So the Wind Decided

That Saturday was the day to tear down the garden pond water feature and pull out the plants.

Well, actually it did a lot of the work for me, if not in exactly the manner I would have chosen. I had taken out the pump the day before and left it on the lawn to dry. That drained the two metal containers Alan had fashioned into a clever fountain, and made them much lighter than before.

Combined with the gigantic canna lily leaves from the corms therein it made a sort of sail. Not only were the bucket jobbies and the plants, plus adjacent plants as well, dumped into the center of the pond, all the cement props for same were also tumbled in.

I was glad it was pretty warm, as I shoved my sleeves up to my elbows and guddled around in the pond for a while, dragging out all the trappings, in between birding for October Big Day. 

I was astonished at how clean and light the cannas that had been in the buckets all summer ended up. They were huge! Feet over my head and lush, dark green, and vigorous looking. Yet the root system was neat and clean,

I was delighted that my little experiment turned out so well. As I was finishing up planting cannas last spring, as always there were a bunch left over. They multiply like bunnies or rocket scientists with fast calculators. On a whim I dropped a few into the water feature, into which water is pumped all summer to create a jingling cascade into the pond.

(Birds are drawn to the sound of moving water and guess who loves birds.)

Anyhow the thing succeeded like a champ. Not only did the plants grow eagerly, indeed madly, like a tropical forest, but the pond was the cleanest I have ever seen it. Despite grackles bombing it all summer with fecal sacs from their noisy offspring, which is usually a horrific problem, the water was crystal clear. We could enjoy the goldfish and rosy minnows all through the warm months, and once the cannas got growing, string algae ceased to be a problem.

The current water feature is pretty beat up from pond life for the past couple of years, but I have all sorts of ideas for doing something similar next year. I mean seriously! From changing the filter almost every day, with string algae nearly filling the pond every week, to changing the filter TWICE!!!! all summer!!! and it was still clean and clear when I pulled the pump!'

Also I didn't have to buy fancy water lettuce  and then clean that mess up in the fall either, and I have tons of cannas every year.

I can't wait for next spring! I am going to have a lot of fun with it all.

Maine Birds

Great Black-backed Gull

 I don't think one post is going to be enough. 

Sanderling with clam on the half shell

Here in Montgomery County I have never seen a Sanderling, although they have been encountered here historically. On the beaches of Maine I saw hundreds upon hundreds, scuttling through the wrack hunting for tiny morsels of food, assorted invertebrates of which there must have been millions. These little cuties nest in the high arctic tundra, but during migration they disperse to sandy beaches all over the world. They are the birds you often see at the edge of the waves, racing in and out with the water, grabbing tasty treats. They are one of my favorite sandpipers.

Semi-palmated Sandpipers

There were equal numbers of Semi-palmated Sandpipers, interspersed with the Sanderlings. (I found one of those at the Schoharie Crossing boat launch this year.)  Shorebirds are challenging to identify to say the least, and I use What's This Bird pretty often. However, semi-palmated means that they have partial webbing between their toes and Sanderlings lack a hind toe altogether, so if they roll over and wave their feet at you, you can easily separate them. Alas not one of them did that, although I did get some pics of Sanderlings with the toe...or lack of one...visible.

Semi-palmated Plover, just for confusion's sake

His little semi-palmated feet

Beach covered with wrack, invasive Asian seaweed
Birds loved it
But ugh!

Cute little Ring-billed Gull

Then there were the gulls, OMG the gulls. There wasn't a single species that isn't common right here in Fultonville in Winter, but hereabouts they don't let you walk up three feet away to take pictures. The larus group in general has a terrible and well-deserved reputation for being pretty awful, but boy, did I have fun with them. Photos of their squabbles and cosmopolitan dietary inclinations beg to be captioned, ferocious clowns that they are. If birds were once dinosaurs gulls aren't far from their ancestors.

Herring Gulls having a kerfuffle 

Best bird of the week, or birds if you prefer, was a pair of American Golden Plovers. After a lifetime of birding "lifers" are scarce and exciting. These were what I consider to be "good" lifers, because they are birds that are very unlikely to show up here...as far as I can tell no one has ever seen one in Montgomery County.  I never saw one on my travels before eBird either, thus more special, than even a Cattle Egret would be, which I have seen right here on the farm, but before eBird. I was astonished to see them fly over and even get a recording of their calls.

