Keeping Track of Time

I got a kick out of Mary's statement in yesterday's post, where she said she had to look at her cell phone to verify that it was Wednesday. Is this a sign of old age creeping up or are we all just too busy?

Here's the first thing I see when I stagger out to the kitchen at 4:10 a.m. on workdays:

My day clock!

I took this picture at "half past Thursday" today when I got home.

I don't need to know the date, knowing the actual DAY of the week has become much more important.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I have a nearly dead tree in my front yard. In spring of 1988, this was the first tree I planted at our new house--a clump birch from ShopKo that was 5 feet tall and cost me $12. It was a beautiful, fast growing tree and probably about 8 years ago, it started to die. I'm not going to cut it until it Mother Nature finally blows it down. (My neighbor across the street comes over at least 3 times a year and asks me when I'm going to let him cut it down.)

All of the birds love this tree. The branches are still very tall and any bird perching on it can get a wonderful view all over the yard. Yesterday evening when I was out watering flowers, the following birds were all sitting on a branch somewhere in this tree at the same time: bluebird, robin, goldfinch, cedar waxwing, house finch, chipping sparrow, and hummingbird. Now why in the world would I take a bird magnet like this down?

This evening the tree wasn't quite as busy, but I did get this grand picture of the male bluebird surveying his kingdom from the topmost branch. I will post some more stories about the benefits of dead trees in a future blog.

Bird Pictures from Forestville Bird Hike

How happy I was to open my e-mail at home today and find the pictures taken by Mr. Schiffman on our Saturday bird hike at Forestville State Park. AND he included pictures of other birds in addition to the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.

Here are pictures of the Eastern Phoebe that was perched in a tree at the edge of the parking lot where we started our bird hike. There was some discussion as to whether this bird was an Olive-Sided Flycatcher or Phoebe, but in the end Phoebe ruled, especially due to the fact that the bird was "wagging its tail down-up repeatedly" while perched on the branch (quoted from my Kaufman Birds of North America field guide.)

Here is a nice picture of a couple Turkey Vultures catching some rays in a dead tree. On our way home, my sister and I saw a TV snacking on a dead raccoon in the road and hoped to get a picture, but even though we slowed way down in the car, the TV wasn't interested in hanging around for pictures, so I'm glad Mr. Schiffman included this picture. Not the prettiest bird in the world, but they're so much fun to watch soaring through the skies.

Lastly, here are the pictures of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. Having never seen one before, I was surprised at the size of this bird--as large as a Mourning Dove. Their call is not real loud, but definitely distinctive, once you've heard it. I'm glad they were so cooperative on Saturday morning.

Martins & Bunnies

I got done with supper and still didn't have any ideas for a posting today, so I did a little internet surfing and then took the dogs out for a walk around the yard. We had a high temp around 90 again today, and it had finally cooled off a little bit around 7:00 so the dogs could walk a little farther in the yard. While I was out walking them around, I thought I heard purple martins chirping. When I got closer to the house, I could see there were three sitting on the TV antenna. I rushed the dogs in the house and ran upstairs to get my camera.

By the time I got back outside, they were flying around the gourds again. One of them took off shortly after I got back outside, but there were still two flying around and investigating the gourds.

Purple martins are such a challenge. They're the only bird in the eastern U.S. that depends entirely on human-provided housing. (In the western U.S. they will live in tree cavities and under highway overpasses, but that's a whole 'nother story.) They don't seem to be too fussy about their housing, so it can be wood, plastic, metal, or natural gourds. Many of the successful martin landlords I know use the wood or aluminum T-14 houses. I decided to go with gourds because they were less expensive, it was less likely that sparrows would try to nest in them, and I just like the look of gourds. I have 6 natural gourds, and 6 of the plastic super gourds. In all previous years that martins have lived in my gourds, they always preferred the natural gourds.

