WTF!!!!!!

I mean . . . REALLY!!  Not to be rude, but WTF!!!!

It's April 19th, and all the snow has been melted for about a month . . . until today.  We even got a bit the other day, but it melted during the day.  This stuff just keeps piling up.  I dunno . . . there is probably 5 or 6 inches, maybe more out there.  It is heavy and wet, and I had a hard time getting up the driveway to go check my mail in town.  I have to get up and drive in this in the AM.  It will probably be a long drive in . . . SIGH!!

The farm has had a fairly large flock of red-winged blackbirds that returned in the last couple weeks.  I think they are confused about the snow.  They have been visiting our bird feeder all day.  Recently I made a sparrow trap, but it is not being used today, as a lot of native birds are seeking food right now.  It's an awful lot of little black jobs . . . . red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles, with a few odd starlings thrown in.  All untrappable, well, except for the starlings!  All the farm sparrows have been hanging out over at the shop today . . . and I'm not inclined to hang out over there in the snow to catch them.  I know late snowfall in the Upper Midwest is not far from normal, but that doesn't mean I have to LIKE it!!

 I took the picture above a little later.  This is overlooking the pear tree, up close, the grape arbor, in the middle, and the apple tree in the back.  The apple tree looks like it is covered in lots of little, black feathery, cold apples, who are wondering where spring went.  I'm wondering the same thing.

The Kestrel Residential Accommodation Partnership

So . . . I really like Kestrels!  I don't know if I've ever said that here on this blog, or my other blog.  I really do like them.  They are such pretty little raptors.  I am thinking perhaps this fall I will trap and train another one . . . I did that in 2004.  I never got little Rigel on game, but I managed to keep him alive and healthy, and released him after the season back to the wild.  I'd like to try again.  This time I plan to be more prepared, and have some sparrows on hand for training.  It will either be a kestrel, or if I can manage to make the arrangements and get lucky, perhaps a merlin.  Either way, I do like these little falcons.  Some of my summer activities include building some new equipment, and learning how to trap some of these junk house sparrows we have on the farm in abundance.

In an effort to increase the population of kestrels in my geographic region, I commissioned Rich to make me a kestrel nest box.  I financed the purchase of the supplies . . . and he made me three!  He then went on a few weeks later, and made three more.  His brother Brian helped.  As soon as the ground thawed out enough to allow for digging, we put up several of them.  One was given to Dr. Gray, the vet who came to medicate and castrate the calves last fall.  He likes kestrels too . . . so Rich thought it would be nice to give him one to put up on his land.

Here are pictures of the "Partnership" establishing the kestrel nest box distribution.  Rich and his oldest brother Brian attach the box to a 12' pole, which when sunk into the ground will put the box at about 9 to 10 feet high.

A 'predator guard' is attached to make access to the box possible by wing only.  No free meals to cats or raccoons.  Unfortunately nothing prevents starlings from moving in . . . unless I evict them.

Post hole digger to make the holes to sink the posts into.

Brian holds the pole as Rich fills in the hole.

The first box was placed within sight of the farm house.  It is along Hwy 44 facing South towards an open farm field, which has the patch of land between the road and the field, which is often hunted by a local kestrel, as well as overlooking the drainage grass belt, where mice are often found by the farm dog, Tasha.  That's me at the base holding Puddin, the Pomeranian.  Tasha the husky is snuffing around for gophers, which were beginning to awaken from their winter hibernation on this spring day.

Another box is placed on the far back side of the farm, overlooking a valley.  All boxes are placed in the open with no trees nearby.  The inside has a layer of clean wood shavings.  The kestrel-sized hole faces South to South-West.

We gave one box to our Wednesday Night "Movie Night" hostess, Laurie, to hang on one of her old barn buildings that overlooks a valley, in Wisconsin.  Rich attached it for her.

Laurie's daughter, Emily, points up at her own personal kestrel nest box.

The final box was placed on "Olga's Farm", an elderly neighbor who has now died, but whose property the Hanson family still rents the land to grow crops.  It also overlooks an open field of mixed grasses and low shrubs.  It all looks like good kestrel habitat to me.

The Landlord of the Kestrel Residential Accommodation Partnership (KRAP) stands waiting, inviting (really) for some colorful little raptors to move in and make lots of babies.  Rent is reasonable . . . payment in the unknown future of an eyass to take by his crazy wife for falconry.  Until then, it would be nice to just watch them from a distance in my spotting scope.

Those Famous Decorah Eagles

Unless you have been living under a rock lately, and if you are tuned into the Internet or the news and national talk/personality shows, you have probably heard about the famous Decorah Fish Hatchery Eagles.  This particular pair of Bald Eagles have been raising eaglets in this nest for the past four years, including this year.  The male of the pair has "owned" this nest and territory for far longer than that.  Bob Anderson, with the Raptor Resource Project has operated this web cam, and many others like it, for many years, researching the lives of various raptor species, to include eagles, peregrine falcons, owls and ospreys.  This pair of eagles were featured on a PBS special in 2009 called American Eagle.  Here is a link to the full show if you did not see that.

