"the true voice of spring"

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As I mentioned a while back, I've been reading RTP's Wild America, written with James Fisher, and I promised to give you some excerpts. Here's one that's been percolating in my mind since I first read it a few weeks ago.

After dinner that evening we had walked across the damp fields toward the clear plaintive birdlike peeping until the myriad voices almost shouted at us from the dark pool and then fell silent. To easterners this nostalgic sound more than than any other--more than that of any bird--is the true voice of spring. It is a voice of resurrection: "Spring is come!" Everyone knows the voice and is glad, but few have ever seen the tiny inch-long singer. Tonight, with the peepers, there were multitudes of cricket frogs rasping out their strident notes, and here and there a green frog gave its single croak, like the plucking of a loose string on some instrument....

These sounds that pipe and trill from a hundred throats on evenings in spring are love songs of the swamp. They are ancient music, for the frogs sang their songs ages before the birds did; they were here first.... This orchestration of frogs and toads is one of the outstanding things about spring nights in eastern North America.

I read that passage again last night as I snuggled under my six layers of covers in bed, and I could almost hear the peepers and the toads and the green frogs playing their symphony; I could almost feel the warm breeze and smell the damp earth of the marsh. We leave our windows open in the summer, and each night we fall asleep to the sweet sounds of the peepers.

Once last summer, a friend came over and we went out on the marsh at dusk with flashlights to look for peepers. We saw a beautiful brown one, his throat blown up with each peep, his tiny body dwarfed by both his huge bubble of a throat and the loudness of his call.

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Some people in PA are already hearing peepers, even though the ground is still covered in snow. I haven't heard any calls yet, nor have I seen any red-winged blackbirds, the other harbinger of spring on the marsh--though others in Central PA have seen some. I guess Penns Valley is a little behind the rest of the area, under its thin blanket of snow. But this passage, and the thought of the coming warmth and beauty and new life, makes me happy.

The stork has arrived!

and he's dropped off the newest addition to the beginningtobird family, Alan Rickman!

Here he is in one of my favorite performances, Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. "Page three-hundred-and-ninety-FOUR...."

I loves him.

...but clouds got in my way

Another in my clouds-that-look-like-other-things series.

These are a favorite: low-tide sandflats clouds:

For comparison to real low-tide sandflats, see this picture from Lillian and Don Stokes' blog.

Pet sounds

I took some pics of Nibble and Kisses and wanted to share with you.

I call this one "EveryNibble is Illuminated" in honor of the Jonathan Safran Foer novel and movie:

He's happily eating his "crack" or this special bunny mix I get him for treats--it has smashed nuts, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, etc. mixed in with pellets. Someday I'll try to video him doing his crazy dance when he knows he's getting his crack. Boy, can that bunny move!

Kisses has the cutest little paws, and I lucked out and got her asleep for these shots:

Sweet Kitty Kisses!

More Cooper's pics!

Here are a couple more photos from yesterday's raptor excitement at work. He first landed at my pal Niki's window; the light wasn't good on that side of the building, but I managed to get a decent shot of him through the window:

Look at how far around he can turn his head! I kept hoping he would turn his body around so I could see his front, but he didn't. Right after I took this pic, I pulled my camera down from my face (I always look through the little image thingie rather than the big LCD screen, because my old eyes can't focus on that tiny screen). Just at that moment, he lifted his tail and pooped! I missed it! I was so bummed.

So after about ten minutes, he flew to a spot a hundred or so yards away--right near the parking lot. I missed this, as there were about a million cubicles in the way, but he stayed low to the ground, maybe three or four feet high.

Here's the wide view of his landing spot:

He's there in the center. Cars were driving by every few minutes, and people were walking on that sidewalk, but he stayed in this spot for at least twenty minutes. This is where I got the bulk of my photos. Look, he blinked!

And here, I think he blinked his nictating membrane thingie:

Cool!

I waited and waited, hoping he would stretch his wings and take flight so I could get pictures of that, but he just kinda hung out there. Finally, I had to get back to work, so I left. I went back about five minutes later, though, and OF COURSE he had gone and I had missed it.

Raptors invade my work!

Well, a single raptor, and he was sitting outside the window right next to the building!

