Last evening, between dinner and sunset, we took a walk around Lowe Pond. There were hikers and bikers, enjoying the trails, but we concentrated mostly on the pond area, and spent almost three hours checking out the birds and wildlife in the area.

We saw mockingbirds at every turn.

There were berries by the path, and I spotted the bushes out of the corner of my eye. I used to pick baskets full of these when we stayed at the cottage in the summer. I had to restrain myself to only pick a handful last night.

We heard a rustling in the bushes, and this little chipmunk was scurrying up to get a mouthful of his own berries. He perched there at eye level, watching us, as we watched him.

We kept seeing this bird, or maybe he had brothers. It took many photos and angles before we dared to guess that it might be a juvenile male rose-breasted grosbeak.

The sky was ever changeable during our three hour stay, and it became cool as the sun went down.    We again made a commitment to, sometime, make it all the way down the side trail into Big Flats. There is always just too much to see.

Posted: August 11th, 2008 under birding.
Comments: 3

It just can’t be August. It was such a cool day. I was only in the kitchen for a few minutes this morning, when I turned off the ceiling fan, and went back to the bedroom for a sweatshirt. When I left work today, the sky looked menacing, and more like the skies of an autumn day. We had dinner out, at the airport restaurant, then a short drive into the country before coming home. I want to soak up as many sights of summer that I can, before it is truly over.

The birds seem to know that change is in the air, as the visitors to my feeders, themselves, are changing. Blue jays are suddenly back, after months away. A couple of cedar waxwings landed in the willows yesterday, and they are rare in my yard, for sure. Most surprisingly, a hairy woodpecker made an appearance, not only this morning, but again late afternoon, at the suet feeder. I have had downies continually, since I have fed the birds, but this is the first hairy that I have ever noticed. She made herself known, by picking a fight with a blue jay, while I was watching out the window at breakfast this morning.

Posted: August 8th, 2008 under birding, day-to-day.
Comments: 1

After staying close to home Saturday, and getting chores done, I wanted to get away for the day. We hadn’t been up to see my dad and Evelyn in a few weeks, so mid-morning yesterday, we headed towards Auburn. It was an off again, on again, weather day. We had the top up, then down, then up again, as we passed under dark clouds for the hour and a half ride. We were nearing Montezuma Wildlife Refuge about noon, when we decided to go ahead and pull in and take the drive.

There were gulls, and shorebirds in the water near the entrance. Ahead of us at the side of the road, George pointed out a great-blue heron. We inched closer, trying to get a good photo, before the vehicle following us drove on around, and scared it off.

It was a good day for herons. We saw several, and they always pose if we give them space.

There were red-winged blackbirds, an Eastern kingbird, a couple of northern flickers, swallows, and ducks along the way. If we had more time, I’m sure we would have spotted more birds.

As we left the main drive and continued back towards the highway, we saw an osprey at the North Spring Pool. There were actually three that we could spot, one at the top of a dead tree, one in the nest, and one preening itself on a log.

I wish I had taken more pictures, but there is always the choice between observing and photographing, and I hate to miss out while I fumble with my camera.

Posted: August 4th, 2008 under road trips, birding.
Comments: 3

I wonder sometimes if I will recognize young birds when they appear out back. This morning I could tell right away with this young mourning dove. It appeared on the deck with the others, but obviously smaller, and a bit more speckled I thought.

It tried to join one of the adults at the feeder,  but was scolded and pecked at.

I felt bad for the young one, but I guess it’s all part of growing up.

Posted: July 8th, 2008 under birding.
Comments: 3

A busy day, and very productive. I feel that I accomplished many things that had been neglected for too long. George had to head back to work, beginning his summer run this morning, leaving the house at 6 a.m. I got up with him, and started on my many projects, and had to force myself to stop and take a rest after lunch.

An exciting part of my day was spotting a female rose-breasted grosbeak early this morning, and soon after, the male arrived at the feeder. It is so rarely that one comes, and the male lingered long enough for a few good pictures.

It was another good day.

Posted: July 2nd, 2008 under birding.
Comments: 5

Day four of my vacation. Today was just right, the way I would like to spend my days. I puttered around the house in the morning, doing a little bit of cleaning, sorting, reorganizing, finding things long forgotten. We had coffee and cold pizza for breakfast, and listened to the radio playing favorites from the 60’s. I watched the birds, and noted a rare-for-me rose-breasted grosbeak, a northern flicker, and the occasional hummingbird, besides my regulars. A robin serenaded me as I worked in the kitchen.

Midday we headed out to the home improvement store with a list in hand. We spent some time looking around and making some plans, not feeling rushed or too tired, so a lot was accomplished. There were two new perennials for our garden, the materials to make a compost bin, and blinds ordered for our kitchen door window.

I spent the afternoon in the yard, perennials planted, vegetables watered, weeds pulled. George put in considerable time making my compost idea a reality.

