Aerie Report, November 16, 2010

Weird day. Started out cool and overcast and became quite rainy by noon. The rain continued all afternoon and now into the night. The temperature, however, made almost no change. It was around 44 at 7 AM and 46 at 7 PM with the latter being the high for the day...so far. The breeze that turns the windmills is coming out of the south-southwest and may drive the temperature up slightly even though it's now dark.

******

There are a multitude of gas wells in the area and one of the closer ones--just a couple of miles to the west as the crow flies--is being flared off today. Terry saw the flames when she went sown to get the mail and go to Curves this morning. Apparently it's still being flared because we have our own little "northern lights" as the low clouds are flickering yellow, pink, purple and red. Since the well is on the other side of a sizable hill, and the wind is blowing at right angles to the line of sight, I can't hear the whoosh of the flare, but I know it's got to be there. A well that was flared last spring and that was upwind of the Aerie sounded like a not-so-distant jet engine.

******

Speaking of gas...The price of gasoline has risen about 12 cents int he past week. It was $2.94 at the local Exxon when I returned from the 'Dacks on Monday last. Today it was $3.06.

That's going to play havoc with inflation. No?

Say it with me: Drill baby! Drill!

******

I put out the bird feeders (or at least some of them) last Saturday morning. It took the chickadees about 1/2 hour to locate them and start their frequent flitterings back and forth. They grab a sunflower seed and head off into the pines either to eat that sucker or stash it away for later. Soon after the chickadees we had a chipmunk and a flock of goldfinches as regular visitors. Then the blue jays, nuthatches (both red and white breasted) and mourning doves. Finally a single gray squirrel appeared on Sunday. Today it was two gray squirrels along with all the avian visitors.

I've still got a few hanging feeders to put out including a thistle feeder I need to repair after Mr. Bruin did a number on it last spring. I also want to see about getting a tray feeder out on the front deck but need to figure out how to cantilever the dang thing so it sticks out over open air instead of putting it on the rail where the coons can get to it and where all the seed hulls end up in the cracks of the deck boards. I've a mental picture of what's needed but just need to figure out how to do it without screwing holes into the deck posts.

******

Terry roasted a BIG (about 5 pounds) chicken the other day and we've enjoyed three dinners out of it and have a pot of meaty carcass soup for lunches. Tonight we had chicken enchiladas made for the meat off the two legs. Very tasty! And, to go along with it we opened a bottle of peach mead wine from the Earle Estates up on Route 14 on the west side of Seneca Lake. Excellent fruity flavor.

******

Tomorrow is the annual Tiadaghton Audubon Society dinner. As is usual, we have a speaker coming in. This one is from the National Audubon Society and he is to speak on the Gulf Oil Spill. I'll listen carefully and see what he has to say, but reports of the demise of the Gulf seem to have been greatly exaggerated.

Thursday, there will be a tour of the area for the gentleman from National lead by the heads of the company running the windmills (AES) and of one of the gas drilling companies (EAST). They will be stopping at the Aerie for lunch since we are centrally located to both the windmills and the wells. The TAS president will accompany them as will my buddy Gary as photographer. (I may be dragged into the windmill portion of the tour to act as photographer if Gary decides to call it a day at the midway point of the tour.)