Here are some pics I got (way to go Delia, for remembering her camera!):

My ID is an adult Cooper's Hawk. Susan Gets Native -- what say you? And is that some recent blood/flesh on the beak? He sat out there for a while--maybe digesting?

It's an outrage!

Okay, The Onion has officially gone too far! What did owls ever do to them!?

Wonder how much it costs... just kidding! It's an outrage!

Friday Night Nibble on Wednesday afternoon

Oh, how I've missed you all! My opportunities to blog have been severely limited by work, school, and dial-up slowness, so here's a little Nibble to get you through the rest of the week:

Isn't he a handsome little devil? Apologies for the blurriness on the carrot photo.

So much for birding, building

UPDATED--with pics. BTW we're having a big snowstorm today, and I'm hoping my calculus class gets CANCELLED. Keep your fingers crossed!
UPDATED AGAIN!--Class was cancelled! And I took a personal day today! I'll go out in a while and get some snow pix!

This weekend, I was supposed to go birding with my pal Roana, her parents, and some other bird clubbers, but we had a little problem with the weather:
Okay, okay, that's just a stock photo of a New York blizzard. Here's how it really looked:

All right, you caught me again--that's another photo taken in New York in 1888. Truth: I was so freaked out by the horizontal-blowing snow that I just didn't even think to take a picture.

Back to the point, however, I did not get to go birding. We were supposed to make a trip over to see a Bullock's Oriole that's been wintering near here, and then we were going to go OWLING! I really wanted to go, because the Bullock's and the anticipated Short-Eared Owl would've been lifers, and I haven't had a lifer in a while. But the snow was pretty heavy on Saturday, and on Sunday we had downright blizzard-like conditions. It was snow like I'd never seen before, and I basically stood at the kitchen window for about two hours watching it and hoping we didn't lose our electricity.

The other thing I didn't get to do was go to Lowe's during said blizzard to buy some drywall. See, we're re-doing the kitchen, and I had to tear down a section of the drywall after we ripped out a cabinet that was held in place by about three thousand nails:

That's six nails (each two inches long) in a space of about nine inches.

This -er- construction technique is typical of the Marsh House; whoever built this place believed in nails--lots of nails--as the solution to any and all carpentry projects. They also loved staples, those u-shaped brads that hold cords and stuff, and did I mention staples and nails? When we first moved in, we ripped out the carpets only to find that
1. the tacking strip was nailed down not just by the little nails that come already in the tacking strip but by 2-inch nails spaced every three inches as well. Lest that carpet be blown away, I guess.
2. the pad under the carpet was both glued and stapled to the floor; the staples occurred at a rate of about 15 per square foot. Not. Effing. Funny. But I digress.

So we ripped down the cabinet and pretty much put all kinds of holes into the drywall. That's when we discovered this:

While our house was built with plenty of wood and metal fasteners, it was built so long ago that no one thought to put in any sort of insulation. Not hundred-dollar bills, or an original draft of the Constitution. Not old magazines. Not newspapers. Not nuthin! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, our walls consist of barn boards covered by drywall! To be completely honest, there is another layer: ancient asbestos siding on the outside. Nice.

So--here's my hand, poking through a space in between the barn boards:

The kitchen is a pretty cold place right now, what with the wind blowing through the wall and everything.

But that snow was amazing.

Tennessee Tornadoes

If you'd like to help, please follow the links. UPDATE: You can also donate to your local Red Cross and earmark the funds for the tornado-torn areas.

What do birds do during a tornado?

The state of the garden

As my spring fever continues to rise, I decided to check out my garden--which I've conveniently been ignoring since the last time I picked a green pepper or some lettuce and spinach for salad, back in maybe September? I can't recall. Suffice it to say that I didn't really clean it up before the cold came. Here's the garden today:


I guess I was hoping the stuff would just die out and compost itself! Anyway, note the washed-out colors, except for the spinach that has somehow survived snowfalls and sub-freezing temps all winter:

I wonder if it's bitter or anything--I mean the new little leaves in the center. Maybe I should've tasted some.