There was time to sit out on the deck and read, and eat supper, and have a phone chat with Garrett and my sister, Cheryl.

Tonight we walked about the yard, checking the growth of our young trees, and the appearance of our one little acre, and it all seemed just right. There is so much more we would like to do, as time goes on, but for today, there was just contentment with what is, and that we were able to be here together to enjoy it.

Posted: July 1st, 2008 under birding, day-to-day.
Comments: 1

Day three of my vacation. It was a busy one, and not one that I expected upon awakening.

School ended last Wednesday here, and George has spent several mornings at the bus garage, getting his bus clean and ready for DOT inspection. This morning he planned to make one more trip over to finish the job, and asked me to go with him. I almost said no, but then I realized that I don’t have many opportunities to be a helpmate in situations like this, so I tagged along. The bus looked pretty clean to me, but there were windows to wash, and seat belts to arrange, so that is what I did, and the job was soon done, and we were free for the rest of the day.

We had packed up our birding bag so that we could walk on over to the wetlands area near the athletic fields where we saw redwings, a cardinal, goldfinches, mourning doves, catbirds, grackles, and one lone mallard.

The sun was high by this time, and we were on the boardwalk in the tall grasses, so it was really too hot to stay out long. We came on home, and did some yard work, pulling out the Deadly Night Shade that was growing under the deck.  I cleaned out one of the nest boxes, and we planted another maple tree on the hill.

There really were no other plans for our day, so I sat down with my laptop, and George sat down with his model. We heard the rumbling of a delivery truck out front, and here comes the replacement cell phone we ordered Saturday for my dad and Evelyn. They have been without a cell phone since Friday, when their battery died, and we wanted to get them this one ASAP. It allows them free long distance, and a way to be in touch when they are out and about. We decided there was no time like the present, so we hopped in the car, and drove on up to Auburn. I took a container full of brownies with us, and Evelyn reciprocated with some ginger snaps she had just pulled out of the oven.

We stayed a couple of hours to visit, then the long ride home. The sky was really dark when we headed back, with a heavy rain soon after. The skies finally cleared as we neared Watkins Glen.

Posted: June 30th, 2008 under road trips, birding, day-to-day.
Comments: 3

I have my regular stream of bird visitors this summer, grackles, redwings, mourning doves, chickadees, cardinals, house finches, house sparrows, chipping sparrows,  goldfinches.

The past two years I have had tree swallows using the nest boxes, and it was disappointing this year, when the house sparrows took over both boxes. So it was quite exciting when I saw four swallows swooping around the willows the other day. One landed, and stayed quite awhile. It appeared to be a fledgling, unsure of itself, looking around, not sure what to do next. Maybe the parents had brought him by to show him off.

Posted: June 24th, 2008 under birding.
Comments: 6

It promised to be a nicer day, so we loaded up the canoe, and headed for the Chemung River. George thought that the best place to put in would be Fitch’s Bridge, so that was our starting point. We started paddling upstream, checking out the bird life as we went. We saw the swallow’s nests under the bridge.

We noted redwing blackbirds, grackles, gulls and crows.

We hit a patch of shallow water, where the current was especially fast, and we couldn’t get our paddles deep enough in the water to overcome it. So, we went with the flow, and let the current turn us back downstream. No paddling was needed, except to steer now and then. We continued on towards Elmira, enjoying the beautiful day, but keeping in mind that we needed to find a place before long to pull in, and make the walk back for the car.

Several mallards were ahead of us, and as we got closer, took flight.

We scared up a school of ducklings. They startled us, as much as we startled them, and I couldn’t get my camera soon enough with the current carrying us on down river. The only other interesting bird we encountered was a green heron near shore.

Eventually we heard signs of civilization, and saw a place to pull in. A young girl was biking towards us, and told us of our location. I stayed with the canoe, and continued to watch the activity around me - butterflies, tadpoles, small skinny snakes gliding through the water, and a cardinal that came down for a drink.

George was back in half an hour, and we loaded back up and were on our way. The next time we do this we will plan a little better, so we are free to make a longer run and have a ride back to the car.

Posted: June 22nd, 2008 under road trips, birding.
Comments: 3

The sun has set, and the temperature is 80 degrees. I believe it rose to 96 today, making our high here in central New York greater than that in southern Florida. Ugh. Supposedly we will get a break tomorrow afternoon when storms come through.

I have been keeping a watchful eye on the plants we have outside. It seems I have dumped buckets full of water each night of this hot, dry spell. An inch of water left at the base of the pot is soon gone, and I replenish it as soon as I can.

The birds and the squirrels seem unaffected by the heat. It’s business as usual for them, although I notice that more birds are perching at the birdbath for a drink. I’m sure many other sources of water have dried up this past week.

Posted: June 9th, 2008 under birding, day-to-day.
Comments: 1