Bolt Hole Report, evening edition

The turkeys were back in the yard this morning. This time there were four of them. None sported a beard so it looks like hens and poults form last year's brood.

I spent the morning and early afternoon hauling some of the pine logs off to an area we call "the dump"--an old hole dug in years long past that was probably a source of sand for the septic system. It holds a good amount of water this time of year but there's still some dry areas where the branches and logs we don't put on Mount Slashmore can go. That pine's no good for firewood and it's too dry to think about using it fro a bonfire/campfire.

Around 2:30 PM I'd had enough and sat down to watch the tube and got sucked into the Talladega 500. (See previous post.)

I'll be packing up tomorrow morning and heading on back to the Aerie. (Running out of clean undies and socks.)

Mark had a couple of game cameras out for the last week and got some really nice pictures of the turkeys, a few deer and one coyote. I'll post the best when I get a chance.

I had company outside much of yesterday and today. There was a grouse drumming from an old sugaring foundation just a few dozen yards from where I was running the ATV. He probably thought the rumble of the engine was a competitor. Overhead I spied a pair of broad-winged hawks. They must have a nest in the area somewhere for they circle around the property quite regularly. They are not happy with the ATV! A few Canada geese flew over yesterday and today there was a sizable V of them. They must be from either of the two small ponds or the lake four-five miles up the jeep trail. Flickers were, of course, present. Juncos, robins, phoebes (they've renovated the nest on the window and seem to have moved in), some chickadees, a distant barred owl, a couple of blue jays, and some turkey vultures rounded out the avian population.

The turkey vultures were interesting. yesterday as I was hauling slash, three of them came from the woods to the north just above the trees. Two seemed to be attacking the third as if to drive it off. When they flap their wings at that low an altitude, you know you've got company! Perhaps the pair have a nest in the tops of a tree nearby. There are no cliff ledges on which to nest anywhere around here, but there are plenty of trees that have lost their tops due to storms.

I've seen just one red squirrel in the yard. It's probably pissed that the pines have been thinned as the cones provided seeds the squirrels love to eat. They'll stash cones everywhere when they are ripe. Or they will sit on a branch and chew on the cone like it was an ear of corn. This one was doing the latter. He must have known I had not gotten the .22 out 'cause it didn't budge when I walked up to the tree on which it was sitting.

I spotted a chipmunk today, too. It was hustling around among the brush near the house. I've no idea what it was finding but it looked healthy enough.

A few morning chores, battening down of the hatches and I'll be on the road shortly after noon tomorrow.