Bogieblog

Zorro

I started taking care of my newest pet-sitting customer's cats today. Supposedly I was only supposed to see one of the four cats, Zorro, because the other three are very shy. Apparently I am Lydia's new best buddy though. She came out as soon as I opened a can of cat food and followed me all over the house looking for some petting (which I happily obliged). Zorro did come out, but kept just out of my reach while I tried to get him to take his medicine. I followed him around the main floor, up the stairs to the sleeping areas, back to the main floor and into the basement (with Lydia following me - we made quite the parade). I finally got Zorro to sniff my hand and allow my to scratch his head, then pick him up and give him his medicine.

The other two cats were hiding under the sofa. At least they behaved in the manner I was expecting! I will be taking care of these cats until next Sunday, so hopefully Zorro will get used to me and the chase around the house won't be an everyday thing.

More Bird News

Many rare bird sitings were reported to the NH Audubon Society this winter. Although the photographs and documentation submitted for the sitings have not been reviewed yet, here is the list of birds reported:

• Slaty-backed Gull


• Glaucous, Iceland and Lesser black-backed gulls


• Nelson's Gull


• A mostly albino Herring gull


• Spotted Towhee


• Veried thrush


• Dovekie


• Black Vulture


• A bunch of Hoary redpolls from a dozen different sources. We usually get common redpolls. In fact, I might have had some hoary redpolls this winter and mistaken them for the commons. I thought they looked a bit on the less colorful side than usual, but I'll never know for sure since I never thought they might be a different species.


• Bohemian Waxwing

Birds listed are from the May-June 2004 Afield, the NH Audubon newsletter.

Peregrine Cam

Via the May-June 2004 isue of Afield, the NH Audubon Newsletter:

Live video of the peregrine falcons nesting on the New Hampshire Tower building in Manchester is again available on a computer screen near you!

To see the video cams (2 of them) go to their research page, scroll to the bottom and pick your internet connection speed. There is a small program that wil need to be downloaded first (it took about 1/2 second to download thru cable). You will then be presented with two screens, side-by-side. Click on the right arrow under one of the screens. A box asking for name and password will appear - just leave the info blank and click on the "okay" button. I did't see anything on the first camera, but the second camera gave me some results; Mom or Dad laying on the eggs.

. . . . To date, the pair has laid five eggs, an unusually large number for peregrines. "Typically, peregrines lay three or four," said Chris Martin, Senior Biologist for New Hampshire Audubon, who coordinates peregrine falcon recovery efforts in the Granite State. "Falcon food, mostly pigeons and starlings, is especially abundant in urban areas, and sometimes city-nesting peregrines will lay a fifth egg. What would be especially noteworthy would be for all five eggs to successfully hatch and all five chicks to successfully fledge from the nest."

Spectra Access, Inc., a wireless Internet service provider based in Manchester, has donated the hardware, software, and bandwidth necessary to permit Audubon to host live streaming video from the peregrine nest box. Tower Realty, the real estate company that manages the New Hampshire Tower, has been a responsible host to the peregrine falcones since 2001.

Any spelling errors that may be present are mine and are not present in the original article.

Thrills and Chills

Some city people got a thrill yesterday.

What's Up

Sunday I decided to start digging up where the new iris bed is going. Before starting that, I remembered that the Wonderful Spouse wanted to fix the rock steps that are between the driveway and the path to the house. The new iris bed will be boardering the rock steps, so I asked WS what exactly he wanted done so I could get that out of the way first.

Originally the plan had been to just straighten out some of the rocks (the rock steps were at an angle to the steps to the house). We both decided that we needed to re-do 4 out of the 5 steps. This involved tearing down the retaining wall that boardered the steps and finding a large, flat rock to replace the top step. Additionally, I needed to add some smaller flat rocks to the lower steps to widen them out.

It took us 4-5 hours on Sunday finding a flat rock (that we could actually dig up and had a possibility of actually moving) and then moving it the 600 fee to the house. Although we had the 4-wheeler to drag the rock we finally found, the land is so rocky, full of stumps/downed trees, and uneven that it took a lot of levering and positioning of planks as runners, that it was still mighty hard work.

Ice Out - Or Not

Ice Out has been declared for Lake Winnipesaukee on Tuesday, but the Flume is still locked in.

A Brief Interuption

I won't be blogging or reading blogs today, as I didn't yesterday, because I have stuff I need to get done outside before the rain sets in for the rest of the week (amongst other things). I'll be back in a couple of days.

Birthday Wishes

The Wonderful Spouse and I would like to wish my mother, Cop Car, a Happy Birthday!

Saturday To-Do

Yesterday was gorgeous; 75 degrees with a light breeze. With the nice weather, it was was impossible to stay inside, and the blackflies haven't started attacking yet, so we were outside for most of the day.

The first warm, dry day of the spring demanded that I hang the laundry outside instead of in the basement. So I tightened up the lines, unpackaged the new clothes pins and went to town (figuratively).

I got all the deck furniture out of the greenhouse and hoisted it onto its rightfull place on the deck. Then I grabbed the loppers and pruned the roses like a mad women. It took almost 2 hours to lop off old growthm thin out the branches so air can circulate and remove dessicated rose hips (which I leave on thru the winter for birds to feed on).

Then, I took another gander thru the yard to see what was coming up. Snowdrops are adding their blooms to the colors of the crocus that have been blooming all week. The English bluebells are coming up and threatening to bloom soon.

Last fall I transplanted a Bleeding Heart out of a fairly sunny area into a shady area. The plant had been in its original site for 8-10 years so it had a massive root system, When I dug it up, I managed to snap off the main feeder root, so I wasn't sure it would survive. The area that I transplanted the Bleeding Heart to is in a rock boulder grouping that is 3 feet high, at the side of the house (don't ask me, I think the people that built the shell of the house just dropped them there instead of using a backhoe to move them off into the woods). The grouping is circular, with a large dirt-filled area in the middle. Anywho, the dogs have decided that this is a great place to lay in, and of course Missy's favorite place to lay is exactly on top of where I transplanted the Bleeding Heart. The plant looked really sickly after I transplanted (sans the feeder root), and figureing that it wouldn't survive the winter I never got after the dogs to stay off of it. On a lark yesterday, I went to look at the area above the roots (no vegatation is left at all). Lo and Behold, it seems as if the roots are sending up new growth. Now I have to figure out how to keep the dogs off of it!

The Wonderful Spouse was busy finishing up the painting and clearcoating of his bike parts, which for the most part turned out well. He does have to sand down the clearcoat on one fender because it started spitting rain as he was finishing up that piece - but that piece belongs to the Sportster (a bike that hasn't been ridden for years), so it won't affect his being able to put his WideGlide together.

We are looking forward to another nice day today (althoug a bit cooler). I'm not sure what we are doing today, but I am sure that it will involve us getting more sun!

Happy Birthday

The Wonderful Spouse and I would like to wish our Fantastic Niece a Happy Birthday. She is now legal (that's 21 here in the States) and sounds like she has great friends to take care of her if she needs it!