Bogieblog

Blue Birds and Things That Could Have Gone Better

Wednesday, before the upcoming Nor'Easter, the birdfeeders were the site of a feeding frenzy. Just before 3pm, I looked and was excited to see I had bluebirds on the suet feeder. I don't remember ever having bluebirds at either house in NH, so of course I grabbed my phone and snapped some pictures.

Wednesday night thru Thursday afternoon my area got hit by 20-22" of snow. It was a light, fluffy snow which was much better than the sloppy and heavy stuff we got two weekends ago. BTW, as late as Wednesday evening, they were calling for my area to get 6-12+" (after starting the day before at 2-4" - if the storm didn't stay south of us). By 3AM Thursday they upped it to 10-18"

At 4 AM Thursday, the road plow went by after the first 8" of snow had fallen so at 5AM I went to clean up the driveway for the first time. The berm was over the top of the snowblower intake, which means it was over 2' high.

The plow went by a second time about 11, so I took an hour lunch to do another cleanup of the driveway. After I logged off from work, I went out and started clearing paths around the house, to the compost barrel and started on the "driveway" to the tent garage, but didn't get the whole thing done. Neither did I clear off the front porch steps. I figured I would do them Friday morning since I was taking a PTO day anyway and the temp would stay low. Snow totals a bit to the NW of me had some areas getting over 40" of snow within the 15 hours that the storm lasted

And then there was the record set in Concord for total over a 12 hour period

Friday morning I went out o clean up what the roof had dumped on the driveway and the path to the fron door, as well as shovel the front porch/steps. Then I finished up the second "driveway" and brushed the snow off the back window of the truck. Everything seemed to be fine at that time.

I took a break and went to go rake the snow off the shed and tent garage about 9:15 am, when I saw this

At the bottom of that last picture you can see little glass shards on the dash. Well, nothing to do but call both insurance companies. Of course I don't know the full extent of damage to the truck since the structure will have to be removed first. As you can see, the roof of the structure had already dumped part of the snow load (the snow along the side of the structure is all from the roof), so I'm unsure why it didn't hold up, but apparently it got tired of standing upright.

The house insurance adjuster called me back later that day and had me send pictures. He also provided a couple of names of companies that might be able to help with the clean up. Since they were 20-30 miles away, and he used them for water/fire/smoke damage clean up, he wasn't sure if they could help or would be willing to come out to my area. I got ahold of the first name on the list and he will be out this morning to take a look.

Once again it is a good thing I have a second vehicle for going to the dump and getting groceries since the truck will be out of commission for goodness knows how long. And I am fortunate to be working from home, so I don't have to worry about commuting in slick conditions. So far the ton of pellets in there are untouched and hopefully the structure can be removed without damaging them (they are covered in plastic, so I'm not worried about snow getting on them).

The worst part will be that thru the rest of the winter, I'll have to scrape and remove frost/ice/snow from the truck, which I have really enjoyed not having to do. But, in the scheme of things, this is a minor blip.

 

Winter Prep, New Furniture Build and Things that go Bump

Saturday I spent several hours at the Ford dealership getting the Explorer's tires changed over to snows (mounted and balanced since I don't have spare rims), plus it needed an oil changed. While they were giving it a once over, they noticed there was no coolant in the reservoir. Did a leak test and found that a hose clamp had rotted and busted in two. At least it was an easy and cheap fix - although the compression test was more expensive than all the other work combined. However, I'm not complaining because if it was leaking into something, that would have been a whole bunch more. And, I used the rebate I got from when I put new tiers on the car last month, so that kept the out of pocket cost down a bit.

Beautiful day yesterday. Started out in long sleeve and sweatshirt, then down to short sleeves when I took the truck in, then down to a tank top as I did some yard work. I raked and used the leaf blower to get the leaves out from under the deck and mowed them into tiny pieces. Then raked out the drainage ditches and spread the leaves under the tree line in back. Took the planters off the back porch and consigned plant material to the compost bin and the dirt/roots went to fill in a couple of areas that needed soil. The yard is not quite ready for winter, I need to take the windmill down from the driveway garden - but it has been so nice the last couple of days, and it is supposed to continue into next week so I can leave it up for a while longer.

About 3 I went to do some reading in the sitting area out back and not 30 seconds after I sat down a chickadee literally flew into my arm. I saw the flash of feathers out of the corner of my eye just before I felt a soft bump and the little feet scrambling as he pushed back off. Tells you how long it has been since I've used that area - he was probably going to land on the chair and scope out the new water I put in the bird bath. Got to watch the feeding frenzy at the bird feeder that hangs off the back porch for a while before I started reading too.