At the risk of breaking my own heart with longing, here's a picture of the garden taken in June 2007:

Oh, my cries of angst! [back of hand on forehead, head tilted back dramatically] Springtime, come soon!

*sigh*

Back to the washed-out colors, I had the camera on automatic mode, but the photos were very washed out in the brightness of early evening. I'm a little disappointed that the pics weren't better, but I'm not all that sure it isn't the subject matter that just looks like that, washed out and brown and dull. I took these pics at about 5pm today. I do love that the days are getting longer now!

Speaking of crazy plants that are still green, look at this over-achieving herb garden pair:

Parsley in January! I thought about picking some for Nibble, but I'm worried it too might be bitter.

Lavender staying strong! It never got any bigger than this (it's maybe seven inches across) but it seems pretty hardy.

Meanwhile, in last year's tomato garden (which I actually did clear out, so I wouldn't get a million little volunteer tomatoes), the crazy daffodils are starting to sprout:

I remember they did the same thing last year and they were fine, so I'm not too worried. Must've been that single day (yesterday) when it got into the forties. "We're having a heatwave!"

If it weren't so cold (we're in the 20s and falling, with a lot of wind), I might consider cleaning up the big garden and putting all that stuff in the compost heap:

Yikes--that heap just might need to be turned....

A murder of crows

For some reason, a HUGE group of crows--we're talking upwards of 500--has been roosting in downtown State College, bringing with it a noisy racket and a LOT of poop. The sidewalks and newsstands are covered in bird poo, and the smell is getting pretty strong. Everyone is asking me what's happening, but I don't know. It's never happened before, in the five years we've been here.

I also noticed that they're getting big roosts of crows in Pittsburgh (thanks to our state listserv). Is this just a normal occurrence, or did Hollywood issue a casting call for a remake of The Birds?

Feeling a little spring

I was searching through some old photos and found some images that made my heart practically scream for springtime:

sigh.

Take the Clawsie Quiz!

Clawsie: Evil genius

or just missundahztood?

Winter on the marsh

As it was a positively balmy 24 degrees this afternoon when I got home from work, I thought I'd take a little stroll on the marsh. I got out there a little after 5pm, but there wasn't much sunlight left. The sunset, however, was beautiful; here it is viewed through some teasel:


During the early summer, I saw several Virginia rails and a sora in this little wet area, which is now frozen solid:

I don't know whether they are still out there, as we're just above their northernmost winter range. They probably went south into Maryland or farther, though they could be hiding in those cattails. Who knows? I hope they're warm, wherever they are.

The sun was setting pretty quickly, and the temperature was dropping just as fast.


The full moon is out tonight, low in the eastern sky, which made for some nice photographs:




There were no birds visible out there, though I heard some sharp little tsips and chips coming from the reedy areas in the center of the marsh. I heard some occasional movement in the dry stalks of the plants, but I saw nothing. At one point, I think a little field mouse jumped just ahead of me and into a clump of dry grass, but I didn't relish the idea of seeing him any more clearly than the grayish blur I'd already seen, so I moved on.

No birds on the Long Pond, either, which has a skim of ice on it:

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd seen some ducks coming in for the evening around the time I was out there, and I did see one small flock of mallards fly near the marsh, but they disappeared quickly in the darkening sky. They may have landed on the creek behind the marsh.

By now it was getting pretty dark, so I headed home.

At the feeders, and Winged Migration

While doing my weekly Project Feederwatch counts this morning, I got some decent photos at the feeders--typical visitors, but I had at least 30 birds out there at one point, which is a lot for my feeders.

As predicted, the American goldfinches are loving the new nyjer sock. Still no siskins yet, though, at least not that I've seen.
Note that I caught two of them in flight; I had put the setting on that little running man, "Sport," or whatever it's called. But the wings are still a little blurred. Maybe it was the low light. Still, that's better than I usually get!

Here's a beautiful White-crowned sparrow:
You can see some of the mealworms I got from NC Mealworms there in the tray. I haven't seen any bluebirds eating them but the worms always disappear, so someone's loving them!

Guess this cold snap and the snow have made life difficult for the little guys. Today the high was only supposed to be about 20 degrees, so I didn't take my walk. I'm hoping tomorrow might be a little more bearable, because I'd like to get out on the marsh and see what's happening out there. A couple of evenings this past week, I saw some ducks landing on the ponds. Maybe there will be more than just the usual mallards.