These two martins flew around for quite a while and hung on the gourds, but never went inside. I was just whining to Rick after work about how I probably wouldn't get any martins this year, and then these guys showed up after supper. Hopefully now that there were multiple birds looking at the gourds, they will come back and decide to stay and set up housekeeping within the week.

Because it's been so warm, I'm watering my flowers in pots every day and this evening I decided I'd better water my flower and vegetable gardens also. When I was getting the hose out to water the butterfly garden by the house, a big bunny dashed out through the little fence and I noticed a little brown blur run along the back of the flower garden. A baby bunny? I wondered to myself. I looked around under the flowers, but couldn't see anything. I went ahead and started watering and when I got down to the end, sure enough, there was a baby bunny that I must have already watered because he was sitting along the edge of the garden border and looked a little damp.

After I dragged the hose to the vegetable garden and got the sprinkler set up, I had to come back and adjust the water flow and there was another little bunny trying to hide in the grass. I went and got Rick and he picked this little guy up for a picture. Then we delivered him back to the flower garden next to his sibling.

When I finally went to turn the sprinkler off, I came around the house and Mama Bunny dashed out of the flowers again. I quickly looked to where she had come from and saw four little bunnies squirming around. They must have been nursing or napping next to her, because they seemed pretty disoriented from having her run away so quickly. I know they're destructive, but they're just so darn cute. We'll have to make sure the dogs don't get over there and disturb them. Daisy thinks bunnies are an excellent snack and this time of year I really have to keep an eye on her.

Sunny Monday

It's summer here! Last week on the channel 4 weather, Paul Douglas told us that from a meteorological standpoint, Summer begins on June 1st. Lots of places in Minnesota hit 90 degrees today, including us. We're going to have highs in the mid- to upper-80's for the whole week, with very little rain in the forecast. I had to water my vegetable garden last night, but the weather is so beautiful, that I can't complain.

All of my growing things are looking really good....including the birds. Here's the mourning dove nest. The babies have gotten so big that Mama can only cover one of the babies anymore and the other little one is sitting right in front of her.

I planted a yellow yarrow plant (for attracting butterflies) by my "lawn boulder." The robins love sitting on top of this rock (as evidenced by their "calling card").

My delphinium is just starting to bloom. Love those pretty blue flowers!

Yesterday a sub-adult male purple martin stopped by my place. He sat on the TV antenna for quite a while, then would fly down by the gourds, but never attempted to go inside. I'm running out of time for this season to attract a nesting pair. In 2004, I had a pair show up on June 13th, so I haven't given up hope yet.

One of my co-workers and her husband have a huge martin colony and were recently featured in an article in our local newspaper. She stopped by today to tell me they have 140 eggs and babies are already starting to hatch. She invited me to stop over and see them some day after work. (NOTE TO SELF: don't forget your camera--this would be another great idea for a blog post!)

Saturday Morning Bird Hike

I filled my big insulated travel mug with coffee and headed down to pick up my sissy at 6:45 on Saturday morning, so we could get to Forestville State Park by 7:30, and still squeeze in a stop at Kwik Trip for carb- & calorie-laden breakfast treats.

We got out of our car in the parking lot at exactly 7:30 and our leader Alex had to ask if we were there for the bird hike. Now I ask you, do we not look like birders?

While waiting for a few more people to arrive, we got some good looks at an Eastern Phoebe who was perched in a big walnut tree right at the edge of the parking lot.

The weather was perfect and there was just enough breeze to keep it from being too hot. We finally took off on the hike with the woods on our right and a large (probably 10 acres) grassy field on our left. Shortly into the walk, we heard and finally spotted a Blue-Winged Warbler. If I actually kept a life list, this warbler would have been added to it. Alex also pointed out the call of a cuckoo from across the grassy field. Wow, I was hoping it would still be there when we got over to that side.

We saw quite a few indigo buntings (even a pair together). We saw a Cooper's Hawk perched at the top of a tree and a bunch of little goldfinches who flew to the next tree and almost seemed to be taunting the hawk. The hawk ignored them. We saw common yellowthroats, song sparrows, and catbirds.

