PA Hunting: Day 2

Day two was a short one. The forecast was for widely scattered showers in the early AM and then some heavier rains after noon.

I went out at the usual time and climbed into the tree stand at 6:30 AM while it was still dark. The leaves were damp and moving was semi-silent with only the occasional roll of a rock or snap of a twig. While I was tying my rifle and backpack to the haul string I thought I heard something move down the slope below me. It was still too dark to see anything, however.

Once in the tree stand and with the rifle and backpack hauled up, I sat down to await the arrival of light. As the light increased, so did the rain. It started at 6:45 and continued off and on for a couple of hours. By 8 AM I was pretty well damp (not soaked—it wasn’t raining that hard) and hadn’t seen or heard anything except a turkey fresh from its roost looking for its mates. No other birds, squirrels, deer or hunters were making any noise.

The rain was mildly uncomfortable and made me want to kill something. Mostly the weatherman who said we would have much if anything before noon.

I decided to get out of the tree stand when it seemed it was going to continue raining. Of course, it stopped as soon as I hit the ground. So I sat for an hour and then took a walk to the southeast corner of the property. No signs of deer or other hunters. There was one shot over half a mile to the west. After my little walk, I went back to sitting. And eating my lunch.

At quarter to 12, the rain started again. This time it seemed to be serious so I opted out and headed back to the Aerie. Terry had a bowl of turkey and rice soup ready when I walked in the door. While we were eating, the rain did indeed start falling in a serious manner. Glad I decided to come in.

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I mentioned that there was a turkey calling this morning shortly after 7 AM as it was getting light (sunrise is listed as around 7:10). It was there yesterday, too. My guess is that it was roosting in the hemlock trees and then foraging in the area where we had logging done a few years ago.

We have had turkeys around the Aerie since before construction began. Even as we worked to raise the walls, we would have a turkey fly in over us and land in the area of our second driveway right behind the construction site. And turkeys DO fly, contrary to what you may have heard on WKRP, Cincinnati. They fly very well and in defiance of gravity and the physics of aerodynamics.

A turkey’s primary means of escape is running but if startled or pushed, they will take to the air. They also fly up to and out of their roosting trees and across deep ravines or road cuts. It can be a shock to be traveling down the road and have a turkey fly across the road just over your head!

From my observation, a turkey prefers to flap its wings just enough to get airborne and then go into a glide. Seeing a turkey glide is reminiscent of watching a C130-Hercules in flight. You look at the size of the thing and say, “THAT can’t possibly be flying!” But it is.

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Sitting in the tree yesterday and again this morning I heard a frog calling. Thinking about it, there had to be several in the area since calls came from different locations.

Strange to hear a frog at the end of November. Stranger still since there’s no water nearby except for a small weep 2-300 yards away. When I got out of the tree to sit yesterday, I actually kicked up one of those little frogs. It turned out to be a wood frog. Only about an inch long and maybe a ¼ inch thick, this little frog was a pale tan that blended in with the fallen leaves. I’ve found similar frogs (along with leopard frogs) in the grass both here at the Aerie and up at the Bolt Hole.

******

In addition to the turkey(s) and wood frog(s) I had the company of a pileated woodpecker. It was hammering away on some nearby trees when I put the tree stand up and I could hear it still working on some dead tree and calling from various positions not far away from where I was set up. Still doesn’t come down to the bird feeder very often, though.


That's about it for now. Got to go renew the ice packs on my aching knees and get the hunting clothes out of the dryer.

Aerie Report, April 25, 2010

It's a very raw, rainy day here at the Aerie. The overnight temperatures never got below 41 as the "dropped" from 42 degrees just after midnight. It hasn't gotten above 48 degrees during the day, either. That's sorta understandable since we've been getting a nice gentle rain all day. The cloud ceiling is hovering at just over 2100 feet at the Aerie, but just a short distance across the cove we can see only the very base of the lowest windmill as the clouds have engulfed everything else above 2000 feet. A quick peek at the forecast shows more of the same for tonight and tomorrow morning.

