We did another bird walk this morning. Today we visited Colton Point State Park on the western rim of the Grand Canyon of PA. The idea was to see all the warblers that typically stop off there as spring time rolls around but while there were numerous individuals of select species, things weren't as happening as we thought they might be. Most of the trees have yet to leaf out and the warblers typically like the young leaves and the insects they attract. We tallied only 18 species in a two hour walk along the canyon rim. The highlights included many Blackburnian and Black-and-white Warblers as well as a Red-eyed Vireo and a Blue-headed Vireo. Here's the entire report I submitted to eBird:

Location: Colton Point
Observation date: 5/7/11
Notes: First time at Colton Pt. this year. Mostly sunny with temps starting at 45 rising to 60 degrees. Many trees have yet to open their buds or are just barely starting...seems late.
Number of species: 18

Canada Goose X
Common Merganser (North American) X
Turkey Vulture X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker X
Eastern Phoebe X
Blue-headed Vireo X
Red-eyed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Tree Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Hermit Thrush X
Northern Parula X
Black-throated Blue Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Blackburnian Warbler X
Black-and-white Warbler X
Eastern Towhee X

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

More Plantings at the Aerie

I spent the better part of Friday afternoon planting six more shrubs along the edge of the Aerie's lawn. Two Spirea, two Lilacs, and two Burning bushes went in the ground with the help of the backhoe on the tractor. If I had had to dig the holes by hand, I'd still be at it. Lots and lots of rock, including one doozy that made me change the location of a planned hole because it was too freakin' huge!

Still have to do some seed planting but, after a morning of birding, I'm looking at some very, very dark thunderstorm clouds heading this way. We've already had a couple of very short but drenching showers--interspersed with bright sunshine, just to be interesting. Planting is off for today!

The forecast is looking good for the next few days--after 8 PM tonight. Once this front moves through, we should have mostly sunshine until Wednesday or so. The same is true up north at the Bolt Hole, though and I may opt to head up there for a couple of days to see if I can finish the rewiring. Or I could stick around and take advantage of the good weather to put some string bean, zuke and cuke seeds in the ground.

Bear Visitor at the Aerie--Again

I was a bit late getting the bird feeders in last evening. Instead of 7:30 or so, It's as more 8:30 when I went out to get them. And that was too late. Something had beaten me to the task. The suet feeder was gone and one of the stick feeders was on the ground with its top off and all the seed gone. The other stick feeder was still on the shepherd's crook, but it was empty also. As was the larger metal feeder hanging on the telephone pole. Since one of the shepherd's hooks was bent, I figured the culprit to be a bear. Again.

Later around 10:30, while Terry and I were watching an early episode of

NCIS

on USA (yeah, it IS addictive), I thought I heard something on the deck and all the cats suddenly went on high alert--i.e. their curiosity got them to stare intently in the direction of the deck with their ears cocked for full reception. I grabbed a flashlight and sure enough, Mr. Bruin had come back to empty the tray feeder on the deck. He wasn't too concerned about the light but, discovering there was nothing in the tray, ambled off the deck and back to the spilled seed on the ground by the feeder station. There, he plopped himself down and started to wish for a full feeder instead of having to sweep up the food from the ground.

He's a decent sized bear. I was able to get an idea of his size as he leaned on the rail of the deck and looked over the side and as he slow walked past the sliding door to go back down to the yard. I would estimate he's about my size and would probably tip the scales at 225-250 pounds. But his snout is still elongated. I thought thin and pointy (more like a German shepherd's) snouts usually indicated a youngish bear. I couldn't be sure, but his coat was either matted with sunflower seeds (or suet) or he had several wounds on his flanks and back. There were distinctly lighter marks smaller than a dime in several locations.

I'll hold the feeders in for a couple of days and let the birds, chipmunks and squirrels act as clean-up crew to get any uneaten seeds off the ground. I'm down to my last bag of sunflower seeds anyway and this might help stretch things out.

So far having Mr. Bruin around is only a nuisance and I would like it to remain that way. I can excuse a few damaged/destroyed bird feeders. I shouldn't be leaving them out over night anyway.

Plantings at the Aerie

A beautiful spring day here at the Aerie. The sun was shining all day and the temperatures rose to around 58 degrees. More importantly, things were able to dry out considerably under the sun and a steady 20-25 mph breeze.

I went out to Lowes this morning to pick up some shrubs for around the Aerie. I got four Rhododendrons, two Burning Bushes, two Forsythias, two Spirea, and three Bleeding Hearts. I also picked up three bags of potting soil (32 quarts each) and two bags of soil modifier (1.5 cu. ft. each). As you might surmise, my afternoon was planned for me.