When we finally got to the other side of the trail, we finally saw not one, but two, of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoos! WOW! Another bird for my life list. According to my Kaufman field guide, they are summer visitors to only about the lowest 3 counties in southeastern Minnesota. One of the other hikers had a digital camera with a big lens and he took some pictures. I gave him my e-mail address, so when I get the pix from him, I'll share them with you.

This was a really fun hike. There were only 9 people in the group, but Alex was an awesome leader. He was so knowledgeable about the birds, their calls, and their preferred habitats, and he was really young! (I'm guessing mid-20's). It was really neat for me to meet someone who was totally into birds.

Forestville is such a great place to go birding and only about 45 minutes from my place. Alex told us that Cerulean Warblers had also been seen there this spring and he had heard there was a nesting pair in another part of the park. I really need to get back there next Saturday morning and try to get a look at them. (NOTE TO SELF: next time either take a smaller coffee mug, or don't wander so far from the restrooms)

After shopping at the park gift store (come on, doesn't everyone shop after a bird hike?), I took my sister home the "roundabout way" on some rural roads where I have previously seen Dickcissels and Bobolinks. Thankfully, we weren't disappointed and the birds were there. Here's a picture of a cooperative mail Bobolink on a fencepost.

We came around another corner and had our best sighting of the day....a whole pasture full of mama and baby goats (plus a llama thrown for variety). They were sooooo cute. I could've spent hours watching these critters, because I'm just nuts about goats.

Here are some of my favorites:

This one has a brown head and a brown tip on her tail.

This one looks like she's wearing brown underpants.

Here's one of the babies.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you would still like to participate in sharing your favorite piece of art with me to post in my blog, please don't forget to send me pictures and the story of why it's your favorite. For more details, please click on this link. You can send your pictures and stories through next Saturday (June 16). Thanks so much.

Shawl is Done

Here is the completed Irish Diamond Shawl. I started it in April and finished it last Friday night (6/8). I washed it this morning and now it's pinned out for blocking on a large terry-cloth table cover on my bed. It's 49 inches square.

It won't take long to dry with the ceiling fan blowing a nice breeze. Now all I have to worry about is making sure the cat doesn't jump up here to take a nap on it (cats like to do that, you know!) Once it's dry, I will probably spend another half hour picking off all the little white Sophie furs. Then I'll wrap it up and stick it in my moth-ball scented closet till Olmsted County Fair time (end of July), when I'm going to enter it in the knitting competition.

Here's a closer look at the pattern detail. It was worked from the center out and entirely from a chart. The design was created on the right side only and the wrong side stitches were all purled. There are approximately 130 rows.

Lace knitting looks so much more complicated that it really is. The designs are made with combinations of knitting 2 stitches together with a yarnover. The yarnover is what makes the hole and keeps an even number of stitches that makes up for knitting 2 together. By putting these combinations into different shapes, you create the lace design.

This is the chart I followed for making this shawl. The little o's are the yarnover and the slashes ( \ or / ) show the direction for knitting 2 stitches together. Plain boxes are plain stitches.

I'm very happy with how this shawl turned out. It's hard to tell what you've got when it's all bunched up on the knitting needles.

TGIF

Finally made it to Friday. Yea! It was such a nice day here -- sunny and not windy. We can really appreciate that.

Rick took me out for our usual Friday night "date," an all-you-can-eat fish fry. I usually don't have fish but tonight I did and it was sure good. Since we always eat too much, we took ourselves and the dogs for a walk when we got home.

After we got back from our walk I was putting more seed in some bird feeders and in checking whether the hummingbird feeders needed filling, I came across this minor disaster.

Here's a closer look.