Could be worse, the National Weather Service issued a sever thunderstorm warning last evening saying there was a possibility of 1" diameter hail stones. It looked like we might really get hit hard as the radar showed huge patches of bright yellow and red off to our southeast. As often happens around here, however, those cells got broken up as soon as they began to hit the mountains north of I-80 and east of the Allegheny National Forest. By the time they got here, they were whipped. We didn't even get any of the high winds that thunderstorms usually produce.

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We had company for dinner yesterday. Cousin Joe and his wife, Pat, came out from New Jersey to pick up some packing boxes. They've purchased a home about an hour south of here and will be having the closing on April 30th. Their home in New Jersey hasn't been placed on the market yet, but they'll be packing and hauling the small stuff out ASAP. Joe refuses to deal with the larger pieces of furniture and will hire a moving company to do the heavy lugging.

Joe and Pat were here for a couple of hours and left with a pick-up truck full of folded up boxes during a break in the rain. From looking at the radar, they may have been able to make it all the way home along I-80 without running into any rain.

******

Joe was down in Virginia last week hunting with our buddy Doug in the western part of the state for turkey. Said he was lucky enough to get off a seven year skid and bag a nice Tom. I'm not much of one for turkey hunting--never tried it--but I keep hearing some gobbling every morning as they come off the roost. Considering my neighbor and his cousin bagged a bird opening day last year, I'm tempted. But then I think of how Terry and I are trying to empty the freezer before we hit the road to Alaska....

******

Soft, gentle rains like this and the cool temperatures have been a boon to the grass. I can stand on the deck (under the covered porch roof) and literally watch the dang stuff grow. Keeps it up, I'll be pushing a mower before the weekend.

More birds at the feeders

About the time the NY Jets were marching for their first TD in today's game against the Buffalo Bills, I looked out the kitchen window and noticed we had some dinner guests out by the bird feeders. That's not so unusual but these could have been dinner guests of a different sort.

Wild turkeys are becoming frequent visitors again. A couple of days ago a flock of 15 or 16 marched up the hill without stopping. Yesterday a group of 10 or 12 came over to the feeders but, not finding the snow depth to their liking, they moved on. Today's group, apparently all old Toms based upon their long beards, were happy that I had shoveled some of the snow and scattered seed for the Juncos and Mourning Doves. They also spent some time scratching under the feeders for seeds that had been buried in the ice. They hung around for quite awhile--until Terry sneezed in her sewing room. Then they meandered off into the woods.




Wild Turkeys under the feeders.




The long beards (feather growths on their chests that hang down) indicate that these are some pretty old Toms.


Turkeys are not the only game birds to approach the Aerie's feeders.



Mourning Doves are also abundant at the feeders. Most of them feed on the ground or on the deck where the tray feeder has no roof over it.

Turkeys

I mentioned that we had 17 wild turkeys in the yard on Saturday, 12 on Sunday and then 17 in the yard again Monday morning. Saturday was the final day of the fall turkey season but I didn't put one in the freezer. (Truth be told, I thought the season had ended weeks ago while I was up north.)





Anyway, these guys and gals will be safe for another winter. They are free to come pick up seed from around the feeders any time. Their golden-bronze colors are really quite pretty.

This and that.

Terry and I slept in a little this morning. That means she got up at 7 and I followed a few minutes later. The cats didn't get the message that we had canceled our plans to rise early and head to Rutgers for the game. One (I think it was Julie) started howling at 1:30 AM and another (I think it was Chester) started at 3 AM. Chester took over the alarm duties at 6:30 and insisted we get up to feed the ravening horde. So we obeyed our overlords.

A peek out the window as I was getting dressed revealed 1) there was some snow flurry activity and 2) there were 17 wild turkeys in the yard scratching at the spilled bird seed. They were all fluffed up against the cold (it was 12 degrees) and looked like large medicine balls. I discovered later that if I had my shotgun ready, I could have put one of them in the freezer. Today is the last day of turkey season in our management area. They probably got confused by Leap Year and thought they were safe. They weren't in any particular hurry to leave the yard, either. When I opened the sliding glass door to the porch to put the bird feeders back out, they merely did a quick step off into the woods with no sign of panic.

Terry is feeling much better today and will be heading to NJ to get her Mom tomorrow. Sunday is the best weather day of the week with temps forecast for the low 30s and even--gasp!--sunshine! That ends on Monday when rain becomes snow with some light accumulation forecast for the Aerie.

