Oh, the irony!

Events like this really should get much more recognition:

Eco-sailors rescued by oil tanker

An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth on a 5,000-mile carbon emission-free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker.

My guess is they had little experience with the North Atlantic in spring time.

Yeah, the irony is strong in this one.

Aerie Report follow-up

The visit to the vets went surprisingly well! When I went to round up the kitties I found two of them asleep on Terry's sofa. Leaving Chester there, I picked up Julie and put her in a carrier. She started to raise a vocal stink immediately that sent Shadow off her nap spot and under the kitchen table. I was able to corral her and put her in a second carrier (one size up). Then it was Chester's turn. He was still curled up on Terry's sofa despite the now duet of howls coming from the living room so he was easy to pack up. Almost. He's a big boy and when he extends those front legs of his, he can span the Grand Canyon. I eventually got the legs together and pushed his big butt into the largest carry case.

Putting the three of them in the rear seat of the truck, it was off to the vets about 6-7 miles away. I got serenaded the entire way. Chester and Shadow were the most vocal but they were starting to foam at the mouth by the time we got there so some of their "singing" was more of a gurgle.

Julie was fit to be tied and mad as a wet hen but her mouth was dry. She was also angry as a stirred up hornet. She hissed when we went to get her out of her cage on the examining table. She had her ears laid back and would have gladly given me a piece of my mind if she could only get her paws on it. Still, she behaved reasonably well on the examination table, got her shot and weighed in at just +0.25 pounds over last year's weight to 10.5 pounds.

Shadow was next and she too was fit to be tied. Foam dripped from her lower lip when she came out of the cage. I held her down on the table and caressed her head and ears while the vet examined her, gave her her shot and weighed her in--up 1 pound to 13 pounds.

Then it was Chester's time. He came out of his cage with just a little foam flecking his lower lip but quickly realized he was the center of attention and started purring. Listening to his lungs and heart must have been complicated by the steady rumble of his. He got his shot and got weighed (up a pound to 17 pounds) and then we had to shove him back into his case for the ride home.

Once again it was 6-7 miles of caterwalling all the way. Home safely and, well, soundly, I found that Shadow was the only one to make a mess in her travel case. She had barfed on the way up the hill. (Which explains the minute or so when she was quiet.)

Moments after opening the doors of thier cases, all three were roaming around the house and feeling fine.


(Oh, and Shellmo, they all have their own front claws. While Terry and I try not to let them out of the house, we would not think of having them declawed any more than I would want the first joint on all of my toes removed. Besides, should they accidently get out (and they all have for various lengths of time with Julie being the most frequent escapee) I would want them to have a means of 1) defense and 2) capture of food. Yeah, it's extra work for us when we have to clip their claws every two weeks or so. And, yeah, they have put a shredding to some curtains in the past.)

**********

The sun never did come out today and as a result, the temperature once again remained right around 55 degrees. We got some late evening rain showers and they continue off and on well into the night and will probably continue throughout tomorrow. It's getting a little monotonous.

Aerie Report

Cold, damp morning at the Aerie. We had one of those Irish rains overnight. Nice and gentle and it put the emerald in all the green fields. I'd swear that the tree leaves all doubled in size, too. Still not getting above 55 degrees and no sun in sight.

All three cats have to be carted off to the vets in about 15 minutes to get their yearly shots. And Terry's not around to help. I brought their travel cases into the house this morning and everyone's walking on egg shells!

Well, time to play kitty-cowboy and round up the herd. I'm sure it will be lots of fun!

I'll let you know how we survive.

Not much happening

Things have been quiet around the Aerie the last few days. The weather has been repetitious: daytime highs between 55 and 60 degrees, little wind, overcast, dreary. The birds have been less than spectacular with the same-old-same-old crowd crowd coming to the feeders. Terry's been to an Embroiderer's Guild chapter meeting and done some pre-travel shopping.

The two exceptional visitors we've had were the return of Blackie (our bruin friend) and the first male Red-breasted grosbeak of the year.

