This Week At the Aerie

SO....

Busy week with lots of doctor visits

Monday morning I went to the Guthrie Clinic in Mansfield as soon as they opened. While the doctor was at the hospital doing rounds, I did get to see the nurse practitioner who diagnosed my aching neck as an irritated nerve caused by muscular spasms. She prescribed Naproxen (500mg tablets) twice a day for the pain and Flexoril (10mg) once a day before bed for the muscle spasms. I started taking them that night and WOW! What a difference!

Tuesday I was pain free and I've remained that way all week. Of course, they have also allowed me to sleep very, very soundly.

******

I went birding a couple of times this week and added a new species or two each time. Despite the super spring weather, we're still waiting the big rush of migrants here in the Northern Tier of PA. We've had a few waterfowl show up but not the huge numbers we've seen in the past. If the warm weather holds, the next week or two should see a rush of species heading north for breeding purposes.

Redhead pair on Tioga Lake

Common Mergansers (2 males & 1 female) on Tioga Lake

Green-winged Teal at The Muck (Wellsboro)

Ring-necked Duck at The Muck

Pair of Mallards at The Muck

Pair of Wood Duck on an old beaver pond near Hills Creek SP

Even with a 600, lens, the birds always seem to be just t-h-a-t much too far away for a good shot.

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Terry's turn for a steroid shot to her spine (L2, L3) occurred Friday morning. She has a couple of bulging discs (along with some stenosis) that have been creating pain in her hips and thighs. The pain management doctor thought cortisone injections might help alleviate the problem. We'll know in a day or two how that's working.

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Small Town America

The township secretary called on Thursday to give us a heads up. They were sending out a crew to work on a culvert on our street and the road would be closed from around 8 AM until 1 PM. She (the secretary) knew we normally go down to get the mail and do some shopping on a daily basis so she wanted to let us know to plan on taking the long way around.

Well, because of Terry hospital procedure we were gone long before they came to shut the road down, but when we returned, we took her advice and drove the long way around only to discover that the culvert they were working on was the one running across the road right at the end of our driveway. We couldn't get in.

We parked in our top most driveway (we have three parcels of land and three driveways but only one--the blocked one--leads to the house) and walked down the hill.

Long story short, two of the work crew were also township supervisors. They had noticed we had a small drain pipe running across our driveway (not on town right of way) that was insufficient (6" cheap pipe), partially compressed and in need of replacement. They wanted to know if they could replace it with an 8 inch pipe, stone the driveway for me and generally do what I wanted to do for two years--for the price of the pipe. I said, "Go for it!" They then told me to pull my truck down and into the house and not to worry, they would be done before I had to take Shadow to the vets at 2:15. They did the work and were done by the promised time. I expect I'll get a bill in the mail, 'cause they didn't even come up to the door.

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About Shadow...she's become something of a problem child. Not that she's fighting or anything like that, she's just moody, off her feed, vomiting, and full of scabs. Some of the vomiting is hairballs from licking the scabby areas, but some of it is from food.

She, too, went to see the doctor this week. (Her visit will end up being the most costly out of pocket. No insurance.) Shadow lost five (5) pounds since last April when she was 14+ pounds. She tipped the scales today at a svelte 9.4 pounds. That's not good.

The vet thinks she may have irritable bowel syndrome, or a food allergy. She prescribed some steroids (for the existing skin condition, another drug for the irritable bowel, and some B12 (because poor digestion leads to a lack of B12 intake). She also suggested we change her diet. No seafood, beef, egg, milk, cheese, wheat. Just poultry, rice and oats. She had some moist food (at $2.50 a can!) and some dry food (also very expensive) to get Shadow started on a healthy diet.

I was given a pill "gun" to get the medicine into the back of Shadow's throat and was shown how to give B12 injections. Shadow will probably need those B12 shots once a month for life. When all this stuff gets put into motion and runs for a couple of months, I think I'll just go get a veterinary license and treat cats.

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This weekend is the Maple Weekend in Potter and Tioga counties. There will be demonstrations of tapping and boiling at the sugar house at Hills Creek State Park and a number of sugar houses will be opening their doors to the public for tours and samplings. Terry and I will be going out early because one of the places is offering all you can eat pancakes for $7.