Apparently in all that wind yesterday, the feeder got jostled around enough (I have it hanging in a tree) that nectar slopped up and out of the feeding ports. The result was a sticky, syrupy mess on top of the feeder (that's what the shiny, wet-looking stuff is on the feeder). As near as I can tell, a hummingbird must have sat on the perch and then gotten stuck in the sticky nectar. In trying to escape he (or she) lost a few feathers. I have never seen this before. I got this feeder specifically because it's windy at my house and this one didn't spill nectar like some of the Perky Pet feeders I used to have.

I took a wet cloth out and cleaned all the sticky nectar off this feeder and will replace the feeder tomorrow morning with an extra Wild Birds Unlimited nectar feeder I have out in the garage. So just a word of caution to check your nectar feeders after a wind storm and make sure there's no sticky, syrupy mess on them that hummers might accidentally get stuck in.

Here's what I found under our apple trees:

Dozens of baby apples (applets?) that got blown off the trees. :-(

I heard that the official highest wind gust recorded by the National Weather Service was 52 MPH! I guess some applets just don't have the strength to hold on in that kind of wind. Fortunately, there are still many more left on the tree, so we can still hope for a good apple crop this fall.

I'm getting up early tomorrow morning to take my sister down to Forestville State Park for a 7:30 a.m. birding hike. That should be fun. When I talked to the gentleman at the park today, he said on last week's hike, everyone got to see a whip-poor-will. Wow, I would really like that. Maybe I'll get to see a woodcock too.

Takin' It Easy

We were very fortunate today and missed out on all the bad thunderstorms with heavy rains, hail and tornado sightings (look out, Ruth, they're heading towards Ontario!). It was really windy all day and we have had sustained winds in the 25-30 mph range with several gusts near 50 mph. It was so windy the grackles couldn't even hang on the tube feeder, so it's still almost half-full. The weatherman is predicting things will calm down tomorrow.

Here's Sophie and Daisy enjoying a spot in the sun while we were watching the news. They're such good girls!

This is a short post today. I'm casting off the last few stitches on my shawl, so I'm anxious to get it finished tonight and then get it washed and blocked tomorrow. Watch for shawl pictures sometime this weekend.

Wednesday Assortment

Today after work, the salesman from Budget Blinds come over to give me an estimate on new vertical blinds for our living room patio door. I installed the current blinds myself back in 1987 when we built the house. A couple weeks ago, I broke the blinds trying to close them, so now they can only be closed by pushing them with my hand. I am seriously out of touch with the reality of how much window treatments cost, because these new blinds are going to set me back almost $270! Is this a lot of money for patio door blinds? The salesman told me there are some window treatments for patio doors that cost $3000....and people actually buy them! I was flabbergasted. Obviously, these people don't have pets.

Daisy wants to know if she can still do this once we get new blinds? "Yes, Daisy, they will be vinyl blinds and you won't be able to get dog fur on them."

For what I'm paying, I will get new blinds, they will install them and also haul away my old blinds. I was hoping to spend probably half that much, but this way, it's going to be all done correctly, with a lifetime guarantee, and I never had to set foot outside my house for the selection and purchase, so I guess it's worth it. Now if only I could figure out how to take better pictures when the light is behind my subject....any tips on that fellow bloggers?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here's the first blossom in my wildflower garden....a coreopsis, I think. There are many more buds, so by the end of the week I should be seeing quite a few more of these pretty golden flowers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here's an updated photo of the baby doves. Wow, they've almost doubled in size from last Saturday. Their eyes aren't open yet, but their feathers are really starting to come in.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here's a look inside one of my wren houses. This Mama House Wren has 7 eggs! Boy is she going to be busy if they all hatch. This is one of the recycled plastic houses from Rubicon. I have had it hanging outside for about 7 years and this is the first year wrens have nested in it. I really like that you can open the roof to look inside....very good for picture-taking. I've never seen the actual wren nest before this year, and I'm amazed that her little nest is totally lined with little feathers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Someone in my backyard was having a bad "hare" day (profound disapproval at the bad pun).