In the evening, I started on putting together a bunch of parts that came in a 2'W x 4'L x 6" D box to make this.

Almost got the second one complete except it was missing 2 screws for the door hinges, so after a run to the hardware store today, I will get it finished. Then I gotta figure out how to get the huge entertainment center out of here so I can put the A/V cabinets in its place.

Rain, Glorious Rain

Yesterday, my place received 1" of rain which is fantastic. That 1" equals the amount I had received in the last 5 weeks; consistently there has been 1/4" of rain each week except for about 3 weeks ago when I received none. From the UNL Drought Monitor :

Sure, we aren't as bad as some areas, but the average for the state is somewhere around 8-10" below normal (after a mild snow winter).

Finally got some shots of a cardinal that has been hanging around for most of the summer. He has been very skittish and bolts anytime I open the door . Since most of the summer has been extremely hot for this area, the door and shade is normally closed. However, it has been cooler and cloudy for a couple of days, so the shade has been up on the door. With the lights off in the kitchen, and moving slowly, I could keep from startling him. Although in the last picture, he must have caught a reflection off the phone, or I moved, so he played peekaboo.

I am leaning toward a color mutation for the pinkish, although it could certainly be a young male that hasn't come into it's final colors (none of the young males I have ever seen look like this though).

For the last couple of weeks I've also had a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird hanging around the planters of flowers on the back porch railing. I finally put a feeder out for her last Monday since those flowers probably don't have much nectar (geraniums) and there aren't many other flowering plants around because of the dry conditions and the goldenrod hasn't opened yet. Haven't seen a male around though so don't know if she is a transient or what.

And that is pretty much the exciting news around here - everyone have a great week!

Hurricane Isaias Remnants

The morning prior to the hurricane remnants hitting us, I saw a dark blob in the back yard. I thought it was a turtle, but when I got the binoculars out, it was a bird. It took me a while to figure out it was a juvenile robin that had jumped, or fallen out of the nest. It was not yet at the stage it could fly (or maybe just hadn't figured it out yet). (following three pics taken about 9:30 am on 8/4/20)

After a while, I saw Mom and Dad in the area.

That afternoon, I got alerts from both my personal and work phones - tornado warning!The local channel had Hillsboro in the warning area also, just can't see it in this picture. The tornado was indicated by radar (not by sight) and at that time was in Peterborough area, but the storm was moving 50-70 mph (so they said). I let my boss know I was logging off from work, then grabbed the youngsters, put them in their pen, and rolled it into the hallway (closing all the doors around it). Then I grabbed Rita and put her in the basement (she respects the gate at the top of the stairs.

My side of town saw only about 1/4" of rain (as has been usual, 1/4" of rain per week since the 4" more than a month ago). and very little wind. However, at higher elevations there were lots of trees and electrical wires downed, although no tornado or straight line winds.

A couple hours later, I looked around and finally found two juvenile robins. Both were beside the red rhododendron at the side of the house. Before I could grab my phone for a picture, one had gone behind the rhodie or under the burning bush that is behind it, so I could only get a shot of one.

We must have gotten more wind that night, because the next day I found some large limbs had come down. Thursday evening, since the dump is open late, I gathered all the limbs and took them to the shrub pile

I haven't seen the juvenile robins around, and I've only seen one adult robin, so it is hard to say if they got taken by the neighborhood fox, a cat, or are fine and on their own (or even being taken care of by parents somewhere in the swamp). And, previously I had rarely seen both mom and dad robins at the same time, so all I have a questions.

Just looked it up and it seems that the fledglings take a couple of weeks before they fly. They are taken care of by dad while mom lays and sits on more eggs, so I'm going to go with that explanation :)

 

I Can Spy

In early July (holy cow, it seems like just 2 weeks ago, but it was a month ago), my binoculars broke (see Birds and Breakage). Cop Car was kind enough to offer to replace them - like it was Christmas in July, but I needed to pick them out. Only trouble was, that I am ignorant when it comes to all the fancy talk. Such as, my old binoculars were 7x35 and 357 at 1000. I had no idea what those numbers meant. So, I turned to CC asking for a basic primer. She was able to put together more information than I knew I needed (roof prism vs. porro prism, exit pupil etc). And she mentioned in passing that she had trouble finding binoculars that would adjust to her close set eyes - which I immediately recognized as an issue I would have to look out for since my old binoculars had to folded until they hit the stop  - something I never would have thought to look for if she hadn't mentioned that she had that problem.

So after digesting the information and links CC supplied, I set out doing more research because some of the concepts just weren't taking hold. After some digging, I found Birdwatching.com which explained things (especially Field of View - which I understood the concept, but the chart and picture really gave me an understanding) in a manner that got some of the info into my thick head.

