Northview Birds

Fledgling Field Sparrow

2021-07-13T04:28:00.002-07:00

Upstate NY

Merlin Update

2020-02-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

Just because I can.

Because we saw one today eating another small bird that looked an awful lot like an Eastern Meadowlark.

Birding

2014-10-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

Crows heading home at sunset.
Some days I suspect that a thousand or more pass over the farm.

Why do we love it? For me there has always been the treasure hunting aspect. Looking for amazing things right around us, at no great cost in anything but time and attention. Such a delight to find something interesting.

And it is something that brings us close to nature, which is, well, natural. Soothing. Right and healthy for mind and body.

And then there is the endless learning. Once I thought I knew common sparrows, Tree, Song, House, (Ecch) White-throated, White-crowned. And then I found out about immatures. The obscure little brown birds that defy me even with a fresh photo and field guide in hand.

I love to learn and never want to stop. Birds give me an opportunity to partake in personal education every day without ever leaving home.....we have so many.

I was saddened today though, after months of trying to accrue enough money to pay the taxes, to think about when the time comes that we can no longer work all year just to hang on to the place and eat, what will happen.....this place is ripe for development with housing on all sides.

When we are gone or unable to hang on, and the developers swoop in and plop down dozens of ticky tacky houses and cut all the trees and fields and put in lawns, what a terrible loss of birds there will be!

Pish

2014-09-04T06:46:00.001-07:00

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

There was a flock of LBBs hanging around in the sumacs and box elders by the electric gate this morning. I stopped to pish for a minute or two on my way over to the barn for chores. Just to see what they were you know.

Along with the ubiquitous Song Sparrows....I subscribe to the belief that you can ALWAYS pish up a Song Sparrow...there was a notable flock of tiny wood warblers.

They obligingly came out to see what all the excitement was about. I stopped pishing and stood very quietly as they foraged a few feet from me, dangling upside down and noodling around the leaves.

Common Yellowthroats, a whole bunch of them!

What a treat. They are not in any way rare, and the males sing from our hedgerows all summer.

But to have them so close....it was pretty cool.

Zoo Zoo Zee

2014-08-30T04:43:00.003-07:00

Speaking of flycatchers

There are many challenges for the obsessed, but geographically constrained, birder. I run a yearly count of the birds I see on the farm. Sometimes it is hard to find them.

Lately the count has been hanging at 68 with a frustrating lack of new entries, although flycatchers have abounded since I discovered the bird window upstairs, which looks right into the mulberry and mountain ash trees.

Even the fall warbler migration has been disappointing, with only a couple of yellow-rumped and some common yellowthroats, which we have had all summer.

Then this morning I heard an unfamiliar call out in front. Still don't know what that was, but as I sat here at the kitchen table with the doors and windows open, the very familiar zoo-zoo-zee of the Black-throated Blue Warbler rang out. He only called a few times, but there was no mistaking him.

Doesn't get much easier than that.

Kinda made my day.

Eastern Wood Peewee

2014-08-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

Soggy Northern Cardinal, one of a family of seven that are hanging around

Another lifer for me, right in the same tree as the Least Flycatcher. Same branch in fact. Definitely a different bird though.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing actually. Had just seen a series of really good photos of one on another birding blog, and there it was. I came down to check with computer and field guide and realized that I had indeed heard the call before, just thought it was a Goldfinch.

I waited though, to see if I could pick out the call after hearing it on the computer. Sure enough this morning, while Liz and I were having breakfast, the call came from out in the mulberry trees...pee-oo-wee, loud and clear.

I know many of these first timers for me are common enough birds that a serious birder would have checked off decades ago, but for all I love birds, my life has been about other things.

Ruby-throated hummingbird

And without the wonderful bird window I wouldn't be able to see all these cool tree-top dwellers without spooking them.

Downy Woodpecker

Three cheers for the bird window!