Then later in the evening, the Mainesburg Methodist Church has a chicken and biscuit dinner. And Sunday morning the Mansfield Fire Company has it's monthly breakfast.

*Sigh*

Diet is what you eat.

There is some snow in the forecast for Sunday into Monday, but nearly all of it will be to the south and east of here. We may get a dusting. With any luck, these will be the last flakes we see this "winter." The forecast also calls for 70 degrees next Friday.

Sunday on the Road

For the second consecutive night I woke up in terrible pain. My jaw and now my neck and left shoulder. Obviously this is not a muscle problem and must be nerve related. I'll be going to the clinic bright and early Monday morning even if, as it is currently doing, the pain eases up.

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Terry left Louisville, KY early this morning hoping to get home around 5 PM. I got a phone call around 8:30 AM and she reported she was stuck somewhere on I-71. There had been a traffic accident involving a fatality and everything was at a stand still. The trucker next to her was her source of information. He also told her that, based upon his personal experience, they might be there for a few hours. She has water, grapes and energy bars. What she lacks is a toilet. I told her to look for a motorhome/travel trailer but she says there's nothing but truckers. I then reminded her that some of those sleeper cabs may have a toilet, too. She said she'd pass.

******

After Terry's call, I decided to get outside myself and do some more birding. I went back north to the Tioga-Hammond Lakes overlook, then to the Ive's Run Campground (both the lakes and the campground are Corps of Engineers projects created after the floods caused by Hurricane Agnes back in 1972) and finally drove the Rail Road Grade Trail but stopping at the food plots about half way.

Saw a couple of new birds for the year and listed more than I saw. (I've seen Rock Pigeons, Starlings and Grackles as I drive around, but never listed them on eBird until today. I mean, the roof of a barn or the spillage of a grain mill are not your prime birding spots. Well, at least they aren't mine.)

Here's the list(s) from today's foray: Again, first-of-the-year birds are denoted with an *.

Hammond-Tioga Lakes Overlook, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 9:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.5 mile(s)
Comments:     I started counting from the spillway of the Tioga Lake dam and right on up to and including the overlook of the weir between Hammond and Tioga Lakes.
16 species

Canada Goose
Redhead *
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Ring-billed Gull *
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) *
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
European Starling *
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle *

Ive's Run-Hammond Lake, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments:     Drove from the first boat launch to the second through the day-use areas between.
15 species

Canada Goose
Bald Eagle
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
European Starling
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Rail Road Grade Trail, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.5 mile(s)
Comments:     Drove the trail from east (Hammond Lake) to west. Stopped at the state gameland's food plots for a time and it was there I saw most of the birds.
14 species

Canada Goose
Common Merganser
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker *
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird


This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

The addition of these "new" birds brings me up to 41 species in Tioga County this year. I was hoping for more today since the wind shifted from the south to coming out of the north and that should have produced something of a fall out. Didn't happen here. The lakes were pretty much devoid of ducks . (Except for Tioga Lake which had quite a few Common Mergansers and Redheads.)

I ran into Gary and Ken, two of my birding buddies and they reported the same thing. The lakes are empty when they really shouldn't be. 

Oh well, there's always tomorrow...or the day after.

Saturday Birding

I was awakened by a very sore and aching left jaw at around 3:15 AM and could not get back to sleep. I think I actually woke the cats up for a change. Since I had a premolar extracted about 18 days ago, I've had to alter my chewing/biting habits and this has affected the muscles in the jaw. Aches start at the jaw bone beneath the ear and radiate upward behind the ear and end at the top of the ear in the scalp. Even Tylenol doesn't help. Tonight I'll try bourbon.

******

Temperatures fell to 27 degrees overnight and with the heat in the house turned off, that meant the temperature in the house dropped, too. It was 58 degrees inside when I came down stairs at 3:45 AM and dropped another degree before I left to go birding at 6:30 AM.

It got even colder as I went down the hill and the lowest I saw was 24 degrees. With the temperatures that cold and the water having already warmed up in the lakes, ponds and streams, there was some pretty dense fog in the valley. Made me question why I was going birding.

But things started looking brighter--literally--as I got to Hills Creek State Park. There was virtually no fog and the sun was out. It was just a matter of time before things would warm up...right?