Mark emails that he visited the Bolt Hole yesterday for a short time. The temperatures were in the single digits and falling. He found the apple orchard full of deer tracks and two beds including one right next to the cabin's wall and propane tanks. He didn't see the deer that made the tracks or slept in the yard but says there was a single set that seemed to be a big buck dragging his toes and splaying his feet. Sounds like the old fishing line of, "You should have been here yesterday!" That's one problem of having snow on the ground. You get to see just what you missed yesterday and/or over night.

[UPDATE: It's a good thing we didn't take that 4 1/2 hour drive to attend the RU game. Terry has become a regular visitor to the Porcelain Goddess and would have felt terrible to be separated from ole 'Merican Standard for any length of time. Besides, I discovered that the ABC affiliate in our area is airing the RU vs Army game.]

Aerie Bulb Planting (& Guests drop in)

Terry and I spent the afternoon planting bulbs from Burpee's that I ordered. This was the Woodland Wildflower mix that included some tulips (which Terry planted in a sunnier spot), daffodils, grape hyacinths and others. I raked away the leaf litter on the hillside behind the bird feeders and moved some of the surface rocks out of the way. Then Terry tried to dig down a few inches to deposit clusters of bulbs here and there. After a time, I went to digging some of the holes using a garden spade. Lots and lots of roots and small stones to contend with but we got all 150 bulbs in the ground. Now all we have to do is wait for some fall rains to get the roots started, the tree leaves to fall to act as an insulating cover blanket and then the warm days of early spring to see if we are successful in getting a bit more color on the hill in the spring.

After dinner I was sitting in the living room when I saw a positively huge bird fly past the window and crash land in the right of way. I jumped up and went to the porch door to see if I could spot it and just then a second and third turkey glided into the trees on the other side of the power line. One made a most ungraceful landing and crashed down almost halfway before it caught onto a branch and steadied itself. These are the first wild turkeys we've seen since the week before the spring season. They'll probably tease me by coming to the feeders for the next two weeks and then disappear again when the fall season (either sex) rolls around.

Turkeys return

The turkeys returned yesterday and again today to feed on the spilled food under the feeders. After clearing snow yesterday on one side of the Aerie and spending some time spreading salt on the driveway, I foolishly didn’t look out the deck door and spooked them into running up the hillside. Today I snuck to the door whenever I thought to go out on the deck and spotted them before they spotted me!

Around noon five of the large bronze-backed birds were milling about in the power line right of way and eyeing the seed. They were wary of approaching because snow melting off the roof was making quite a racket in the downspout. I was careful to keep well back from the windows and merely reached the camera around the edge to snap a few pictures. The birds were in a state of constant alert with one bird acting as the look out at all times.

From Terry’s sewing room window. The birds are about 20 feet from the house.



From the kitchen window.



There were five in all (not the six I thought the other day) and they all appear to be males. Each sported a “beard” that hung down from the chest a good six-seven inches. The coloring on their back feathers is quite amazing. One wandered over to the driveway and was, therefore, not back lit as these photos are and you could see the bronze sheen on the feathers with hints of green as well. Their wing feathers are banded in shades of brown, tan, gray and black. Their heads were featherless and quite reddish in color. No blue yet but as the mating season approaches that will also appear on the neck and head.

They fed for nearly three hours and then one decided to try and feed off the wooden tray (beneath the little peaked roof). That didn’t work too well as the tray is delicately balanced on the ends and it tumbled to the ground. That probably sent the entire group flying into the woods. I didn’t witness their departure but I did hear the tray clatter to the ground. With luck, they will be back again tomorrow since they obviously like the sunflower seeds as much as the redpolls, mourning doves and chickadees do.

Gobble, gobble, gobble

I was downstairs building a couple of birdhouses. Having finished I was about to step out on the deck when I spied these guys and thought, "I'm gonna need a bigger birdhouse." I grabbed the camera and tried to snap a picture out Terry's sewing room window but they caught my movement. There were six, I got a picture of four in something of a panic mode just as they took off into the woods. Amazing to see such big, heavy-bodied birds fly.



(PS It's snowing again. Up to 4 inches expected tonight. *sigh*)