Bogieblog

Lawn Mowing - Green Style

The NH Audubon center is going green. It maintains some grasslands that are important for not only conservation efforts, but also for teaching. It has hired beneficiary lawn mowers - cattle. An area natural beef farmer will be moving cattle in and out as the grasslands need them. Around here, golden rod, milk weed, asters and other plants will move into grasslands or any area where tree canopy doesn't keep them in check and try to take over(ask me how I know).

The cattle, apparently don't mind the milky part of the milk weed, the crunchy stems of the asters, or the ticklish hairyness of the goldenrod. They also don't disturb the ground nesting birds like a machine would although the timing has to be controlled for when eggs and defensless chicks are present. As an added bonus, the cattle fertilize where they have been.

The flowers that are kept in check in the grasslands, will be allowed to grow in other designated areas, just not the areas large enough to encourage eastern meadow larks, bobolinks and savannah sparrows.

What a nice win/win situation. The farmer gets organic grazing for the cows for just the cost of trucking the cattle between grazing areas, and the Audubon society gets free, nature friendly mowing. Okay, so the cattle do produce greenhouse gasses, but at least they taste good when it is time to take them to market.

Tinnitus Cure?

Cop Car should be all ears on this one (ha, ha, ha, ha). Scientists may have discovered the secret to getting rid of tinnitus, from which she suffers. It is called Acoustic Coordinated Reset, or ACR. And much to my amusement, it is being made available to patients at a clinic on Harley Street (in England).

ACR matches the tone the sufferer hears and plays that on headsets for several hours a day. Apparently that shows the brain how boring the tone is and reduces the frequency of the brain making that noise itself.

For a more scientific (although not by much, since it isn't a scientific paper), go to the link and read the whole story.

Hoping for the Best

Thinking of everyone in the Midwest who are under the extreme tornado watches. Hope everyone stays safe!

Eagle Cam 2012

eaglets have hatched. I believe this nest is in Iowa, although I could be wrong.

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Bugged

One night this week, I saw a bug on the deck. The sighting was just after I had been on the deck, and the bug wasn't there then. I believe that Fuzzy had brought it up as a play toy. It was pretty large as demonstrated by the tape measure next to it:

The reason I am pretty sure that Fuzzy brought it up is because I think it is a Large Diving Beetle. As the name implies, it is primarily a water bug. However, according to my bug book, when the larva is fully grown, it creeps out of the water to pupate in moist earth. We have plenty of moist earth that it would be interested in (and a small stream out back).

Fuzzy was playing with it, although carefully as it was prone to jumping at the cat, instead of away. The larvea are voracious predators, according to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders, so the adult could probably could inflict a decent bite/pinch if given a chance. Last I saw, Fuzzy either batted it down the stairs, or carried it down the stairs.

I'm good, as long as it didn't end up inside the house!

Bird Count Slow Down

The bird counts have not gone well. We've had little snow this winter, since the 25.5" we got in October. All of that melted, and we have had precious little snow since then. Last weekend, we had several inches of packed snow still left over the ground; the only open spots were where we had shoveled/plowed, and just over the septic tank. It got warm enough during the week,that even most of that has melted (we actually had mud in the pathways yesterday).

The Audubon birdcount of last weekend netted a whole 13 birds of 5 species. So far for the GBBC, I have 5 birds of 3 species. Okay, I will admit that I forgot about this weekend's bird count, so didn't watch Friday, and didn't start watching until late afternoon yesterday. But I'm guessing that really, that has almost no bearing on the count so far. The bird feeders are rarely visited. And it's not that I miss seeing lots of birds (I've never seen bunches at a time), but that I've missed the flurry of activiby at the feeders. In fact, even with the squirrels making forays onto the deck, I rarely have to fill the feeders (every 2-3 weeks). Even the Blue Jays don't come out for their bread crumbs and peanuts - they are left on the platform feeder for days.

Well, an easy winter on us, means an easier winter for the birds, deer and other wildlife, so I shouldn't complain. Iy just seems lonelier without the birds flitting around

NH Matriarch Eagle Succumbs to Injuries

In other birding news, NH's oldest known eagle has died. Gold W22, as she was known, was found in injured in Antrim (a bordering town for us), and succumbed to her injuries. The eagle was 19.5 years old, and was hatched by non-releasable captive parents (I assume rescues). She was placed in a nest in Massachussetts, and as she matured, made her way to Hancock (not to far from here, and a place we ride thru on a regular basis). Go check out the link for her history (I promise it's short)

This is old news, as it came out in the November issue of Affield, but I had it in my blogging folder, which I finally remembered to look at.

