Rainbow and Sunset

As Hubby and I were driving home, we happened to notice one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen in our beautiful valley.  We pulled over and got out of the car to watch it.  As we turned around to leave....on the other side of the road was an amazing Rainbow!  Life is GREAT! 

Coop

We had more snow over the last few hours, another 3 inches.  While I'm house bound I'm constantly watching the birds out the windows of my home. I noticed a adult male Coopers Hawk sitting in a tree at the far end of my yard. All my feeder birds were acting normally.  I put the bins on the Coop and could see why the feeder birds weren't  concerned, he had a very full crop. He was all fluffed up and sitting on one foot.  Nap time. 

A sign

This morning I'm back at the bird count.  A coop came by, and must have scored because there were still birds sitting frozen still all over the place.  I looked out the window trying to locate where the Coop was and I see a very large bird NW of my house, it's circling, it has very long straight wings, grab my bins which gratefully were within an arms length, and quickly look at the bird, knowing already, it was a BALD EAGLE!  Beautiful adult bird flew right over and went towards Greenwood Lake.  AMAZING moment!  Blessings are everywhere, you just need to open your eyes and see them! 

And....

It is snowing AGAIN!  I know the secret to enjoying the Winter despite frigid temperatures and a few feet of snow on the ground.   You must find a outdoor sport that you love.  Snowshoeing is mine.  Today I took Monty and out we went.   There aren't many trails broken up in the park, so we went only as far as the trail went.  If the wind wasn't blowing so hard I would have walked longer. It was magical being up there all alone while it was snowing, although it was the last thing I wanted to do today, it was wonderful, I am never sorry for making the effort. Another item I find indispensable for a successful snowshoe is Mushers Secret for my dog.  It is a necessity to keep your pups paws from getting too dried out and cracking and causing him misery.  I  take a big lump of it and slather it on each paw very thickly.

I am loving being home alone.  It is so nice to just be able to do what ever I want, when ever I want to do it.  I've been cooking nice meals and enjoying each moment.  The Bird Count is still going on, today is day 2.  It is the perfect weekend for me to be constantly watching birds.  The Olympics in Sochi is also on TV and I've been watching Hockey non stop for two days. Team USA played Russia and won!  Super exciting game. I went to the Library and took out a book to read, The Big Year, and two Comedies to watch. Life is beyond good.

Change

Full Moon

Full Snow Moon

Blessed Day

From Hubby!

Valentines Day Dinner for One! 

Tonight I find myself completely alone at home, except for my handsome sidekick Monty.  My hubby and middle sons all left for their annual trip to GA.  The full moon was at 6:53pm and I went outside and watched it rise over the pine trees.  It was spectacular.  What an awesome night it would be for a snowshoe with 2.5 feet of snow on the ground, under that gorgeous moon.  I am going to savor my time alone and put it to good use taking care of me.  The silence of the house is deafening, I can actually think.

The Great American Backyard Bird Count is this weekend, 2/14-2/17.  I had a great start for my report, the flock of Rusty Blackbirds were here bright and early for their cracked corn. I also had flyovers of Canada Geese, Black Vulture and American Crows.  Tomorrow I hope to get out and do some birding else where.   There is a Barn Owl being reported out in the Black Dirt, I will go for him at dusk, also hope for some Harriers and Short-eared Owls.   Until next Wednesday....it's all about me!  I'm not going to waste a moment. 

Winter storm PAX

Another storm is upon us.  This one bringing up to 20 inches.  How wonderful to stay home and watch all it's glory from the comfort of my warm home.  I put out tons of food for my feathered friends, mostly under the eves of my home.  Tomorrow is the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. 

-3

This morning I looked at the thermometer after I came in from feeding the birds, I couldn't believe the temperature. 

Annual Eagle Trip

Photo by Matt Zeitler

Yesterday we had our annual trip over to the Hudson River to look for Wintering Bald Eagles.  We Start at the Goat Path which is about a mile down the road from the Bear Mountain Bridge and we end up at Croton Park.  We counted a total of 153 Bald Eagles.  The river is full of ice floats this year which the Eagles utilize to sit upon and eat their catches.  Absolutely amazing day with my Hawk Watch friends.

Today we had about 6 inches of snow due to winter storm Maximus.  We had a wonderful day at home watching the snow fall.  We are expecting another storm, Nika to come in tomorrow night, that one could bring 12 or more inches.  My flock of Rusty Black birds continue. 

Music to my ears

As I was getting ready for bed,  every so often I could hear something going on outside.  I couldn't quite make out what it was, so I opened the window and listened.  There were two packs of coyotes yapping and howling back and forth.  One was across from my home out in the corn fields and the others were across the road.  My wildlife cam is up in the backyard, how cool would it be to capture their images?  I can only hope.  It amazes me how many people hate coyotes, I can't fathom why so many do.  They remind  us of our beloved dogs. They are much needed predators in our forests, they help to fill the void left by the eradicated cougars and wolves. 

Rusy-blackbirds continue at the feeders.  I'm gladly going though about 25 pounds of cracked corn each week.  It's a small price to pay to have so many beautiful birds outside my windows. 

