like to walk, although I don't bike, and I shoot for my 10,000 steps every day (disclaimer, I'm a lousy shot). However, you cannot walk to the grocery store for a quart of milk if you live five miles out in the country...or at least not if you want the milk to still be not frozen in winter or reman cold in summer...Maybe the walking action could churn some butter in the warmer months.

Eh, I could go on and on, but I won't. You can read 'em yourself and weep...or laugh...or whatever. I have been following this thing since it was proposed and am not surprised much by any of it. The fact that the proposal is called "scoping" puts me in mind of a certain unpopular medical procedure, but that's just me.

You've Heard about Elf on a Shelf

 

How about Snooze on a Mooze?

Don't Miss

 

The Logan Beck Farm Christmas display.

It is amazing this year. Can been seen on Route 10 out of Nelliston NY.

We drove up last night and it was well worth dragging ourselves out of our warm cozy chairs to venture out in the freezing darkness. 

Omens

 

Paused on the landing on the way downstairs, because the moon on the fringe of icicles dangling from the eaves looked like shining, drooling, teeth. Fangs even. I snapped a picture, but it didn't come out.

Dogs out, snow doubt it was cold and crisp and shiverish out. Snow creaking creepily, Mars hanging low on the horizon, sickly orange, dull and dreary.

Double shadows, darkness-in-darkness, moon and porch light one-on-one, so the branches of the locust mapped a set of sickly veins on gloomy downtrodden days-old snow.

And then....and then...a meteor!! Not blazing, but kinda wimpy, streaking across the sky.

Call it a shooting star if you will... but I hope it's out of ammo.

I don't know what is coming with the storm this week and I am not sure that I want to.

I'll Bet he was Hatched

 

Near Lykers. We found a neck-banded Canada Goose near McDonald's the other day. I was able to obtain good enough photos to read the letters and numbers on the band and submitted them to the USGS band report website. I said to Ralph at the time, "I'll bet he was hatched up at Lykers." 

It's always fun to send in the code if you do discover a banded bird. Some of those that we have found were hatched all over Canada and other interesting places.

And then there are the ones with yellow bands with black lettering. Nearly every one of those that we have found was hatched in a place we frequently bird, called Lykers. The connected swamps in that area must be a wonderful nursery for Canada Geese, or maybe just handy for the banding guy who tagged them all.

It's great place to bird in general, wild farm fields, big marshes and swamps, and miles of lonesome woodland. We have found all sorts of other interesting birds there, from American Bitterns to Long-tailed and Ruddy Ducks. Even Short-eared Owls!

This goose was a male, hatched (near Lykers, doncha know) in 2015 or earlier, as he was banded in June of 2016. Not too shabby to have survived all those hard winters, predators, and hunting seasons for so long. I was impressed.

I wonder if we will spot him again. It has happened before a couple of times, always with Lykers geese. I'm always watching for those bands.

Candy Cane and Buddy

 

Are making their annual debut today, December 1, because that is what visiting Christmas elves do. CC spent the past year on the mantel in the front room because a certain someone has been her friend since before preschool and can't bear to let her leave.

Buddy has been missing for over two years. Publicly we blame COVID quarantine rules at the NP, but in reality, someone who shall remain nameless sent him to exile and forgot where. (Hint, she writes more about birds than holidays and was sure she we would remember where he was placed so as to be easily refound) Anyhow, ol' Bud showed up in Great Grandma Peggy's old china closet sometime over the past summer and that Old Fogey Birder told everyone of his new location, making it a bit harder to forget.

Last night Peg, confident that Buddy was coming back this year, what with the pandemic over and all, wrote them both letters and left them on the dining room table.

Thanks to a reminder placed on FB by the middle daughter, as well as the fact that the OFB  actually remembered (!) they are now both lounging on the futon, reading their letters by a lovely blue lantern and guarding a chocolate intended for the finder. (I think OFB should get one too!!!)

Can't wait until rise and shine time to see the reaction. 

ONLY 23 MORE DAYS OF THIS!

Owling

Old Photo

 Alan spotted a Barred Owl up near the old pasture gate a couple times this week. I tried for it yesterday morning but was tied up with the holiday and I guess I didn't get out there early enough to encounter it.

Today rain was predicted so I didn't have much hope of a good chase. However when I got up there was just a tiny bit of frozen stuff coming down....little ice pellets that you could  barely see in the light from the headlamp.

The air was still. My breath curled around my head like smoke from a gentle campfire. It was about as quiet as it gets, what with all the trains and the Thruway so near, so I knew if there was something to hear I would hear it.

It is different out there in the dark, even with a good flashlight and a handy-dandy headlamp. Derelict milkweed pods look like something left behind by an alien spaceship. Dried goldenrod gleams ghostly, rimed by a thin coating of frost that will melt soon in the coming rain. Even the White-throated Sparrows that hit the feeder every day before dawn are still sleeping.

I climbed up about as far as where the old 892 chopper went to die. All was quiet. I played a little bit of hooting and hollering on my phone....and instantly there it was, off in the heifer pasture woods, a female solicitation call, clear as the lights of the town across the river. It went on calling as long as I stood there and most of the time it took me to walk back down the hill to the barn...but never when I was trying to record it.

And there you have it, one more thing for which to be thankful (and there are many).

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, as did we, what with kids and grandkids in and out all day, and a terrific meal, which everyone tall enough to reach the counters helped prepare. Happy Owlidays from all of us at Northview to all of you everywhere. And hugs...lots of hugs. 

November in a Nutshell

Woodcarvers

Dad, as Mom saw him,
holding Becky as a baby

 While moving wrenches and pliers and objects of similar ilk around on the kitchen counter this morning...so as to have room to do the dishes and all... I came across a little notepad the boss was using to plan out fixing my sitting porch.

It brought to me suddenly that this would have been Dad's 91st birthday. I suppose even though he is no longer here to enjoy it, it is still his birthday but... The header on the little pad announced his name and Mom's and mentioned, along with phone and address data, that they were woodcarvers.

Drawings by Mom

They sure were, and so much more.

Prayers would be appreciated for Ralph's good friend who was injured yesterday. Thanks

You need

 

I knew I saved this pic for something, just read it right to left.

To go see what Ruth has today. It won't be fun, but it will sure be eye-opening. 

Old Timers Say

 

I love this shot from Alan's trail cam! Click for detail

...that winter can't come until the swamps are full.

In recent years this has not been notable. The swamps were full from the first day of the first month of Janus, until the day before New Year's Day.

However this year anyone who is out and about has noticed empty ponds, barren wastelands that were once wetlands, and low, low, lakes and rivers.

Personally I have been much enjoying the way the dry has been barring the gates to my least favorite season.

But then last night that fat, blowsy trollop, Nicole, blew in on a groaning, gusty, tropical wind, and did her level worst to change all that. I am sure folks whose wells were wanting and cows were getting a wee bit thirsty are more than glad.

However, on this dark and gloomy, rainy morning I wish she would just begone and take her shower curtains...or curtains of showers if you prefer...with her.

I'll bet this is under water now.
 I was way out on the dry bed of the Schoharie,
almost all the way to the confluence with the Mohawk,
and found this tree stump buried in a crust of zebra mussel shells