Chilly today, chillier tomorrow

It was a cool, crisp autumn day here in north-central PA today. Or it would have been if this were October instead of four days before the Sumer Solstice. Temperatures were in the mid to upper 50s and may--just may--have reached the low 60s down in the valleys. (Daily averages at weather.com: high of 77 degrees. Forecast for tomorrow at weather.com: high of 60--maybe.)

I left the Aerie bright and early at 6 am heading to wester Tioga County to do some birding and then help with some repairs to the blind at the Muck. I hit Darling Run on Pine Creek first and spent two hours walking the bike path from near Route 6 down to the old CCC camp. I won't list everything I saw but the highlight was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

I then went across the creek and drove up to Colton Point for another hour of birdwatching. (I cut this short when the showers arrived.) Nothing really spectacular here that I haven't seen here before but a Scarlet Tanager posed nicely--too bad I didn't have the camera!

An early lunch and I was at the Muck an hour and a half before I needed to be so I did some more birdwatching while I waited and was rewarded with the sight of a female Wood Duck and her brood of eight little ones as well as three Virginia Rails that played hide-and-seek with me on the boardwalk. Not only did they try to hide in the marsh grasses but they ducked under the boardwalk over and over again. If they had kept their little mouths shut, I probably wouldn't have noticed them. Again, the camera was of little help as they were too quick and the auto focus kept getting the grass and not the bird. There was also a Northern Flicker at a nest hole in the parking lot. I watched it return to the nest two or three times with food for whatever was inside and carrying out the trash. Of course, as soon as I set up the camera, the bird stopped returning.

We had to remove an old broken shutter and replace it with a new one which sounds easy enough. The new shutter was cut to the proper dimensions but the old hole into which it was to fit wasn't square. (The previous shutter was cut from the T-11 siding that was on the building.And since it was the place where two sheets met, the top and bottom edges were off by 1/4 inch and not straight across.) We had to fiddle around with it for a good hour and a half before we were satisfied that we had done the best we could with the tools we had on hand. If I had a battery operated trim saw, we would have been finished in 45 minutes. (Something else for the "want/need" list.)

Whilst I was on my birding safari this morning, Terry reports that the bear came back and took apart a plastic bird feeder in the yard of the Aerie. He didn't demolish it, he took it apart. He straightened the wire that holds the top on and from which it hangs. This allowed him to get to the goodies inside. Once he was done, he ambled off around the back of the house. Probably to sleep off his sunflower high.