After lunch I dug four holes for the Rhodies just off the covered deck. Digging necessitated the use of a long handled shovel and a 16 pound steel bar. Have I ever mentioned that the hill (and consequently the fill) upon which the Aerie is constructed is stone and clay? The stone was hard and the clay was wet.

The four holes produced about four cubic feet of a mix of stone and clay--a 50-50 mix. I screened that to get the larger stones out and mixed it 50-50 with a bag of soil enhancer. The four plants went in, the mixed soil was placed around them and tamped down and then all four were given a generous drink of water.

It took almost three hours by which time I was a hurting puppy. My back ached. My knees ached. My arms ached. With luck, however, those Rhodies will grow to descent size and produce lovely pink blossoms in late May early June. Each currently has 5 or 6 buds that will open this year--and they are only about 16 inches tall.

Terry planted the three Bleeding Hearts near the front door. That area gets almost no sunlight which is perfect for these shade loving plants. We already had three there and they are loving it! There had been a fourth, but when we had the stone applied to the foundation last year, Don couldn't help but stomp on one and killed it.

Tomorrow I get to plant the other six plants. I think I'll get the backhoe out to assist.

Big Brother is Watching!

We've all seen it in use on TV shows. Government agents hit a few keys and they can pin point exactly where and which computer a suspect is using. Or they can trace a cell phone call to within a few feet anywhere in the world.

Well, I was recently sent a link to a site that can accurately locate me!

It's really unbelievable. I was surprised to learn that such technology was available to just anyone already..

You don't need a GPS, a tom-tom or tom cat or whatever ---

It uses your IP address and finds the exact location of any internet user in seconds. It uses a sophisticated time based algorithm to do so. Try it and find your own location on the earth.

Your location will pop up in a new window in about 10 seconds or so.
Click on the link below......

http://www.darnay.com/iec/features/locator/index.html

What the Hey?

(h/t Theo Spark)

I don't know, but wouldn't this make you want to go out a purchase a Scion. (Or go watch lots of Benny Hill videos.)

More Aerie Birds, May 4, 2011

Just a few bird photos from the backyard.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

The smaller of the two nuthatches in the region, this little guy is a darting piece of dapperness. It will swoop in to snatch a bit of suet or a sunflower seed and then head for the trees to eat its treat. Like it's larger cousin the White-breasted Nuthatch, it will forage along the trunks of trees looking for insects, spiders and their eggs by hopping down the bole of the tree head first.

Chipping Sparrow

The smallest of sparrows, this little bird sports a rusty red beret and a clean grey breast. It's a ground feeder and will be found scratching for seeds beneath the shrubs or along the sides of trails.

Eastern Towhee

This used to be called the "Rufus-sided Towhee" for obvious reasons. The bright red eye is a distinguishing characteristic shared by both sexes--which is good because the female is much more drab in appearance being mostly an earthy brown. Another ground feeder, it will scratch for seeds and insects by kicking both feet simultaneously. It has a very loud and distinctive song that commands that you "Drink your tea!"

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

This rather stubby, chubby robin-sized bird with brilliant black and white plumage with a bright red bib is a welcome visitor in the summer.

American Goldfinch

The male's bright yellow and black highlights make this a welcome and colorful summer visitor. Large flocks can be seen at feeders and along the side of the road where weeds have grown tall. We've so many that it looks like we've decorated our trees with yellow Easter eggs.

One other recent and notable visitor is the Indigo Bunting. One appeared on the deck yesterday as we were eating our lunch. It stayed only long enough to grab a couple of sunflower seeds before heading off into the trees. We've had them around the place every summer so there's no reason to believe he won't be back.

Birthdays. We got 'em!

Terry is celebrating her birthday today. She's "O my God!" years of age.

Her cousin (and my good fishing/hunting/all-around) buddy, Joe is also celebrating his birthday. He's five years younger than Terry. (For a long time, she thought he was a birthday present since they grew up just one block apart in Linden, NJ.) And, no, I won't say how old he is because you could then calculate how old she is and I would be in deep doo-doo.

Then Way Up North in Alaska, Rev. Paul is also celebrating a birthday today. I'm not sure how old Paul is but he is younger than dirt and probably closer to Joe's age than Terry's and is somewhere between. After meeting him this last summer on our trek to the 49th state, I can truly say he is good people. Too bad he's like 5000 miles away!

From the Aerie, May 2, 2011

Not much to report today.

The rains didn't come as predicted (that's a good thing). Seems the weather that was supposed to cause some drenching today broke up into isolated and widely scattered rains (almost) none of which hit here.

The sun actually came out for a few moments this afternoon (another good thing).

