Christmas at Tick Hill Farm

Christmas morning at the ol' homestead.  Look at all that snow!

Okay, so it wasn't terribly winter-y out, but it was a beautiful morning.  We headed out first thing to feed the birds and go for our morning walk. Here you can see one of the brush piles I've been building at my bird feeding area.  It's practically a windbreak now, but, oh, the birds to love it.  This is a classic case of "build it, they will come."

 As we turned the corner and headed up Fishville road, Nino, the yip-yap next door, came charging out to greet us.  He thinks this corner, including our yard, is his.  Notice the ridiculous PJs he's wearing (covered with candy canes).  He's an annoying little pooch, but essentially harmless.

Now here's something you don't see every Christmas:  a spider headed across the road!  Yes, it was that mild out.  I wonder if Christmas spiders will become a tradition, thanks to climate change.  Hm.

I had some time off this week - thanks to holidays falling on days off.  So, to alleviate the boredom, did I work on the walls, removing the remaining wallpaper and wallpaper glue, repairing cracks and holes with new plaster?  No, of course not - I rearranged furniture!  My "front room" has this lovely bay-like window, which I immediately filled with houseplants when I moved in.  I've had many visions for this room, but it is now my sitting room, with the sofa arranged so I have...

...Bird TV!  Bird TV is what we call the big window at work, which faces our Wildlife Viewing Area, all delightfully arranged with bird feeders and pond.  We often eat our lunch in front of Bird TV - it is great. Well, since I don't have TV at home, I decided to create my own Bird TV, for this window looks right out over the bird feeding area I put up.  Depending on where I sit on the sofa, I have a great view of the feeders.  And you just never know what will show up - I had a bluebird (not a blue jay) sitting at the feeders this very afternoon!

Here you can see one of the recent attractants at the feeders:  the carcass of the Christmas Chicken.  This is a GREAT way to utilize your leftovers.  Let's face it - most of us don't do a great job cleaning the remaining meat off the carcass, so instead of wasting this largess, put it outside for the birds!  They will love you for it, for it will provide them with much-needed winter protein, as well as fat.

I was very excited last night when Toby and I came home from our walk to find some opossum tracks in the driveway, going to and from the feeders.  We have a  'possum!  I hope to see him (her?) one of these days.  Although 'possums are essentially nocturnal, they do wander around during the day sometimes.  My neighborhood is rife with 'possums, based on the number permanently sleeping along the roadsides, so I shouldn't be surprised to have one here.  I wonder if it lives in the garage (that's where the tracks were heading).  Hm....

The Homemade Birdfeeder

I love this feeder. This bird feeder was a gift this Christmas from my mom. She got it at a local (to her) craft fair.

Apparently the woman who made it was just trying to find something to do with the metal bottlecaps she had from juice (or tea) bottles. She cut the triangle from a piece of scrap wood, nailed the caps to it and added a few dowels for perches. A quick paint job, a piece of string, and voila! I love it when people use scraps and create something totally useful!

I put this out for the first time this morning. I haven't had anything to put on the caps for food, but yesterday I purchased some peanut butter spread:

Normally I don't promote these things because they are pretty expensive. One could easily make up a batch for a fraction of the cost (it's just rendered beef suet, peanut butter, and I think cornmeal), but I was feeling lazy and just bought the tub. It's pretty soft (like peanut butter - imagine that) and spreads easily.

None of the birds flocked to it this morning before I left for work. I'll check it out when I get home tonight (it'll still be light!) and see if anyone was brave enough to approach this new and strange thing hanging in the tree.

Winter Ramblings

Alrighty - I'm back on the scene here. Busy days - had a program with a garden club first thing in the morning my first day back - had to come in early to get the jeep and drive to the club's meeting (about an hour away). Today we had our first school group of the winter in for our tracking and snowshoeing program - great kids. So, at long last, I have a moment to get some stuff on the blog.

For lack of anything exciting, here are just some random shots from various walks while I was "on vacation."

First up, we have Ray's snowman, all completed. This was before all the wind and rain hit, so he's looking pretty good still.


Down at the pump house on the Hudson River, the mice had been very active. Now, admittedly, this could've all been the work of one industrious mouse. It had been over a week since we had had any snow, so these tracks could be the accumulated trips of several days/nights.

My friend Pat asked me to come by her house to identify some mystery tracks over the weekend. They turned out to be from the neighbor's dog. But, I also got a tour of the property to look at other tracks. Fox and birds dominated, but they also have a marten that visits regularly. Why? Here's the answer:

Hanging your turkey carcass outside is a great way to attract weasels and birds. Here's a chickadee enjoying a late morning snack:

After checking out the scene at Pat's, Toby and I went for a walk down along the Hudson. This portion is not a section I visit too often. Here we have the view downstream from the bridge. Lots of rushing water over frozen rocks.

Looking upstream from the bridge, things are a lot calmer. The ice is tempting to walk on, but I'm not quite that stupid - thin spots could be almost anywhere above that moving water.

The town has put a snowmobile trail along the river at this point (to the right side of the water in the above photo). I didn't hear any machines out there, so Toby and I walked down the snowmobile trail. I know that beavers, deer, moose, et al have all travelled this corridor, so I was hoping for some good finds. The first (and best) find was this lovely grouse feather:

Right after I snapped the photo, I heard a grouse take flight in the trees behind me. Dang! I was hopeful that I might see another one, but no such luck.

The buds on the speckled alder were swollen and fuzzy. Maybe the very mild weather we had early last week gave them some hopeful thoughts that spring was on the way. These were surely dashed when the temps plummeted several degrees below zero a couple days later.

Are these icy shelf fungi? Nope, just icy shelves! I suspect that the water from all the rain last week brought the stream level up, froze, and then the liquid drained out into the river leaving the ice high and dry.

We walked most of the way down the trail, but I could feel the wind picking up at our backs, so I knew we had better turn around soon. When we did, it was face-first into an increasing gale, and I didn't have a hat with me (who knew we'd go for a walk here?). Much of the trail is out in the open along the river, so getting back to the trees and seeing this (photo below) was a very welcome sight!

On my way back from the garden club's meeting yesterday, I stopped at a small wetland along Butternut Flats, a short stretch of road just south of Pottersville. It was a beautiful morning and there were some interesting things in the wetland, like this old nest that has seen better days:

What really caught my eye was all these raised ice shelves:

The wetland was filled with them:

I suspect their existence is the result of the same rain that made the ones I found along the river last week.

And finally, our special visitor from yesterday:

This sleepy barred owl put in an appearance just off our back deck and was here off and on most of the day. Apparently it was here for a while yesterday, too. It's probably scoping out the mouse (and squirrel?) situation at the bird feeders.

So there you are - a quick fix from the Adirondacks. Enjoy!