Speaking of which, we finally watched Winged Migration today--wow. It was really a beautiful movie, though I kept wishing they'd ID more of the birds they showed. That first bird they show--it's this beautiful songbird. It reminds me of a variegated thrush, but I don't even know where the bird was from. Anyone remember that bird? He had those big thrush eyes and a thrush-like body.

I also wished they'd showed some of our warblers, but when I mentioned that aloud--and you're not gonna believe this--Bird-Creeped-Out-Kat (oy--but I didn't want to steal Non-Birding from Sharon and Non-Birding Bill!)--anyway, BCOK said, "honey, do you really think they'd be able to find and follow a bunch of tiny warblers?"

OH.
MY.
GOD.

A totally logical birdy point from The Kat! My jaw about dropped to the floor. That Kat--she's a keeper.

There was one horrifying scene in which they were showing these beautiful Canada geese in flight, with this nice music playing, and then BLAMMO! BLAMMO! hunters are shooting the geese out of the sky! Kat started screaming, and I just buried my face in my pillow. That was rough. The Kat said, "March of the Penguins was really sad, but at least no one was shooting at the penguins!"

So--I then watched the "Making of" portion, and I realized why they didn't follow any smaller birds: they actually raised all the birds they followed. Canada geese, Grey-lag geese, Bar-Nosed (or Bar-Headed? can't remember) Geese, African white pelicans, some different kinds of cranes--birds they figured would imprint on the people who raised them, and thus be easier to follow and film. I was a little disappointed, but then I guess they did do what they set out to do, which was film them migrating in the fall and the spring. I just wonder what they did with them when they were done filming. Were the birds released into the wild? They were with these birds 24/7, hugging them, feeding them, nurturing them--those birds wouldn't survive in the wild. Maybe they gave them to a zoo or something. Anyway, I envied their closeness to the birds (one pelican really loved being hugged), but I also felt sorry that the birds didn't really have normal lives. Still--they were pretty spoiled--well, except for those poor Canada geese that got shot! *sniffle*

Friday Night Nibble on a Saturday Night

Don’t you own a calendar?

Niblet's shocked, just shocked, that I would wait until Saturday to put up his weekly post.

Invasion of the starling hordes

Try as I might to dislike the invasive European starling, I just can't. I love starlings: their dark little shapes looking like big leaves in the trees during winter evenings, the huge flocks of them wheeling over fields in long thick tubular trails of birds, and the funny little sounds they make to one another as they watch me trudge from my car to the building each workday morning.

My bloggy hero DCup took this great shot of one such starling explosion. What a moody scene! Every time I see huge hordes of starlings like this, I say to no one in particular, "I guess they're doing a casting call for a remake of The Birds." I crack myself up.

Preview of coming attractions

Thanks to Santa's Christmas generosity, I'm currently reading Wild America by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher, and I'm just loving every word of it. There are so many fascinating, beautiful, and moving passages, especially when RTP talks about spring peepers. Oh, how it made me long for spring!

I'll probably be putting little excerpts up on the blog from time to time, not just to highlight some of these great passages but also the "high technology" of the time and the hilariously over-the-top Britishness of James Fisher. What a hoot it must have been to watch these two guys--driving around in RTP's station wagon, loaded down with stuff--especially when I compare their high-dollar trip with hitchhiker Kenn Kaufman's in Kingbird Highway.

If you haven't read Wild America (or Scott Weidensaul's modern-day follow-up, Return to Wild America, which is next on my list) or Kingbird Highway, jump on Amazon and get ya a good deal. It's worth it.

Ohio breeding bird atlas news

Look at these two sweet little baby birds, found on our recent trip to Ohio. This little fledgling's name is Allyssa:

Note the proud father helping with wing preening. The males of this species sometimes aid the females, contributing equally to the raising of the young. Of course, it just depends on the male; not all are so helpful.

And this little hatchling is Nathalia:

Here, we see evidence that other females of this species sometimes help in caring for the newly hatched young.

Aren't these just the cutest little birdies evah?