A portion of the Parsons Beach area

More of Parson's Beach

Best place we found was Parson's Beach in the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. It was a pretty busy place, so the birds were much disturbed, but there plenty of them there. That was where we saw the plovers. We didn't find the spot until Sunday and were heading out Monday, but Ralph and Becky were kind enough to indulge me with a second visit first thing Monday morning before we left for home.

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret with Great Egret

Just as we were leaving I found another birder counting there...the only birder I met all weekend. It was nice to talk to her about the area. Just before that encounter two little white waders popped into some mud flats with a huge Great Egret. They were Snowy Egrets, birds I hadn't seen since Florida several years ago, and Maine lifers for me. I had been looking for them the whole trip, so they were a nice finish for me.

JSYK, of those 374 photos I took the vast majority were of birds, mostly of sandpipers and gulls. And acres of pinkish seaweed, which had washed ashore with the waves. Research says it is invasive Asian algae. There sure was a lot of it.

Common Eider Duck...and they were too, we saw 
hundreds

I miss Maine already and hope we can hold it together enough to go back next year. 

Huge thanks to Ralph and Becky for walking beaches with me until they got sick of it, then waiting in the car noodling on their phones while I walked some more.

*Travel tip for the parsimonious. I fill empty freezer space with gallon jugs of water to save electricity. We put two in our big cooler and the food and beverages we took along on Friday morning were still cold on Monday, although if we had stayed another day we would have had to buy ice. We just put them back in the freezer when we got home. No watery mess in the bottom of the cooler when they melted either.

Man feeding gulls at Nubble Light
Not me
No way
No how
Not ever.

Maine

 

A couple few years ago Alan took me to Maine. It was a great adventure, with a heavy emphasis on the latter word. I loved it.

Then more recently Scott and Jen and the girls took us to coastal Maine. Even more love. Toes in the ocean. Shorebirds. Exciting places. What's not to love?

Thus we decided on a DIY Maine mini vacation.

My dear brother got us an amazing hotel room with his points which made it even easier than we had planned. (Thanks, Matt and Lisa!) Think Eve Dallas shower...if you know you know...

The boss drove almost continuously from early Friday morning to yesterday afternoon. Mad props to him for doing a good job in a strange place, with a less than adequate navigator....just ask my birding buddies about that...For the most part until Sunday we met sensible, courteous drivers. Sunday was not that way.

We found a cool little independent chocolate shop, where we got Liz the taffy she requested. Becky found some really nice shirts at one place we stopped...wait until you see her! She looks amazing in them.

However, neither shopping, nor chocolate was the focus of the trip for me...I'll bet you can guess what my goal was...

Birds!

And we found them. More about that later. 

We saw staggering sunrises that defied description. I got my feet wet in the Atlantic, which is important to me for some reason. I watched more happy dogs at play than I ever imagined existed. Dogs of every size and description, cavorting and jostling with friends, chasing tennis balls down the beach or out into the water, eating and/or rolling in the most disgusting substances imaginable. It was a doggy paradise. I shuddered to think of the effort it was going to take to get them drawing room friendly again, but Lord, Lord, they were having fun. 

We greeted dozens upon dozens of friendly morning walkers, and exchanged multitudes of cheerful smiles.

It was nice. I love Maine.

We also had car trouble. Our much loved little Blazer decided it would be fun to start sharing electrical gremlins of assorted varieties. No heat, fans on all the time, no auto headlights. All problems were intermittent and refused to occur when we stopped at Sullivan Tire in Biddeford for help. Kudos to them btw. They spent a good deal of time and effort with us and didn't charge us a thing. Nice folks. 

As with all the best vacations it was wonderful, and yet oh, so good to be home. JSYK Ralph still snores.

A lot.

We love him anyhow. 

Many thanks to everyone who made it all possible.

PS, I took 374 pictures just with the camera, not to mention whatever ones I took with the phone. Now to spend some time weeding them out.

A State Holiday

It sounds like Independence Day out there. I've been counting and timing the popping sounds from over hill and yon, of which there have been very, very many this day. The spacing intervals thereof range from 1 to 3 seconds, with occasional pauses, either to check out the targets or cool off the barrels.