I spent an hour at Hills Creek, confining myself to the day-use area near the beach. Birding wasn't great but it wasn't bad either considering the limitations I put on myself. I then went west to The Muck off Route 287 on the other side of Wellsboro. The Tiadaghton Audubon Society maintains a blind there and there's usually a goodly number of water fowl and marsh birds around. Again, not great but not bad with a few new species for the year. After an hour at the Muck (some of it in the company of the Methodist Minister from Wellsboro (Nice guy, about 26-27 years old. He's joined our Audubon Society--son-of-a-gun has more Tioga County eBird check list than me! And he's only been here since July!) I headed north on Route 287 for the Rail Road Grade trail along Crooked Creek as it enters into Hammond Lake (Ive's Run Corps of Engineers). It's a short ride which took me about 40 minutes at a snails pace. Fewer birds than expected but it's early and this is often a good place for warblers and summer birds.

The results: A total of 22 different species at the three sites. I'm sure I could have done better if I had gotten out of the truck along the Rail Road Grade Trail to explore some of the game food plots along the way.  (An * indicates a first for the year species for me.)

Hills Creek - 15 species

Canada Goose
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Hooded Merganser
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow *
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Pine Siskin 

Marsh Creek/The Muck - 13 species

Canada Goose
American Wigeon *
American Black Duck *
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Common Merganser *
Great Blue Heron *
Belted Kingfisher *
American Crow
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow *
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird 

Rail Road Grade Trail - 11 species

Canada Goose
Common Merganser
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird

 

Doings At the Aerie

Nothing much going on around here the last two days. We enjoyed some lovely 70 degree weather on Thursday bit the wind shifted and brought rain and colder temperatures overnight. The rain ended early on Friday and the sun eventually made an appearance in the afternoon but the temperature never got above 54 degrees. Tonight's sunset was spectacular! Bright reds lit up the western evening sky for almost half an hour.

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Not much new on the birding front. Thursday we had winds out of the south-southwest and skein after skein of geese and Tundra Swans were taking advantage of the favorable tail winds. to head north. Every time I stepped out on the deck there were three or four that flew overhead. We still have the same old birds at the feeders however. The Pine Siskens, Chickadees, White and Red Breasted Nuthatches, and Tufted Titmice don't seem to have decreased in number. That can't be said for the Goldfinches. While they are still pretty numerous, there seem to be a few less than a week ago. Perhaps they've started to look for other sources of food and/or nesting areas.

I'm going to go out tomorrow and hit some of the better birding areas in the county. I need to build my species list for this year before I fall too far behind.

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I didn't mention it the other day but Terry is down in Louisville, KY for an executive board meeting of the Embroiderer's Guild. She's a regional director and a member of their finance committee. She says things are going smoothly and they may even finish a day early.

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I spent a few more hours in the workshop straightening things out and got the paint situation pretty much in hand. I put a set of shelves under the stairs and managed to get (almost) all the pan and stain cans on it. That alone freed up considerable room.  The majority of the plastic drop cloths along with rollers got put into a box. Brushes got sorted and some chucked. What I'm going to do with about eight or more paint rollers and trays is yet to be determined. I think the bulk of them will end up being taken to the dump. (If I ever have to paint walls I will NOT have to buy much but the paint..and even that is doubtful if I stick to white.)

I may rearrange the position of the one work benches and the bandsaw so the sawdust from the sander and router is kept under better control.

I should be able to get back to building stuff next week. I better hurry up and get some birdhouses outside and clean up the ones that are already out there. Very little in the way of cold and snow in the forecast for the next 15 days.

I Ain't Dead! (Yet.)

Go ahead. Say it. "Rich, you're a slacker!" Yeah, I am. I last posted here back on October 18th when we had our first dusting of snow. Then I fell into hibernation/slacker mode from which I'm just now arousing myself.

I say "just now" but I've been creeping back into a little more active life for about a month. It started with Joe and I going to the Great American Outdoor Show down in Harrisburg back on February 11th. We went with the express purpose of confirming our reservation with Caesar's North Camps for this coming June.