Robins

It has been bitterly cold.  Most mornings the temperatures have been in the single didgets.  I feel badly for all the wild birds, they spend most of their time sitting on one foot then the other. The flock of Rusty Blackbirds is still coming to feed on the cracked corn multiple times each day.  They now number up to 25 birds.  Today a nice size flock of Robins was feeding on the remaining crab-apples on the tree in the backyard.  Both trees in the front yard were cleaned off many weeks ago.  They are both a much smaller variety of crab-apple fruit.   I bought some cheap apples for the robins, and also put out some raisins.  A huge flock of Starlings came though leaving very little food for anyone else.  They even went on our front porch and ate the Cedar Berries off of my Solstice Wreath, guess I can take it down now.  They made a huge mess with droppings and all the greens.  I still love them.  One of my first rehabs when I was a child was a Starling.  I raised him from a tiny featherless bird.  He was highly intelligent and I became very attached to him.  I knew he should be wild and free and started to take him outside and let him fly, he would always come back to me.  One day a large flock of Starlings were at the next door neighbors, he flew off with them.  I stood on a box calling him to come back, and fell, breaking 3 fingers on my right hand.  I only saw him one other time several days later, and he was still with him new family. 

Snow storm Janus

Took a hike with Monty as the storm started. It was 16 degrees out. A  large flock of Robins was at he beginning of the trail in the Park. We had a great time, all alone, so peaceful to be out there when it's snowing.   On the home front more then a dozen cardinals are at the feeders, all other expected species are in great numbers, I set up more feeders and put food down under cover for the ground feeding birds.

Another Snowy Owl

What a great weekend of birding!  We headed out to the Black Dirt region three nights in a row and were handsomely rewarded with amazing winter birds.  The first night we weren't able to find the reported snowy owl, but we had fantastic views of both phases of Rough-legged Hawks, males, females and Immature Harriers and several large flocks of  Horned Larks.  We went over to the Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge at dusk and counted a total of 9 Short-eared owls and several more N. Harriers, including 2 Grey Ghosts.   The second night we had 4 friends with us and spotted the Snowy Owl immediately, he was in the first field where we drove in.  Our friends enjoyed the sighting and then left. Hubby and I stayed and watched the glorious sunset.  The bird flew towards the road we had to leave on and we were able to see him up close.  Amazingly beautiful.  Tonight we took my hubby's aunt and she got a great look at the bird for a long period of time.  We then took her to Oil City Road and she saw at least a dozen Short-eared Owls and multiple Harriers.  While we watched the owl flocks of thousands of  Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles, and most likely Rusty blackbirds flew over us, heading N to  roost for the night. This is considered to be very early for that many to be seen.  We  expect large flocks of Icterids  at the end of February. 

I returned the gift hubby gave me for my birthday and Xmas and got a refund.  I had no idea what I was going to get as a replacement gift as there is nothing I need or want right now. This morning CRESLI posted on FB a great pelagic trip leaving out of Montauk Point traveling to  Hydrographer Canyon.  It leaves on a Friday night and returns on Sunday.  Guess what I got as my gift?  The trip!  I am so excited right now I can't stand it!   The target species is the Sperm Whale! 
 Expectations:
• Cetaceans: Humpback, Fin, Minke, Right; Sei, and Pilot whales; Common, Bottlenose, Atlantic White Sided and Risso’s Dolphins; Leatherback, Green and Loggerhead Turtles; Basking, Great White, and Blue Sharks; and other marine life.
• Birds: Cory’s, Greater, Sooty, Manx, and Audubon’s Shearwaters; Wilson’s, Leach’s and White-faced Storm-Petrels; Northern Fulmar; Northern Gannet; Pomarine, and Parasitic Jaegers; South Polar Skua; Dovekies, and other Alcids

On the backyard feeder watch this guy has been very close to the house the last couple of days and calling. He is sitting on our canopy frame.  The Rusty Blackbirds continue under the feeders. 

Hydrographer Canyon

Hydrographer Canyon

Fail

Today I didn't get out for my hike.  Monty hurt his foot on yesterday evenings hike and was not walking too well all day.  There was no way he was going for a hike. A forced day of rest.   It rained buckets all day and it was my sons last day home for Xmas break, this evening he went back to his final semester of college, so once he woke up, I spent the day hanging around him.  Ok...all good excuses for breaking my New Year's resolution, now what I need to do is to get up tomorrow and GET OUT THERE! NO EXCUSES!  I did get lots of work done towards my business that I'm opening on Monday and I figured out what I can do for my Master Naturalist volunteer work and also found webinars that would help educate me towards it, as I still need 14 hours.  I am awaiting approvals from my town board and my coordinator from Cornell.  My brain woke up!  Now I also cheated pretty badly on my clean eating, why?  I have no idea.  Tomorrow.....I do my best to do 100 days of clean eating and see if that can't help break my bad habits. 

60 degrees and rain

This is Winter?  I did a longer hike this morning in the rain, surprised to find so many dog friends also out there.  I chose to do the trails while most went up the road and looped the fields.  I only ran into one couple and their two RDRBs. Their male wasn't too nice to Monty.  Monty did a good job avoiding him.  Very proud of my boy.   Monty and I had a wonderful hike, I was definately dressed too warm, a simple rain coat would have suited me far better then my winter coat.  My rain pants were awesome, they kept me completely dry and cozy.  Monty had on his Raincoat too, which helped to keep the chill off of him.   There is no good excuse not to get out, the only ones I can think of is a hurricane, snowstorm with blowing winds or thunderstorms.  I bought myself another gift, 6 pairs of wool socks for hiking!  Simple things make me very happy.

Our major clean out continues and it is starting to take on a life of it's own.  I am wholeheartedly enjoying giving things away!   It's nice to know that someone is using things that sat in a closet.