Blackie last showed up on the evening of May 1 at 9:35 PM.
You can see the light is still on in Terry's sewing/TV room in the background.
Photo taken by a Moultrie 3.1 Game Camera

This is the first male Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the season.
He didn't stay long and I rushed to snap this photo through the glass of
the kitchen window, hence the slight fuzzy nature of the pic.

The Chipmunks have been busy harvesting the sunflower seeds on the ground and off the hanging bird feeders. One in particular has taken to shimmying up the metal pole and jumping over to the feeder to help himself.

Part of the clean-up crew.

And someone, either a mouse or a chippy, has taken to storing sunflower seeds in the grill.

Both the left and right side of the grill are chock full of seeds.
I hope they like the toasted variety. In the interest of fire safety,
I'll be digging these out in a little bit.
I'm guessing there's at least a cup of seeds in there.

Awhile back, when I was up at the Bolt Hole, I mentioned that a red squirrel had built a nest in the attached woodshed. I have a piece of plastic pool liner covering the stacked wood (because the roof leaks) and the squirrel had gathered pink insulation from somewhere (hopefully not the walls) into a ball that was about a peck basket size with a little hole in the side.

Red squirrel nest in the woodshed.
One good reason they are considered vermin.

Happy Birthday to Terry!

A long and enjoyable day here at the Aerie. Long because Chester, the feline alarm cat, sounded off at 5:45 AM and would not shut up no matter how much Terry and I ignored him. Enjoyable because it is Terry's birthday and we went out to dinner and took a nice long ride in the state forests of Potter county afterward on Rt 144 and Rt 44.

When dawn(?) broke this morning, Chester started howling at our bedroom door. (We keep the door shut to the cats for several reasons. 1- I'm allergic, 2-Julie likes to sleep on the same pillow your head is on--sometimes she'll sleep on your head!, 3-Chester not only is most vocal, he is a confirmed and determined licker of bare flesh and will burrow beneath the covers to reach spots that will most definitely cause you to wake up if he starts licking!) He is the official morning-waker-upper but will occasionally get an assist from Shadow or even Julie. (Although Julie, being older and wiser usually is willing to wait down in the kitchen where breakfast will be served if/when Chester wins.) The odd thing is that despite his persistence to waking us up to feed them all breakfast, the one who is most vocal has also become the most finicky about what he eats. He'll turn his nose up at something the other two are gulping down until we put some "crunchies" on it. And they better be the "right" crunchies! The past week, he has left food in his bowl while the two ladies are removing the metal finish from their own before strolling over to empty his bowl too. This doesn't seem to have affected his weight. Perhaps because he's secretly hitting the dry food in the basement on a regular basis.

Anyway, after feeding the cats, having our own breakfast, and Terry going to Mass, I took her to The Log Cabin Inn on Route 6 over in Gaines. Excellent food, reasonable prices and they had the XM radio tuned in to an oldies (50s and 60s) station that played all the great music from before the British invasion. The Everly Brothers, Jan and Dean, Paul and Paula, Les Paul, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper...and lots more. We lingered over a great bowl of French onion soup, our trip to the salad bar, our entrees (Terry had planked salmon, I had blackened Red Snapper), and our deserts.

When we finally made our way out to the truck again, I opted to take a little ride through the woods. We followed Route 6 west to its junction with Route 144 where we turned south toward Germania. A pleasant enough ride in itself, it became even better when we turned north on Route 44 and passed through the Susquehanna State Forest and Cherry Springs State Park. The views along this section of Route 44 are spectacular and, while not nearly as high in elevation (Brodhead Mountain only tops out at 2480 feet) as the Blue Ridge of Virginia and the Carolinas, can compare quite favorably.