When we got back I started messing around with my fishing tackle and trying to figure out a way to store my stuff more neatly. (Just jamming the poles in a five-gallon bucket wasn't cutting it any more.) So I ended up in the workshop building a rod holder and moving a set of shelves into the utility room on which to stack my six(!) tackle boxes and the boxes holding reels and line.

That led me to start sorting the wood that I had stockpiled. Which, in turn, led to me trimming some old drawer wood of its dovetail ends and mortised edges. And THAT left me with lots of little 1/2 inch square pieces about a foot long.

Well, that little bit of woodworking got me itching and I started building some birdhouses. Starting with this log/timber home using those cut offs from the drawers.

And then I decided a log cabin needed an outhouse.

And, since a log cabin is often found in the mountains, the neighbors might have a chalet.

 That last one was a pip! I had to rip all the 1/2" wide pieces for the decorative "timbers" on the table saw and then used the bandsaw and sander to get the angles just right. I almost succeeded too!

All that sawing and sanding was putting lots of sawdust in the air and it was ending up everywhere. (One of these days I'll get some wiring done and install the air filter I bought two years ago.) I had an open shelf just below the workbench for storing some of my power tools and started to think about how best to close that up.

Doors seemed the logical solution, so I built some using select grade 1x2 and 1x3 pine and 5/32" luan plywood. I used my biscuit joiner to hold the frame together and glue and corner braces to attach the luan to the frame. They ended up looking like a hollow core door and would have been if I had added luan to the back sides. I got interrupted by another project for a couple of days (I'll explain shortly), bit finally hung the doors this afternoon.

I think they came out pretty nice.

About that other project....

As I was building the doors (and creating sawdust), I got to thinking...I had open shelves holding all kinds of stuff including boxes and boxes of nails and screws and hardware and they were both unsightly and (saw)dust collectors. I started to think about building cabinets in which it store/hide all this stuff. I drew up some plans based on the same principles as I used in building the doors: a 1x3 frame with luan sheath. Then I did a little calculating and came up with about $130-150 for materials for one 30" wide, 12" deep, 72" high cabinet.

Saturday I decided to go online and see what Lowe's and Home Depot had in storage cabinets. Lowe's didn't have what I wanted in stock and I didn't feel like waiting. Home Depot had a plastic, snap together cabinet measuring a near perfect 27x15x72 for just $80. And, the best part, they had several in stock at the store in Painted Post (just west of Corning and "only" 45 minutes away). (Bad news was I wold have to pay NYS and county taxes--and I hate paying anything to NY.) Terry and I went and picked one up on Sunday.

It took me a couple of hours to snap that cabinet together. The directions were hieroglyphics with very, very few words but things could only snap in place one way so there was that.

I liked the look so much, I went up on Monday to pick up another. This time I also picked up some 1/4 plywood to put on top of the plastic shelves so as to better distribute the weight and prevent sagging. (Each shelf was rated to 44 pounds but I had a lot of nails and screws. A. Lot.) This second cabinet went together easily but I spent more time preconstruction de-buring the injection molded plastic parts. (It was easier to do prior to construction and ensured a better fit for some of the parts.)

So I now have two matching cabinets where the open shelves used to be.

Look at that second picture. See the coffee can? Right behind it is the belt/disc sander and it shoots sawdust right at those cabinets. That's why the shelves had to go. Maybe I should look into a dust collection system? If I could ever figure out a good layout.

For now, it's a matter of sorting and storing all the stuff and trying to decide what to do with all the extra tools I've got. Besides those hand saws on the wall (seven of them), I've three back saws, two coping saws, three keyhole saws, three sets of metal snips (and by sets I mean one set has three snips: Straight, Left and Right), two orbital sanders, two hand held circular saws, wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, etc. up the whazoo, and enough fasteners of all types and sizes to open a hardware store.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to besides some birding off the deck, picking up the bird feeders after the bears knock them down, going on some bird walks, getting a pre-molar extracted and a post put in for a cap.

For now I've got my eye on either building more birdhouses or figuring out what to do with this:

Boxes and boxes of baseball cards, painting materials (brushes, rollers, trays and drop cloths), and several boxes of craft paints. And there are cans of paint and stain under the stairs on the right. Maybe I'll be building a cabinet and a few roll-out storage units soon.