Living about 30 miles or so from Decorah, Iowa, I decided I would come and take a few pictures and make a blog posting.  Rich and I visited this nest two years ago, and then saw their three eaglets, which were already the size of the parents, and would soon fledge.  It was much harder to see them, as the tree was all leafed out.  Soon those leaves will burst forth as Spring progresses, so opportunities to play Paparazzi were limited by the increasingly warming days.

This nest is very well situated by the Decorah Fish Hatchery.  Previously I have either heard or read that some fish are tossed out of the hatchery, those that have died, so there is an abundant supply of fresh fish to be had.  I imagine the eagles may also steal some fresh fish out of the raising ponds.  Of course, they hunt regular prey as well.  Recently viewers to the web cam have seen an increasingly varied stack of  dining choices, to include rabbit, crow, muskrat, and the ever present fish.

From a distance, you can get a perspective of just how big the nest is.  That small speck to the left of the nest is one of the parent eagles.  Below, I give you the view you can't get from the web cam.  My husband very recently surprised me with an early birthday gift.  He purchased a spotting scope for me.  Well, today I tried my hand at very amateur digi-scoping . . . that is, using your digital camera with your scope.  It was an effort, and many of my attempts didn't work, but I did catch a couple of good pictures that allow you to see back the other direction, at what the web cams look like.  I took the pictures from the bridge that goes over the creek.  When you look at the web cam, I stood where the road crosses just above the nest.

Here is the address in case you don't know it and would like to see the close up.

http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/index.html

When that screen opens up, click on the black box for an up close and personal view of the intimate lives of this pair of eagles.  They have hatched out 3 eaglets so far, and the family is doing fine!

This is what the area looks like.  A creek runs by the nest tree, which is located on private land, a farm.

Above is the view looking East.

And this is the view looking West, from the bridge.

Here are some of the neighbors living on a few of the retaining ponds on the Fish Hatchery land.  Often I hear them flying while watching the nest cam.  The eagles track them, perhaps wishing to go chase and catch such a big tasty meal.

The cameras are on 24 hours a day.  At nighttime there is an infrared camera, so you can watch the eagles sleeping.

Come visit!!

Returning to the Wild

On Tuesday March 29th, on a nice sunny spring day, Bailey was given his freedom to return to his wild life. He was released overlooking a nice valley not far from the Mississippi river. This was on the land of Justin, my soon-to-be first apprentice. Bailey weighed in at 1200 grams!! He has been flown at around 865 grams. I could not feel any keel on him . . . he has a lot of energy stores just in case it takes him a few days to get his bearings on being on his own again . . . but he's always been a good mouser, and I know this valley has mice, as he caught three there on the previous fall.

He continued to sit in that very spot for an hour, before finally flying off into the woods.

Good Bye Bailey! Have a Good Life!

A Trip to Texas

Rich and I just recently returned from 10 days in Texas.  It was part business, part pleasure.  We went down to help move my father from his apartment into a different residence, more secure, where his meals will be provided to him, and help is close at hand if needed.  However there was time for a quick trip down to the beach, and a little soaking up of sunshine and warmth as Spring has arrived in Texas.  We gave it directions to head up North.  The picture above is one of the nicer ones from the Dallas Arboretum . . . a lovely bench among the azalea.  More flower pictures below.

I wanted to take my guy to the beach, and let him experience a little of what I have very fond memories of while I was growing up.  We took our family vacations in South Texas, and visited South Padre Island.  The terrain is the same, so I choose to go to Corpus Christi, and North Padre Island.  However, at this time of the year the beach is covered (and at this time I do mean absolutely covered) in sea weed.  Technically, it is called Sargasso.  Either way, it was green and a little slimy, and made the beach not so very fun.  But I did make him get his feet wet . . . so he has touched the Gulf Coast now! I'm threatening to drag him back in the fall, when there usually is no sea weed, to pursue possibly some of the wild Harris Hawks which I believe I saw, and which I have read that area and southward is the highest concentration of their numbers in the US.

On one of the mornings during our brief stay we got up early and joined a birding group.  Those folks were mostly interested in looking at ducks, of which there were a wide variety in some of the fresh water pools that dot Padre Island.  I took the picture above of one of the common flowers which are in bloom.  This is called "Firewheel".  It's Latin name is Gaillardia pulchella. 