We are coming hard upon the season of the Odocoileus Virginianus Harvest, when everyone and all their brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins, in-laws, outlaws, friends, and neighbors take to the woods in hopes of making their freezers work overtime this winter. I guess someone is practicing now, and with amazing enthusiasm, I might add.

If this was me, I'd be heading for the swamp.

If my name was Bambi and I was wearing a greyish-brown fur coat, I would be heading for the deepest swamp in the county right now and in a hurry too.

As I listen to the rhythm of the pounding lead...or steel, as the case may be...I am ever so grateful that I am not responsible for our optimistic neighbors' project(ile) budget! 

The upcoming holiday may not be in the calendar, but
it is celebrated with great enthusiasm

Thursdays with Becky

 Lately Becky has been taking Thursdays off so we can get the groceries as soon as the store opens and avoid the crowds. Some weeks we leave at o'dark thirty and head out to see the sun up at some mountain place of wild magic.

We went this week to a place I have named Benham Marsh in honor of a sweet lady I met there and her late son. It was cold and bright with just a touch of morning mist. Ravens were crying their harsh, strong song and a faint twitter had just begun in the edges of the woods.

As the sun crested the horizon the colors popped out one by one. The burgundy and blaze of the Red Maples in the marsh. Just the beginning of orange and crimson in the Sugar Maples. Plenty of green for background, buttercup and bronze in the low-lying bushes, and birds everywhere. So many birds! 

We found 30 species, from a Common Loon calling down on Peck's Lake to a Wilson's Warbler I pished out of the shrubbery. The bushes and treetops were buzzing with warblers, but in their fall plumage ID is tough. I got a few of them though, before they flitted off over the forest, feeding as they went.

Beaver Lodge

Not one car passed during the the nearly two hours that we stayed. I reveled in the cold, wild, beauty until the sun burned off the last of the early morning haze and it was time to rejoin humanity down in town.

Suddenly I find that I love Thursdays...they were formerly just another day in the calendar of retired life. Now they are plumb fantastic.

Immature male Common Yellowthroat

Lip-synching Beethoven

 

Everyone is asleep. Except me. I want to play computer games, but need to make Ralph's breakfast sausage and get some of my steps out of the way. Thus, earphones and silent song.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, fourth movement. Ode to Joy. Perfect for a crisp fall morning. Nestled among the Scottish/Irish music and ancient rock on my Threecollie Walking List it is something of an anomaly but I like it so it stays. 

It sweetly takes me back to other mornings back in the day. My next younger brother introduced me to this particular work, my very favorite piece of classical music, I think during camping trips to Tirrell Pond in the Adirondacks.

We were nutz in those days. Always hiked in packing butternut squash, whole potatoes, butter, and foil in which to prepare these delicacies in the coals of the campfire. While the boys climbed the mountains measuring DBH on many assorted trees for a college class, couch potato girl stayed in camp, tending the fire, and watching the food so it didn't burn. I didn't even like squash until we cooked it on those long ago hikes, but it's a favorite now.

There is a painting in the dining room taken from photos I took then of lakeshore plants....even then I packed a camera, a little Instamatic given to my by my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Earl. The pics weren't great and neither is the painting, but, ah, the memories!

There was this one time we found the lean-to occupied already, when we got there late in the evening. We traded most of our food for the chance to sleep undercover rather than out in the drizzly rain. With little else left, we ate sardines right out of the can....better than nothing...although not much better. I am of the anti-anchovy persuasion...hate the taste so much I can't even eat the half of the pizza that doesn't have them....tastes like dead fish to me. However, that night I ate those sardines and liked them too. You get that hungry hiking out in the woods. 

Anyhow, everyone else is up now so I can play my music and "sing" along if I want to, but I guess I won't. Time to try to find a motel for that trip to Maine we want to take in a couple of weeks. Ugh...I am not good at that sort of thing either. 

Long Lake, not Tirrell, but you get the idea

"The trail ascends 170 feet in the first 1.75 miles before dropping 450 feet over the last 1.5 miles to the pond."

