The weatherman tells me we are going to have a couple more weeks of cold winter weather…so what else is new? This past weekend gave us some sunshine and warmer temperatures. It gave a little reprieve from the cold, but there was lots of wind.
Karen and I went on a snowy owl search north of Lowville after Saturday’s Chili Bowl Luncheon at View. There were a couple owls reported up in the wind farm area off 177, and I have to tell you the wind was blowing up in that area.
The blades on the wind generators were just a-spinning.
I think the owls were hunkered down somewhere, because we searched for three hours before finding one just before dark on Gardner Road off West Road west of Lowville.
This bird flew from a power pole to an evergreen tree and we left it there just blowing in the wind.
We saw a lot of the farm country around Lowville with snowdrifts higher than the car in many places. And they were growing higher that day as well.
The water was running over the top of the ice in most streams from the overnight rain.
Any low spots in the fields were ponds just waiting to become skating rinks.
When we were growing up we had one of those skating rinks in a horse pasture right next to Karen’s house.
There were always some brown humps left behind by the horse in the middle of the rink that we had to avoid while skating. But they would be gone after shoveling the snow a couple times.
There was another dip in this neighbor’s back field that would make another good skating rink.
This one had a small hill on one side so you could sled right onto the pond—making it a double sport spot. This kept us off the local creek which was not normally safe for skating.
I have previously mentioned the wildlife that was still out in the woods feeding on the beechnut crop.
Well, the supply must have run out for the squirrels and birds as they are moving to the bird feeders.
One lady I talked to this week said she was feeding the squirrels until one ran across her living room floor. That was too much for her.
So far she has trapped and moved 15 red squirrels, and she said they still keep coming.
The number of blue jays banded at my feeder went from five to 12, but there are still some without bands stopping by.
This morning they are picking the crab apples off my tree so they will eat other things than seeds and nuts to survive out there.
This week I went on another snowy owl search in southern Herkimer County, near Middle-ville, with Bernie Green. Sue Kiesel had photographed some owls in that area for a couple weeks, so she agreed to meet us there.
She showed us one of the owls she had photographed. While watching it, retired Forest Ranger Captain Paul Hartmann showed up. He lives in Little Falls and I went to Wanakena with him.
He told us of another snowy owl not that far away that he had just photographed. We followed him over to the spot and the owl was sitting on a trailer roof.
It flew down for some food and then back to the roof.
In some of the shots I took you could see a pellet that the owl had spit up on the trailer roof next to where it was sitting.
This owl was a dark bird. It flew to a power pole when the lady who owned the trailer came home and let her dog out.
Then it flew out in an open field to a fence post, and that’s where we left it.
We made a side trip into Little Falls and found a flock of over 100 robins as we went into town. On the trip home we took a side trip to Gravesville where they are putting out road killed deer for the eagles.
It was late but one bald eagle was perched in a tree behind the cornfield where the carcasses were put out. While looking for the owls we also saw some snow buntings and a large flock of turkeys.
Bird sightings from around the world are coming into the Great Backyard Bird Count so go online to: gbbc@cornell.edu and check them out. There are photos of birds that I’ve never even heard of from countries that I didn’t even know existed. It’s kind of neat.
So far the red-winged blackbird leads in numbers with 1,570,808. India has reported more than 3,00 checklists and the greatest number of species reported, a whopping 806!
The woodpile is getting a little low, but that’s another story. See ya.