WHAT . . . did I find Gold in Corpus?  Well, not really!  I did find something of value, but not in Corpus.  As we traveled down to the Gulf Coast, and then on our trip back, we brought dad to visit his sister Bertha and her husband George.  They live in Fredericksburg, Texas.  We coordinated on our return trip to arrive at such a time that my Uncle George could take Rich to a World War II museum in that town.  Fredericksburg is the birth place of Admiral Nimitz.  A museum has been established in that town, filled with lots of historical items from that period of time.  Now, I'm not downplaying WWII.  It was a terribly important war I think.  But, I'm not terribly interested.  So . . . I went with them to the location of the museum, but let them go check that out, and then I walked up and down the main street of Fredericksburg, which is filled with lots of bakeries and restaurants and wineries and curio shops.  During my travels I came across a chocolatier, where I purchased the above little beautiful item.  It is a small sample of Fortunato #4.  What is that you may ask!  I heard about it on NPR.  Check out the links below and you'll get a description.  The Facebook page also has a nice video about the store.  I purchased this little nugget of rareness . . . but not being a chocolate connoisseur don't really notice much difference between it and regular top grade dark chocolate.  But it was an experience!

Fortunato #4

Chocolat-Fredericksburg-Texas on Facebook

As we drove around Corpus Christi, and then the next day towards Kingsville, and Robstown, we managed to find the old farm where my dad grew up during his elementary days.  While there we even managed to find a neighbor who still remembered dad.  Above is Bob King.  The two codgers exchanged tales a bit, and showed each other their surgery scars.

Our last full day on the coast area was spend searching down remote fish restaurants which turned out to be pretty good eating.  Finding them, however, was a bit daunting.  Missing a turn we did a fair bit of driving.  I had forgotten to bring my Texas map.  But I bird watched!  I saw lots of caracaras, and I do believe a family of Harris Hawks.  The other folks in the car wouldn't let me stop to oogle through my binoculars to confirm.  On the morning of our departure, I got up early and searched through some local birding hot spots, hoping to glance some of those caracaras, or maybe even if I got lucky a Harris Hawk, but instead saw another bird that I have wanted to see while in the Texas Coast.  I did NOT take this picture above, but I did see the bird, rummaging around in some grassy overgrown areas just outside of Kingsville.  It is a Green Jay!  It was their sound that gave them away!  I was traveling slowly on the side streets with the windows open, and I heard a raucous sound I did not recognize.  I was quite delighted to view them, as I was not looking for them.  Those other birds, I've seen them before.  This was a first for my not too officially kept bird life list. 

Kingsville is very near the world famous King Ranch, which is a birding Mecca.  My trip did not allow me any time to partake in any of the organized tours there . . . and besides, you have to have reservations.  Perhaps at some future visit!

Returning Dad back to the Ft. Worth area, we came through Dublin, Texas, which is the home of the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company . . . the only producers of Dr Pepper that still use pure cane sugar.  They have a museum there, and an old fashioned soda bar.  We stopped for a break, and I purchased a case of Dr Pepper in the bottle to take back.  I shared with my sisters, and shipped 12 of them home.  This makes me a 'Bootlegger' . . . as this Dr Pepper cannot by contract be sold (delivered) outside of a surrounding county area.  However, you can mail order it, and of course, purchase and take out of the area.  Above I'm accepting a bottle of the brown Ambrosia.  Click below if you'd like to read more about the plant.

Dublin Dr Pepper

We had a soda fountain made Dr Pepper.  It was quite tasty!  We marked their "Where Are You From" board . . . I wonder what the Spring Grove Pop people would say?  They make their product out of pure sugar too!        Spring Grove Soda Pop

But they don't have a Soda Bar!

And, OMG . . . look at the size of the can of Dr Pepper I found there!  It's gonna take a LONG time to drink all this.  I didn't see a glass as big, or ice . . . and I like my DP iced!

When we returned to the Ft. Worth area, I wanted to do a few things other than visiting relatives to give Rich a bit of a vacation.  So, on one of our last days there we went to visit the Dallas Arboretum.  So . . . scroll through and enjoy a bit of a taste of Spring, which has come to Texas.  It is still yet to come to us folks here in Minnesota.

I really like this picture above.  As we came out to overlook a long green lawn that slopes down into White Rock Lake I saw this young girl running with child-like abandon.  I took several pictures, with this one coming out just perfect.  This is the kind of pic you would enter into a contest, or something like that.  Well, no contest for me . . . but it does capture some of the rebirth and renewal energy inherent with Spring, and Children.

Above is a little clip, of the Sound of Spring in Texas.  This is a Mockingbird.  We do not have them this far north.  They can sing all day long, and during the breeding season sometimes all night long, repeating their phrases continually.  I associate them with the South.  This particular bird sang on and on, inside this bush, not caring that I recorded his song.  They are known for mimicking other birds.  I'm certain I hear some robin song in there near the end.

After our visit to the garden in Dallas, we hopped on the expressway, and zipped over to Ft Worth to the Science Museum, and the Omni Theatre.  There we watched a movie about tornadoes in the 360 degree dome Imax format.  Afterward we goofed off with Alice the Allosaurus above!

Save Me Rich!!  She's going to carry me away!!

So the reason for the trip was to get Dad moved from one place to another.  He didn't have to lift so much as a finger to get the job done.  I think he has gotten settled in pretty good.  Above was him in his old place . . . sleeping . . .

. . . and here he is in the new . . . sleeping.  I guess the move suits him!