Bird Counts for 2012

The NH Audubon Winter Bird Survey is being held next Saturday and Sunday. If you live in NH, take a couple minutes out of your weekend to count birds (and squirrels) and report it. We participate every year, it gives me a good excuse to feed the squirrels birds.

For the first time, they have online data entry - making it easier and cheaper (no more envelope or stamp, or printing out the form) to particpate - no more excuses not to!

And, with the NH Audubon Bird Count here, it must be almost time for the Cornell University Great Backyard Bird Count. It is being held the next weekend, the GBBC is a 4 day event, being held 2/17-2/20 and is open to all North American birders.

This and That (Because I Got Nothing Else)

Last week when I was at the grocery store across the street from work (it was lunchtime and I was getting my bananas and salad for the week), I got in line behind an elderly gentleman. The cashier rang up his few groceries and he gave her a debit card that the state gives to those on food stamps. After having trouble getting it to read it at all, it turned up that he didn't have enough funds left to pay for all his purchases. As he was deciding what to take out of the mix, I gave the cashier the difference enough to cover it. He was astonished that I would do such a thing (it was only a dollar), but I wished him Merry Christmas and bade him to be on his way.

Such a little thing, but it felt good to help him out.

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Answered the phone yesterday, expecting it to be WS calling from work. Instead, I got a guy who, upon my saying "Hello" asked, Bob?"

After explaining he had the wrong number, and him apologizing, all I could think was; Do I sound like a Bob?

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Cop Car features some beautiful photos from NASA. One of the links she provides, is of Comet Lovejoy pasing thru the atmosphere of the sun. Contrary to all expectations, it survived and there is a video to prove it (check out both the entrance and exit videos).

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Buffy frets that she isn't ready for Christmas. I'm not either - boxes will ship after Christmas becausse I'm waiting for completion of some things, which will take a couple of weeks (some things just can't be rushed). Why, oh why, didn't I start earlier?

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Going to try to get to the range on Friday. Although it was great shooting while we were on vacation, it has been too long since I've shot the Sig (and WS hasn't shot the Springfield for the same amount of time).

Besides, I had to have a lead in to linking to the Gun Block Black List (if you don't know the story behind the BBBL, so sad for you).

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It's finally gotten cold here in NH, was 9 degrees this morning, never got above 20. The ski areas should be happy as they can make snow for the next week (since Mother Nature isn't providing the natural stuff). Funny how we had so much snow for Halloween (25.5"), had 6" of snow while we were away for Thanksgiving, but can't seem to buy more than a dusting in December. Hopefully that changes - it would be good for WS to get out on the snowmobile!

Other Doings While Away

We were driving around one day, taking the long way to Casa Cop Car, when we passed by Boeing. WS noticed a strange looking plane and I esclaimed that it must be the DreamLiner, but it looked strange. WS noticed that it had no windows.

Then, I saw the name on the side and did what any red-blooded American does in times like that; I whipped out my smart phone and Googled DreamLifter. I thought I had just remembered the name of the plane incorrectly. But no, DreamLifter is the largest cargo loader that hauls DreamLiner assemblies to reduce transport time from as much as 30 days, to as little as one day.

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The evening that we arrived in Wichita, we were a bit on the hungry side so we hit the hotel restaurant. While sitting there eating some appetizers (what we had for dinner) at the bar, somehow a conversation was struck up with another patron.

Turns out he was in the process of moving back to Hooksette, NH. Small world!

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I don't normally have a lot of time to read, and it has been taking way too long to finish even relatively short bookls (Im talking weeks for a lousy 400 pager - forget longer books, it literally takes months). Anyway, I got to finish one book and not only start, but finish another while on vacation (travel time helped!) They weren't very intellectual books, but light action thrilllers.

I had started Monster Hunter Alpha by Larry Correia a couple of days before leaving home. Alpha is book three in the Monster Hunter series (Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta were read previously) which is set in present day but there are werewolves, vampires and other nasty creatures that most people think of only as myth. One I finished MHA, I went on to Dead Six by Larry Correia & Mike Kupari. This book was set in present day and there are no monsters in this book besides the bad guys. It is a shoot 'em up with some twists and turns and made for good, fast paced reading.

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And that folks, is the end of my reporting on our vacation. It was a good time, great to see everyone, we were fed very well, we got to see sights we normally wouldn't see, and I got in some good reading - what a vacation should be all about!