Another Life Bird

2014-08-15T04:45:00.003-07:00

I know, i know, this is just a robin, getting a worm, but I didn't take the camera upstairs, alas

This one was not an easy, great-big-hawk-in-your-face kind of thing. Nope, it began months ago with the suspicion that I was hearing another flycatcher under the noisy Willow, and ubiquitous Eastern Phoebe.

I listened to replays of every Empidonax available in the area, and thought that maybe....just maybe...it might be a Least Flycatcher. Never found a circumstance where I could pick out the call enough to record it though, so I let it go, with maybe next year.

Then, Wednesday while I was gearing up for babysitting, I spent a few minutes in the upstairs bird window. It was rainy and dull, but a little bird obligingly perched right out in the open.

It was a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet kind of affair, but was displaying clearly flycatcher-like behavior and the wrong markings.

I cataloged every tiny detail of its appearance for detective work later, but I was really hoping that it was a Least.

The computer was useless, but in minutes with the Nat Geo guide, I was sure. Wing bars-check. Right colors in the right places-check. White eye-ring-check. Size, shape, behavior-check.

Life list-check.

Not bad for July

2014-07-26T16:59:00.003-07:00

A good bird day for so late in summer. First I heard the yard Robins getting all alarmed and nervous. There were loud chirps coming from at least four places. Thinking a cat had come by...usually the wrens tell me about cats, but hey, you never know...I got up and went outside.

I didn't see a cat, but I rattled my shaker stick, just in case.

Out of the honey locust, very low...just over head level, flew a large, brown bird.

It was so low that I was looking at a rear profile so to speak, as it labored away. Once it gained altitude it was revealed as a Red-tailed Hawk. Thanks Robins! I expect it was checking out the kids' little chickens and turkey poults.

Duck fight up at the lake. Somebody got too close to the Black Duck's ducklings

Then, as I was listening and watching from the sitting porch the male Ruby-throated Hummingbird did a courtship flight right in front of me, just a few feet away.

Wow, it was loud and fast and very dramatic.

When he was done, he sat on the string on the porch, where he likes to roost, and flared his throat feathers. No trouble seeing where he got his name!

A few minutes later the little female stopped in for a sip at the feeder. He flew out of nowhere, flying so hard and fast that they almost hit me in the head.

Okay, love is in the air and all, but I would be thankful if it was not in my ear.

Year Bird

2014-07-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Didn't expect to get a year bird for the farm count today, and certainly didn't expect it to be something as common as a House Finch, but it was.

It showed up on the new feeder (thanks again, Linda) on the new arbor (thanks, Jade) inches away from the newly washed kitchen window.

I have been watching and listening for House Finches all year, but this is the first for some reason. She was accompanied by the second, and Liz says several others as well.

Saw an interesting bird thing or two this week. First a Red-Tailed Hawk, hotly pursued by a pair of Common grackles, winged his way by with a big snake clutched in his talons.

And then a Wood Thrush, which has started singing quite often from the very edge of the lawn. It is the closest this wonderful singer has ever come to the house. Usually they prefer to hang out down in the front field or down by the road. He is a welcome addition to early mornings and sultry evenings.

The Tree was full of Baby Chickadees

2014-06-28T04:27:00.002-07:00

Lousy photos, taken before the light got good.

There is a dead box elder behind the kitchen.

No big loss; box elders are weed trees and we have hundreds...maybe thousands. The dog tie out killed this one, slow strangulation, noticed too late to move the chain, long after the dog was gone. It will make firewood later.

This morning, in another fog, yesterday's brood of baby birds....definitively identified as Chickadees when the parents brought them into the feeders last night...were cheeping up a storm up there.

There were lots of other birds too, using the tree as a staging stop before they hit the mulberries.

More than twenty at any time, Grackles, Robins, House Sparrows, Grey Catbirds, Cedar Waxwings, Gold Finches and more...all in that one tree

If there are twenty birds in each tree, how many are there in the yard and the fields around the house?