What was especially nice is that we had the road all to ourselves. No one was on my bumper pushing me so we could really relax and enjoy the sights. At one point I came around a curve and saw something in the middle of the road on the double yellow line. At first I thought it was just some leaves until I nearly was upon it and then I realized it was a Woodcock or timber-doodle. The amazing thing is that although I drove past at around 35 mph ad missed the bird by a mere twelve inches or less, he did not flush. In fact, as I came to a stop and watched in the rear view mirror, he moved maybe a foot across the yellow lines and then turned around and started to bob-bob-step his way back to the side of the road. And that's exactly the way he moved. He would bob his rear end up and down twice and then take a step forward, bob-bob-step, bob-bob-step. It was a heck of a comical sight. And I, of course, had left my cameras at home! I put the truck into reverse and backed up to within five yards of the bird and still he continued to bob-bob-step his way across the road. It took him several minutes to make the trip moving like some geriatric, walker-wielding, cha-cha stepping nonagenarian. Terry and I were cracking up at the birds movement. When he got to the side of the road, I backed up further so he was just below Terry's window. She said he just hunkered down in the leaves on the side of the road making him pretty difficult to spot from directly above. Perhaps he needed to take a nap after his long stroll!

Anyway, once the show was over, we continued on our way. Back on Route 6 we turned east to head home. Now traveling at 55 mph, there was a steady "ping" on the windshield. It sounded like rain drops and, at first, that's what I thought it was for the clouds had been threatening some form of precipitation all morning. But, no, it was not rain. It was bugs. Although I never saw what kind of bug, I have to assume it was black flies. We were not terribly far from Pine Creek and the many little streams that feed into the creek no doubt are prime breeding grounds for black flies. The sound of their little bodies smacking against the windshield put a warm glow inside me where it was needed. Even at the lower elevation of Pine Creek, the afternoon temperature was still only 60 degrees. Perhaps taking that afternoon drive, just like we used to do when we first got married, will help in the temperature department, too. At just 17-18 mpg we did our part to contribute CO2 to the atmosphere. Of course, since our ride was through mostly forested regions, we may have also contributed to the growth of the trees and shrubs that are just now starting to leaf out.

Yeah, it was a very enjoyable day.

Saturday bird walk at Hills Creek SP

One of the best attended field walks we've every had. We had folks come all the way from down by Williamsport (at least an hour south of us) to participate. I blame the two (2) articles that recently appeared in print. One was in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and the other was in the Mountain Home (an excellent free publication that come out once a month). In addition to the new folks (interestingly, none of them were camping--again), we had the return of several TAS members from their winter travel to the Salton Sea area of California. The result was a combination of a welcome home gathering and a mixer.

We had a great day for it too. Lots of sunshine (even at the new starting hour for May of 7:30 AM) and temperatures of around 45-55 degrees F.


The results weren't too shabby either. We had plenty of birds (35 species) despite loosing many of the migratory water fowl we had a few weeks ago. Except for the Robins and the Yellow-rumped Warblers, however, the number of individuals seemed small. Perhaps they were in hiding or huddled up somewhere to get warm.
Location: Hills Creek State Park
Observation date: 5/2/09
Notes: Cool, clear morning after a heavy overnight rain. Temp 45-55 degrees F.
Large contingent of Yellow-rump Warblers on the north end of the lake in the hemlocks. Precursors tot he spring warbler migration?
Number of species: 35

Canada Goose X
Wood Duck X
Mallard X
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron X
Osprey X
Spotted Sandpiper X
Mourning Dove X
Barred Owl X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker X
Pileated Woodpecker X
Eastern Phoebe X
Blue-headed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Common Raven X
Tree Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Brown Creeper X
House Wren X
American Robin X
European Starling X
Yellow Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) X
Black-throated Green Warbler X
Ovenbird X
Chipping Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
Swamp Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Pine Siskin X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Cleaning your computer monitor: a swine flu public service

I just received this from a friend in the San Diego area and felt it was my public duty to pass it along. I tried it and I must say I feel much, much better for having done so.

Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 12:06 PM

I have recently learned that all computer screens on the inside are covered with bacteria, dust, germs, etc. that can be dangerous to your health. This is caused by a variety of reasons and it can prove to be a health hazard for everyone that uses the computer. Some at the CDC in Atlanta have recently said that this problem can be as dangerous as cigarette smoking because of the time that most of us are now spending on computers for work and personal reasons.