Tuesday Stuff

We have a vet who makes house calls. Today was the day for all 3 pets to have a check-up and shots. This is so nice for us to not have to load the pets in the car and transport them to a busy vet who sometimes has a hard time keeping their records straight. It makes the visits a little easier, although Daisy always remembers what she's here for and still tries to hide from her.

I was going to ask her permission if I could take a picture of her performing Daisy's exam, but she's kind of intimidating and after she started scolding me about the pet's teeth, I lost my nerve.

All of our pets are now senior citizens, with Daisy the oldest at 14. Daisy is still pretty perky for a dog of her age, but the vet did tell us that she noticed some bradycardia in Daisy. Her heart rate is down to 88, slower than the last check-up and slower than the average which should be 100-120 for a dog her size. She told us some things to watch for in Daisy's behavior. We're thankful for every day we have with her at this age and that other than the heart, her health is excellent.

We also got the lecture on dental care. Penny's teeth were the worst and I got pretty much the same lecture from the vet that I get from my own dental hygienist.

Penny recovering from her shot.

So I'm wondering, how many of you pet owners brush your pet's teeth? Did you start doing it when they were a puppy or kitten?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I found this baby bird sitting in a tree this afternoon. I saw a chipping sparrow fly out of the tree and when I walked past to try and locate a nest, I noticed this little one on the branch. You can't tell the size from this picture, but it's almost as big as the adult chipping sparrow that was feeding it, so I'm pretty sure it's a baby cowbird. I think the beak and the spots on its chest kind of give it away as a baby cowbird also. A couple years ago, I had a chipping sparrow on my deck feeding a baby cowbird that was twice its size. I'm sad to think of the baby chipping sparrows that didn't make it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I've seen this in the past when it's very dry in the summer, but here's a picture of some honeybees on the edge of my bright blue ceramic birdbath. There's usually only 1 or 2 at a time, but they really seem to like this birdbath.

A Bird Hike

On the first Saturday of every month, our local Zumbro Valley Audubon Society sponsors a bird hike. The hikes are led by members of ZVAS and this past Saturday, Joyce and Terry (the friends who went with me to the SW MN Birding Festival in April) were going to be the hike leaders. Since I had never been on any of their trips before and the weather was supposed to be very nice, I decided to go, making this my first bird hike with a group.

The location of the hike was Quarry Hill Nature Center, a very nice area close to the heart of downtown Rochester. I got there right at 9:00 and there was quite a large group of about 20 people (Joyce said it was one of the biggest they had led this year). There were several moms and grandmoms who had little ones with them, so the ages of the group ranged from about 3 to several people who appeared to be in their mid- to late-70's (a pretty diverse bunch).

We spent quite a few minutes around the nature center as there are some bird feeders and blooming honeysuckle plants, so people got to see wrens, hummingbirds, and nuthatches.

We moved on to the trail that runs alongside the little pond. I was excited to see turtles basking on the logs sticking out of the water. I almost never see turtles anywhere. There were also barn swallows making a nest in the picnic shelter. We heard a common yellowthroat singing quite loudly and finally located him in the top of a box elder tree. That was neat too, as I hear them much more often than I see them.

By this time, having been with the group about 30 minutes, I was beginning to notice several things: the littlest kids had almost no interest in this hike (they mostly wanted to play in the grass or go down by the water--causing Mom to panic a couple times!) I also noticed that many of the people seemed to be having a really hard time locating the specific bird we were looking at. Joyce and Terry are awesome hike leaders - they have so much patience and are so good at explaining where people should look to see the birds. They're also very calm even when people are bunching up and some group members are getting a little anxious.