We are so lucky.

Birds before 7:30 AM this day from house and yard:

American Robin
European Starling
Common Grackle
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Sparrow
Killdeer
American Goldfinch
Wood Thrush
Carolina Wren
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Grey Catbird
Chipping Sparrow
Great Crested Flycatcher
Common Yellowthroat
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Willow Flycatcher
Black-capped Chickadee

Bringing in fledglings :

House Sparrow
American Robin
Grey Catbird
Black Capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
European Starling
Song Sparrow

Somebody New

2014-06-27T04:26:00.000-07:00

Was singing when I awakened yesterday morning...a Song Sparrow-like pattern of notes but with a thrush-like chiming sound. I staggered out of bed and bumbled downstairs, only to find that it was still dark out.

No way to see what was calling.

Oh, well.

Yesterday's birds:

American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Rock Pigeon
Grey Catbird
House Sparrow
Carolina Wren
Northern Cardinal
Common Crow
Common Grackle
Yellow Warbler
Indigo Bunting
Killdeer
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Mourning Dove
American Goldfinch
Common Yellowthroat
Downy Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow Warbler
Baltimore Oriole
Black Capped Chickadee
Warbling Vireo

Today's additions:
Willow Flycatcher
Purple Finch
Red-bellied Woodpecker

A Lazy Wheep

2014-06-25T05:01:00.002-07:00

Turkey Vulture
They are ubiquitous this summer

Rings out from the little elm across the driveway, then comes slowly closer. Once I would not have noticed this bird, let alone recognized its call. However, during the flood of 2006, when we sat, stunned, no power, no access to the outside world, no nothing of what we were used to, hoping the generator would be up to letting us get the cows milked, one of these guys used the front hall as an echo chamber.

Trust me, that slow, peaceful, wheep is amazingly loud when projected that way.

We are rich in flycatchers this summer. The Willow Flycatcher that nests at the edge of the long lawn never lets us down. There are at least a couple more pairs up in the fields that I have heard.

Phoebes never fail us either, and nest around or on the house and barn each year.

Oddly, yesterday, an Eastern Kingbird joined the throng in the mulberry trees. You haven't seen birds until you have spent a stolen hour in the chair in the window in Liz's old room, watching the Cedar Waxwings, Grey Catbirds, Robins, Gold Finches, and Starlings gobbling fruit. It's like TV for birders.

But what was a flying bug eater doing in there? Or for that matter the downy woodpecker, which appeared to be eating berries too, although I couldn't quite be sure.

At any rate the robins soon showed the Kingbird the way to the door.

Great Crested Flycatcher

Tapering

2014-06-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Juv. Brown Headed Cowbird waiting for its "parent"
Song Sparrow to come out of hiding so it can pester it some more

There are not as many birds singing now as earlier in the month and those that do sing don't do so as often. Right now the Warbling Vireo is going at it and a few House Sparrows.

Earlier there was a Great Crested Flycatcher making a lot of noise near the window.

Northern Mockingbird

Yesterday the Mockingbirds came back after only showing their feathers once in early spring. Of course the male made a big deal of himself, strutting, and showing off and claiming all the high spots in the yard. I suspect with him around there will be much less predatation on local nests. Mockingbirds don't put up with that kind of thing.

A day's species count isn't what it was either. Birds are quiet and hiding.

So far today:

American Robin
European Starling
Common Grackle
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Indigo Bunting
Carolina Wren
Common Crow
American Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Brown Headed Cowbird
Blue Jay
American Goldfinch
Purple Finch
Great crested Flycatcher
Grey Catbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Cedar Waxwing
Mourning Dove
Baltimore Oriole
Northern Flicker
Turkey Vulture
Warbling Vireo

Cedar Waxwing

Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows

2014-06-07T15:10:00.002-07:00

Female Bobolink

Male Bobolink

Savannah Sparrow, strutting his stuff

And a gratuitous Red-Winged Blackbird for good measure.