With today's threat from swine flu, cleanliness is of utmost importance. We've all heard the warnings advocating that we wash our hands frequently, clean our phones and keyboards, avoid touching our eyes, nose and mouth, etc. Just think of the hours you spend at your computer coughing, sneezing, wheezing and laughing as you read others posts and type your own. Isn't it time you thoroughly cleaned the inside of you monitor?


Click on this link to clean the inside of your screen: I did it and it's amazing how much better I feel. Inside Screen Cleaner

Dang! These guys are clever!

(At least they went for the salad.)

Pandemic? What pandemic?

Is the swine flu pandemic, announced just last week with so much fanfare and hyperbole, nothing more than an over-hyped, panicy response to case of too much time on cable news channels and not enough news to fill it?

Could be.

Swine flu may be less potent than first feared

The swine flu outbreak that has alarmed the world for a week now appears less ominous, with the virus showing little staying power in the hardest-hit cities and scientists suggesting it lacks the genetic fortitude of past killer bugs.

The gist of the story is that there aren't as many dead as earlier reported, the kids in the New York City private school were about the only ones who got sick in the city and the school will be reopening on Monday. And as far as Mexico City is concerned? Very, very few of the relatives of the folks who caught the flu haven't been infected.

In New York City, which has the most confirmed swine flu cases in the U.S. with 49, swine flu has not spread far beyond cases linked to one Catholic school. In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, very few relatives of flu victims seem to have caught it.

A flu expert said he sees no reason to believe the virus is particularly lethal. And a federal scientist said the germ's genetic makeup lacks some traits seen in the deadly 1918 flu pandemic strain and the more recent killer bird flu.

Doesn't sound like a very potent bug at all. I've a feeling that a week from now, when much of the hype is over and the swine flu---excuse me H1N1---has been put on the back burner, there are going to be an awful lot of folks who feel like the weatherman sent to a sea wall to witness the fury and destruction of a hurricane only to discover there's not much more than a stiff breeze blowing.

Or perhaps it was nothing more than a distraction to prevent a truly close look at Obama's "accomplishments" during his first 100 days in office.

(h/t Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit)


UPDATE: Saturday evening 8:50 PM:

Mexico swine flu deaths ebb - but caution urged

Sounding more and more like the boy who cried wolf....or Chicken Little.

Spring arrivals

A couple of new (for this year) birds at the feeders the last few days.

First in was a horde of Chipping Sparrows on Wednesday. There must have been a dozen of the diminutive sparrows hopping around on the ground under the feeders and on the deck searching for seeds. Their brown, black and gray striping makes such excellent camouflage that they are easily missed until they move. Luckily they move...a lot.

This morning was cool and rainy so I was a little slow in getting the feeders out. I was waiting until I had my breakfast but the birds were impatient. The Blue Jays were holding a confab on the lawn tray feeder. They were probably planning how to storm the house. The Goldfinches, arrayed in their Sun God uniforms, were flitting around the front deck and peering in at me wondering where were the morning offerings. Black-capped Chickadees were doing the same in a slightly more vocal demonstration.

Suddenly, two birds appeared we had not seen since last fall. Two female Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks were sitting on the deck rail and post looking for a handout. They are half again as large as the female purple and house finches, have a distinct white wing bar and a positively huge light colored beak. Both Terry and I realized they were "different" as soon as we saw them.

Other birds have made their presence known in one way or another. The clear "drink-your-tea" of the Eastern Towhee sounds out from the woods (between the turkey gobbles and clucks). I even heard a "poor-Sam-Peabody-Peabody-Peabody" of a White-throated Sparrow the other day. The call of the Wood Thrush can be heard in the early morning and evening. Unfortunately, two of these lovely birds crashed into the kitchen window last week. Both were DOA. Something must have flushed them and they, being used to darting among the dark trees of the woods, thought to enter the house and avoid what ever it was.

From reports I've seen, there are more and more warblers showing up in the area. Tomorrow's walk at Hills Creek SP could be interesting. I'll have to brush up on my bird songs.