Then it was on to researching the different brands/models. The first thing I weeded out was those that had the wrong type of prism (porro prism), then on to weeding out those that had a large IPD (interpupillary distance).  Then it was off to check reviews.

I finally settled on Zeiss Conquest HD binoculars in 10x42 (much more expensive than I would have bought myself - but CC wanted to make sure I had a good pair). I was able to find a good price on FleaBay (New pair, not used). I also managed to find a pair of Like-New Bushnell Expo's (the exact binocular that had broken) for $40, so figured I would pick them up for a knock-around pair.

Everything was here by Friday - I had to pick up the Zeiss from the post office since I had to sign for them.

Spot was helping :)

First, I want to say, that the Bushnell's really were like new. I think they may have been taken out of the case once, put back in and thrown in a closet. The reason I say that is that everything was there, with no mars at all and even with the plastic bags. The only indication that the carry case had been opened is that the instruction booklet was wrinkled (although still crisp and bright). Couldn't be happier with that $40 as people were trying to sell "good" conditions at just $5 less.

the Zeiss are fantastic. I can see squirrels and birds in and around the back yard at bigger than what they would be if they were right beside me. I can identify tree leaves and all sorts of goodness there! They had a smaller IDP than pretty much everything else out there, and I need nearly all of it. Looking at stars, I don't notice any shore shakiness than the Bushnells. That may be due to the prism type, or just the better optics, but I'm happy I went with the 10x instead of 8x magnification.

Now, not everything is peachy keen with the Zeiss, although they are pretty much my preference and have nothing to do with the binoculars themselves. I hate, hate, hate, how they not only make you attach the carry strap yourself, but make it as complicated as possible. Then, once I got the strap  attached, they are made for people with much longer torsos than I. Once I got the length adjusted, I had extra strap lengths hanging out everywhere. Finally decided I didn't need the strap and took it back off (which, considering I spent a good 1/2 hour, and had to do it without glasses or contact in to get close enough to see what I was doing, is really saying something). Okay, yes I'm a spaz, but it is a cheesy system.

The eyepiece protectors are difficult to remove. They want to stick and stay and it takes time to pry them off (I'll admit the Bushnell eyepiece protectors have the opposite problem - so maybe I'm just too picky). The only way to attache the eyepiece protectors to the binoculars is by running the neck strap thru them - which makes no sense to me (I can barely get them off the eyepieces, I can't imagine fighting the strap too). However, I do like that the protectors are a single unit, which is easier to keep track of than separate protectors for each eyepiece (since I'm not using the strap).

However, the far end lens protectors are awesome and attach to the binoculars themselves so you aren't in danger of loosing them. Just flick them off and you are good to go. Interestingly, they attach to the same place as the neck strap would go. Not sure why they didn't use the same system for the eyepiece protectors.

I'm thrilled with the binoculars - thank you for the Christmas in July Cop Car!

Birds and Breakage

Yesterday I kept myself busy by mowing both the neighbor's and my yards. I hadn't mowed the neighbor's in 3+ weeks because of the rain shortage. I had mowed parts of my yard once in that time, the parts in the shade and wetter parts of the yard. The sod I laid on June 16, having been watered daily to ensure it survived until roots took hold of the ground, got its first mowing.

In between mowing the two yards, I took a short break and managed to do this. I don't know how, I wasn't manhandling them, just picked them up off the counter, walked outside, put them up to my eyes and put my hand out there to stabalize.

Argh, I've had those for what seems like forever. I don't remember if Cop Car gave them to me before or after I moved to NH (I think after), but they are at least 30 years old. I don't use them every day, but on a regular basis so will need to find a replacement soon.

Another thing I don't use often, but semi-regularly, is my camera. An actual camera and not my phone. I usually only use it for the ability to zoom. A flash of white in the yard of the apartment building next door is what led me to using my camera (after breaking my binoculars).

I haven't seen a white pigeon in the area before and really wanted to find out if it was albino, or just a different color than I'm used to seeing

Although it is hard to tell because the neck area is reddish, I concluded it is just a color variation. And bonus, I didn't realize until I downloaded the pictures that I got a 3-fer in this shot.

I am always impressed with this cheap little Powershot camera when I do long distance shots. In this case it is over 150' (I know, that isn't long distance to many people that have better equipment)

So, after I got the neighbor's lawn mowed (remember, I was mowing at the beginning of this post), I took a shower (the 4th shower between 5 am Friday and 11 am Saturday) I got in the Explorer and headed 38 miles, and 50 minutes away, to pick up pellets that I had found on CL A ton of pellets for $125 was something I couldn't turn down, even adding in the $8-10 in gas I used. When I got on CL early yesterday morning, it wasn't to look for pellets, but I happened to search for them and there was an ad that had been put up the night before. Fortunately I could get to their location using mostly back roads, so I wouldn't have to push the loaded truck too hard to get back home.