Amsterdam Bird Walk

 

Last Saturday I had the fun of participating in one of George Steele's urban bird walks at the gateway bridge in Amsterdam. Several other birders also attended, and, man, oh, man, some of them are amazing bird spotters...

George leads these walks at the beginning of each summer month, with birds ranging from Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to Bald Eagles being spotted this time. An earlier walk is where I first learned of the Peregrine Falcon family that nests on one of the bridge supports.

There is a surprising variety of habitat for so populated an area, with an overgrown brushy area that is home to catbirds and cardinals, the water, both in the stream that meets the river there and the river itself, plus frequent thermals near vulture roosts, and open grassy areas. We often visit in early evening this time of year to look for Common Nighthawks there and have found them a couple of times. 

If you get a chance, join the group at the boat launch by the bocce court above the bridge. Maybe I will see you there.

Hey S*ms*ng

This is a bird
I like bird apps
NMM (No more math)
*Female Common Merganser

And all your parent companies and providers....Goo Gull, this means you too!

Please be kind enough to cease to install stoopid games on my phone every time there is an update and sometimes in between. Also smart games. Quit it with them too please.

Particularly Sudocooties! I am and have always been math challenged. I do not think in numbers.  I wrote a newspaper column for 23 years...I think...numbers challenged and all. Words are my thing. As in, failed Algebra and aced English and French and learn the Latin names for birds, frogs, and fish....for fun!

Stupidoku is more Greek to me than ancient Sumerian would be. I don't even understand HOW you play it, let alone why. And I don't want to.

Also my phone is crammed with bird apps and pictures of my grandkids, dogs, ponies, garden flowers, and random cool stuff. There is no room for anything involving numbers or movie stars whose words pass for news in your version of culture.

Just cut it out. I am going to uninstall all that junk anyhow and you make me awful cranky.

Thanks, that is all.

Sharing is Caring

 I guess I am something less than caring....I have no love for sharing my lettuce and tiny pea plants with deer or whatever else is devouring them every time I replant.

I grow them in large containers...mostly old plastic watering troughs no longer suitable for their original purpose. Usually that serves to keep the critters away. However this summer I first dealt with a woodchuck using a handy bucket to climb in and decimate the plants. I trapped the chuck in a humane trap, although that was the end of the humane part, and moved the bucket away.

Broad-winged Hawk

It worked for a while. Then the nibbling began anew. Irish Spring was hung above the plants. Guess our local varmints like the fresh scent.

Thus the boss has found some wire paneling we used to cover horse windows back in the day. Guess I will put on his heavy gloves, get out the wire cutters, and shape it to shelter my tasty stuff from whatever is eating it.

 I just don't play well with others. 

Meanwhile the weather is about as good as it gets. Cold and clear enough for stars at night, foggy in the morning, then crisp, clear, and pleasant all day. Laundry dries quickly on the line. You can see all the way to the mountains, but it is not too hot to work outside, for example, making covers for the garden beds and all.

The Red Maples are on fire in the swamps, glowing purple-red like lanterns among the slower changing trees. I was birding Rankin Grove the other day and thought a bear or deer was approaching through the nearby woods. Crash, crash, crash. I watched and listened closely in case I had to get my fanny back in the car...but, no, it was Red Squirrels dropping acorns from seventy feet high or so. They make a lot of noise on the way down. Warblers are beginning to trickle through and the young of the year Ruby-throated Hummingbirds will fly right up in your face, all curious and cute. 

Forget the calendar...It's Fall.

I like it!

Color Magic for Ponies

Take one cute little black pony and one determined young lady.

Add horsey shampoo and lots of water. Wash him well and pick out the burdocks that came out of the most recent hay. 

Braid him up nice and walk him for a while. He is kind of a little stinker (the last word there is a synonym for pony) and the experience will do him good.

Put him back in his lovely box stall with a net full of hay.

And "HEY PRESTO"

Gambit

A cute little blue roan pony emerges from his chrysalis.

Yeah, as soon as the kids put the ponies back in the stalls they rolled like somebody was paying them overtime.

That's life at the Great Fonda Fair.

*The Appleyard Duck Peg exhibited won BOS waterfowl...he is a real pretty fellow. That's him with the dark green head above.

Not just another pretty face
McCall's KC Crimson
AKA Diamond