It IS a Willow Flycatcher! It is, it is!

2014-05-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have thought that it was since they first started nesting here, but only recently had the idea of going out and getting a video of him singing...plus, before the park was mowed I couldn't really do it too easily. Now, I have run him past the Facebook Bird ID Group of the World for verification and can confidently call him a Willow, as opposed to an Alder Flycatcher.

Now I am hearing ANOTHER flycatcher out there. Call very similar to an Eastern Phoebe, but softer, shorter, more clipped....any ideas?

Birds of the Day

2014-05-27T03:37:00.001-07:00

Monday, May 26th. Liz's birthday.

Seen or heard from the house and barn yesterday

Song Sparrow
House Sparrow
European Starling
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
American Robin
American Turkey
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Willow Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Indigo Bunting
Common Crow
Common Grackle
Canada Goose
American Goldfinch
Carolina Wren
American Robin
American Cardinal
Cedar Waxwing
Grey Catbird
Baltimore Oriole
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Turkey Vulture
American Turkey
Warbling Vireo (life bird for me, right in the box elder across the driveway)

May 25th, most of the above, plus Purple Finch, Bald Eagle, Chipping Sparrow

Succulents and Perennials

2013-11-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days I have set several burro's tails to root, along with some jade plants, plus dug and potted perennial onions and chives. This should be interesting.

But I need to get some more pots and labels.

Hops are Up

2013-05-16T10:36:00.002-07:00

I am amazed by how fast they came up!

This Could be the Year

2013-05-02T11:42:00.002-07:00

When Northview gets its garden back on. For the past few years, hideous weather and my broken foot have stalled vegetable production. However, this year Liz 'n' Jade have already plowed and rototilled two of the gardens. And my foot is a lot better.

Liz transplanted a bunch of volunteer garlic last Sunday. It may not amount to much or even grow at all, but she really has nothing to lose.

Then today the boss made a new bed out of barnyard earth and composted manure. Plans are to let that one settle and then plant some squash and pumpkins there.

And I finally planted a second pot of McDonald rhubarb the boss bought me last year, which wintered very nicely in a pot beside the driveway. Also got some sand and compost on the asparagus next to the back step. It doesn't look the greatest this year, but it's tough stuff. I expect that it will come on.

Hopefully the kids will find the time to get their veggies into the ground...I will help them care for them as much as I can...and maybe they will have some to freeze later.

Boss

2013-02-28T08:04:00.002-08:00

McDonald Rhubarb

2012-06-15T09:24:00.002-07:00

I ate this baby zucchini this morning.

The plant is on the porch in a pot...I passed it several times a day for weeks.

Finally I just couldn't resist. It was worth waiting for.

The boss bought me a plant and we put it in today. Lovely, bright red stalks and dark, dark green leaves. I am growing it in a flower bed, along with some I put in a couple of years ago. It is close to the house, easy to care for, very decorative and right handy to horse manure, which it loves.

We will see if it tastes as good as it looks.

Lovage Again

2012-04-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Liz is starting the garden this year...two greenhouse trays full of tomatoes, herbs etc. Wish my foot was better!

Fail

2012-02-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

The indoor tomato experiment was a huge fail, mostly because it was so cold in here all through our days without heat. The tomato plant is still kinda, sorta, alive, but looking so awful that I am tempted to toss it. Frost and maters just aren't friends I guess.

I think I will try again next year though, because it seems very possible to grow tomatoes in the light from the huge (4' X 8') windows in the living rooms.

Not a Year for the Garden

2011-11-10T10:15:00.000-08:00

Broken foot, rain, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes earthquakes...what the heck? The tomatoes were tasty, garlic too small, herbs wonderful as always and the weeds predominated with all their hearts.

Better luck next year.

Lovage Doesn't Mind Cold Weather

2011-05-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Not much else is growing well, but this hardy herb is right on schedule.