I really didn't have room in the basement, but I made room in front of the P61a. I'll have to move them before heating season starts, but for now, they are fine.

Yeah, after all the hard work, I pretty much read the rest of the day.

Birds and Blooms

On the 14th I put the end of a naval orange out on the porch railing and a female oriole visited. I was lucky I caught her as I was just taking a stand-up break from working. I haven't seen any since even though I put out half an orange the next day. Parts of it keep disappearing so at least one is still out there. I bought a bag of smaller oranges Saturday and put a fresh half out last night.

And, from the gardens - Tahiti Daffodils in the roadside garden

Baby lupines from seed I got from a local FHC (Firewood Hoarders Club) member last fall. These are in the semi-shade garden on the swamp side of the house

More baby lupines in the roadside garden

The baby lupines are sheltered by Daffodils, sprouts from a peony and sedum (very right)

Madame Emile Debatene peony sprouts next to hyacinth in the roadside garden

The creeping phlox along the front of the house are starting to bloom

These pictures were taken before the rain Friday night and I should have gotten pictures of the phlox yesterday as it is even further along now.

Trees and Birds

Last Tuesday I went out to check on the bird feeder and saw this in the back yard

That limb was 14.5' long. There hadn't been any wind, nor was there a snow load, so I assumed the dead tree is just starting to break down. When I went to remove the limb, I saw that it hadn't actually landed on the chair, but had landed but down first at some point (probably during the heavy snow the previous week), then fallen over after the snow had melted the previous evening. The hole is 9" deep and the but end of the limb had dirt and mulch on it.

Guessing this is the tree it came from

Later that same day, I heard the call of a big woodpecker as it was flying overhead. To my delight, a Pileated landed in trees just to the right of the one that had had lost its limb. The first 2 pictures are at a slight zoom, and then cropped to bring the bird "closer". The 3rd picture is at a high zoom

As if that wasn't good enough, after I quit taking pictures I saw another one coming over the trees, and it landed behind the first. That distance was a real stretch, and this is the best picture I could get

And to end things, here is Spot being cute. She had originally burrowed completely under the pillows, but by the time I grabbed my phone, she had moved out some.

Hawkish

I almost ran over a hawk on the way home from the grocery store this afternoon. He/she was sitting in the middle of my lane and not moving. I stopped and put my flashers on, motioning the traffic behind me to go around. I finally got out of the truck and got within a couple of feet before he moved and painfully made his way into a tree. The wings looked okay, I thought maybe a leg was injured and he had a bunch of loose feathers hanging along his belly. I went home and put away the cold stuff and went to see if he was still there or just stunned (it was literally around the corner from my house so I walked).

 

Yep, so called the local PD, who transferred me to fish & game. I no more than got off the phone with their dispatch and the hawk drifted off the tree and landed at the edge of a side road with a thump.

I sat on the other side of the (thankfully quiet) street and watched the hawk sitting there on the ground for over an hour. He then got up and flew away, barely skimming over the top of a house. Called F&G and told them to cancel the officer. We have few wardens and I'm sure whomever was on duty was on a more important mission than checking on an injured bird. Hopefully it lives to hunt mice, chipies and other rodents another day

Iris Blooms and More

I have been excited to see several of the iris that I planted last year next to the driveway bloom. Sorry the red/burgandy iris picture is so blurry. That is the one that sent out the first bud that I featured a couple of weeks ago.

The rhododendron is blooming nicely too. Well, one side is. The far plant in the picture is very brown on the side you can't see. I was browning last spring and I cut out the affected limbs, but now the damage is extensive. I don't know if it is the birds nesting in there (catbirds), wasp or ant nest damage (I don't know for a fact there are insect nests in there, but there are a lot of different bees and wasps sipping off the flowers. There is a bumblebee in the close up picture and I saw at least 3 different types of wasps at the same time - there were so many the whole plant was buzzing.

The variegated weigala I planted last year is putting out a few blooms which is impressive since I dug it up from the holding garden last year and figured it would be a couple of years before blooms appeared.

Today I went to Agway and got some plants for the back porch. Three very nice smelling petunias and a snap dragon for hummingbirds. Although I don't keep a feeder out, I have seen at least one hummer flying around the yard lately.

The two ninebarks I planted last year beside the driveway are putting out buds so they should flower soon. However, their foliage is pretty enough that once they fill in they will be beautiful. I'll try to remember to get pics of the foliage for a future post.

Hope your days are bright, sunny and beautiful as it has been here lately!