And, it seems, a group of Navy SEALS gave Osama bin Laden the old heave-ho from both this mortal coil and the deck of a U.S. warship. That's a Very. Good. Thing. Though I would have preferred a little old 7th Century justice in this case. Dragged through the streets. (Broadway in Manhattan would have been my choice.) Head on a pike. (Ground Zero is available.)

As to the last item:

Clarence Darrow once said, "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." (Earlier on Facebook I attributed a similar quote to Mark Twain but have been unable to verify that.)

Twain DID say, "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it."

******

Terry spent the better part of the morning fielding phone calls from SAGA members wanting to sign up for the Smocking Arts Guild of America national convention. She had one of her EGA friends here to help enter data into the web site from people who had mailed their forms in to here. I set up a couple of spread sheet to keep track of the financial end of things once they had finished processing the information about classes and such. From 9:50 AM (a couple of early birds--registration didn't start until 10 AM EDT) until 1 PM the phone was ringing off the hook. Remind me to never, ever volunteer for a phone bank!

Now that the first day is over, things will slow down considerably. Many of these women wanted to be sure to get the classes they wanted during the convention and so were in a rush to get things done--yesterday. They didn't not want to be closed out of the classes. (As it was, by 1 PM five of the classes were closed.) Yeah, they could have done it all themselves online, but there were those with special vouchers and others that didn't trust (or understand) PayPal.

I should have either gone turkey hunting or to Cabela's. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh. Wait. Tomorrow (May 3rd) is Terry's birthday.

If I went to Cabela's tomorrow, she would want to go. And then I would have to buy stuff for her. (She got all the cool stuff from Cabela's last time.)

Okay. Maybe Wednesday!

******

Roads around the Bolt Hole continue to be in rough shape according to the pages of the local news sources. Oh, I could get there, but the route would be--shall we say--circuitous. I'm in no hurry, especially since the forecast for the next couple of days is rain, rain and--oh yeah--rain.

******

Well, that is all for now from this little bit of Heaven. Time for one more little toast to the Navy SEALS before I head off to bed. I read that they pulled a number of computers and flash drives from Osama's hidey hole--if you can call a mansion a hidey hole. Got to be some pretty nervous people in al Quida--and Pakistan. I wish them all a peaceful and long--a very long--sleep (well, maybe not peaceful).

More Rain On the Way *sigh*

First day of May and it's shaping up to be just like April--WET! And cool.

The weather gurus are saying we'll get about 2.5 inches of rain this week (Sunday through Thursday). The average for the entire month is just 3 inches so we're off to a quick start! We got more than twice the average rainfall during April. The 10-day (weather.com) and 15-day (accuweather.com) show most days with a high temperatures of about 60 degrees and many of them only in the 50s. Oh, and they both show more rain next week.

******

This morning I went down to get the Sunday newspapers and saw that the Exxon station had a price of $3.94 for a gallon of regular. Haven't seen prices that high since immediately after the hurricanes hit the Gulf coast a few years back. Then it was the weather that caused the disruption of supplies. Once the weather ended and damage assessed/repaired prices came back down. Now, it's the fed printing money reducing its value and, of course, an energy policy(?) from the White House that's preventing the production from resources right here in the USA. Instead, we have windmills. And corn being turned into fuel instead of food and feed.

******

When I got back to the Aerie, I pulled out the lawn mower, checked the oil level, filled the gas tank and gave two slow pulls to prime the engine and one hard pull and the Briggs & Stratton engine fired right up. No excuse now! So off I went mowing the lawn. It was just starting to get scraggly looking but was at that stage where it was easy to mow. Doing it now should encourage better growth. besides. the forecast being what it is, I may not get another chance until next weekend.

Once finished, I grabbed the Round Up and went around spraying some of the dandelion, thistle, and other weeds I had spotted. It won't eliminate them, but it should thin them out a bit.

Then, it was on to planting some carrot seeds. The soil needed to be turned again since the very heavy rains after the last digging had compacted it a bit too much for carrots. That's a scene likely to be repeated this week, but what the hey!

Finally, I did a little tree trimming, removing a couple of oak and maple branches that were either rubbing against other trees or had been broken by delivery trucks or ice.

Then it was time for a late lunch as the drizzle started.

Followed by a book and a nap.

******

Terry was in New Jersey for a SAGA stitching class over the weekend. (Luckily, her little Aveo gets 35 mpg.) She had a good time with some of her buds learning new methods, drinking wine, going out to dinner, drinking wine, sittin' a stitchin' and--did I mention--drinking wine. Tomorrow, she and a few helpers will be occupying the Aerie to do some work in registering folks for classes at the SAGA national convention.

Don't know what I'll do during that time, but it won't be heading to the Bolt Hole just yet. Last I checked, the roads are still a mess up there from last week's storm. I could get there by a rather circuitous route, but I've a few time.