One of the other things I noticed was what kind of bincoulars people were using. Now I don't want you to think I'm some kind of binocular snob, and I don't even think of myself as a really "hardcore" birder, but for when I really want to see birds, I have a nice pair of 8 x 42 Denali's from Eagle Optics. I would say out of the whole group (excluding Joyce, Terry, and myself), there were only 3 or 4 other people who had the higher power binoculars. The majority of people had little 10 X 25's (which I keep in the car as emergency binoculars, in case I'm out driving around and have forgotten to bring my big binocs along). My advice for anyone who wants to get into birding even half-heartedly: save your money and invest in some really nice binoculars. Talk to people who can explain the features of the binocs and who will let you try them out in the store. They have to be comfortable in your hands, and you have to feel comfortable using them (especially if you wear eyeglasses, as I do). The smaller bincos work well if they're good quality, but if you really want to get out and see birds, you owe it to yourself to have good binocs that make the entire birdwatching experience so much more enjoyable (and don't forget a good binocular strap to hang them from).

OK, that's enough of my binocular sermon..... After we were about halfway through the 2-hour trip, all of the little children had gone back to the nature center (those little bladders fill up fast!) We hiked up a fairly steep muddy/rocky portion of the trail to the oak savanna area. Joyce told us this area had been cleared of buckthorn several years ago and it now looked completely different from what it had been. We saw lots of birds up here: olive-sided flycatcher, gray catbird, cardinal pairs, hummingbirds, indigo bunting, cedar waxwings, eastern bluebirds, and even a brown-headed cowbird (I heard one lady tell her friend in a hushed voice, "that's the first brown-headed cowbird I've ever seen!") I had to chuckle to myself at that, since most of us would probably not be too sad if we never saw a cowbird again.

We gradually made our way back to the nature center through a quarry area and down the bike trail that was totally wooded. We took a look at a wren nest in a Gilbertson PVC bluebird house--she had 7 eggs.

It was an enjoyable hike, the weather was perfect, and there weren't too many bugs. I was thankful for all the time I've spent listening to my bird call CDs because I knew what many of the birds were and had an easier time locating them by their song. This was a nice group because most of the birders seemed to be novice, so there was no competition and everyone was happy to see even the birds a lot of us have as common feeder visitors.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When I got home on Saturday afternoon, the rain was still holding off, so I got my lawn mowing started. In a check of the mourning dove nest, here's what I found:

These little guys look like they just hatched. Aren't they cute?

A Must See

If you had a bad day, or just need something to smile about, please go to The Birdchick Blog to see the most amazingly cute videos of a "porcupet."

Those *#&$^% Grackles!

I have a bit of a problem in my backyard: Graculus aggravatus (aka gangsta birds).

Those dastardly birds and their unpleasant offspring are eating everything they can get their beaks on....even the bunnies' corn is disappearing almost as fast as I can toss those ears out.

Every morning I fill my giant Droll Yankee feeder about two-thirds with the less expensive grackle blend. This is what I've been coming home to for about the last week-and-a-half. They consume almost the entire tube. Just to give you an idea, this tube is about 4 feet high and I probably fill it to about 30 inches or so.... What pigs they are!

I think they are taking the message on the sign a bit too literally!

Can you sense the distress of this poor downy woodpecker? There was a half a cake of suet in this feeder this morning. I caught the grackles sitting on top of it yesterday, but I figured once they had eaten enough that they couldn't access it from the top anymore, maybe the woodpecker would get the rest. Ha! That's what thinking did for me! The suet was completely gone when I got home from work.

So I marched myself right out to the garage and my storage area of bird-related miscellanea. "There must be something here that I can use make this suet cage more grackle-proof," I says to myself. "Ah yes, there down on the end....an old license plate!"

I brought it in the house and bent it in half to fit the suet cage. The license plate has these nice little holes on either side that lined up nicely with the suet cage. A couple of plastic cable ties, and voila, a grackle-proof (hopefully!) suet feeder.

As the ultimate test, I filled the suet cage with peanut suet and tomorrow I'll have to observe whether my homemade deterrent device is effective or not. At least I know the grackles won't be able to sit on top of the feeder anymore.

I have another use for old license plates -- they work very well as a patch on bluebird house roofs where the wood has cracked or part of it has broken off.