Today is the day when even common birds can be new and exciting again – if you keep a “year list” – that is! I had to hide my eyes from the house sparrows and other feeder riff-raff this morning so that my first bird of 2008 wouldn’t be the same as every other year, but was happy enough to settle for this mallard as the first of the new year. The next couple birds were canvasback, hooded merganser, and bufflehead found in the little creek that runs through my hometown.
A New Year’s tradition that I hadn’t managed for the last few years is the annual beach walk around Sandy Hook sponsored by the American Littoral Society – a great group of people who love the coast and work to protect it – plus, they have the best cocoa after a chilly hike through the dunes! That walk added a few sea ducks and a loon to my little list already.
Little more than a dusting before it turned to rain this afternoon, but enough to make things especially pretty in the neighborhood. I love the juxtapositions in this shot – it was autumn only yesterday, yet someone lucky enough to have their own dock on the river has set out a little Christmas tree to hold back the darkness some and cheer up my view. And it’s all dusted with just a hint of snow. This is one of my favorite spots to pass by when I take the long way home from the beach; a little cove on the far side of the river where wigeon call from the shoreline. I don’t think there’s any sweeter sound until February when the oldsquaw are courting.
Signs of Christmas are popping up everywhere but here at home; there was snow on my porch pumpkins this morning and on the red peppers and gourds that I haven’t gotten around to picking from the garden yet. I’ll catch up one of these days, honest I will!
I’ve dreampt up another assignment for the camera happy among you. Find something festive and quirky that makes you smile. Send along a photo and we’ll laugh together at the goofy ways peole like to display their cheer for the season. Would two weeks be long enough? A deadline for Friday, December 14th? Quirky is the key word, please!
“Or you could be the one who takes the long way home Roll down your window, turn off your phone See your life as a gift from the great unknown And your task is to receive it Tell your kid a story, hold your lover tight Make a joyful noise, swim naked at night Read a poem a day, call in well sometimes and Laugh when they believe it” –Mary Chapin Carpenter from “The Long Way Home”
Yes, my friends were surprised to see me at 7 on a Sunday morning. I’ve birded with these two for years, but lately have been very lazy about getting up early enough to do it. Of course I got to Sandy Hook late and missed seeing the day’s kestral at Plum Island, but the nice color the early sun brought to the marsh and their faces was enough. It still looks like summer on the beach side of the Hook; the only giveaway to the morning chill was the fishermen in their wet suits. We pulled a few gannets from the ocean, but no loons yet. We walked all morning, to North Pond and South Pond, Horseshoe Cove and the Fishing Beach. Off Gunnison (the nude beach,in case Susan is paying attention) we found a nice flock of sanderling and two black-bellied plovers. I should have known them by their size, but it was their fluting toor-a-lee, like a melancholy sea bluebird, that gave them away. I don’t think I could ever tire of watching sanderlings and was glad to see such a large group huddled together against the wind. Have you ever seen sanderlings hop on one foot before the surf, rather than running like they normally do? Funny – that sight was my delight this morning!
I apologize for the odd shaped pics, but I had lens issues and had to do some serious cropping. Please do click on the pics for a (somewhat) better view.
No, there’s no costume for Luka this year; he’s cute enough without one. Scary is how quickly he’s growing and getting near strong enough to pull me off my feet if he so chooses. At almost 5 months, he’s a big boy; all bony elbows and long velvet ears. Most of his growth this past month seems to have been in the torso; he’s gotten longer rather than taller and looks like some sort of hound dog rather than a Lab most times.
His favorite spot to perch is still in the windowsill behind the couch. I took his photo there this afternoon while we waited for some trick-or-treaters to arrive. None ever did and it’s just as well because there’s no candy in the house. I’m not sure what’s going on with the kids in the neighborhood, but we haven’t had trick-or-treaters for a few years.
Keeping this pup exercised enough to behave himself is still a challenge. I’d have him at the dog park every day if he didn’t get filthy dirty at every visit. There’s an acre of grass, but the dogs romp and play in the dirt at the entrance. Most days it’s near midnight by the time I get around to a good long walk with him and we wander through the quiet neighborhood and slip into the park to watch the moon and listen for screech owls or the neighborhood great-horned pair.
He’s a great shoe thief and gets an inordinate amount of joy from removing the laces on a pair of sneakers. He’s been scolded for that so many times, but it only seems to add to his joy at doing it.
The Breeder’s Cup is coming to town, and if not for the Cape May Weekend, I’d be there! This is the first time the event has been held in NJ, and it’s practically in my backyard, but I’m gonna miss it.
;-(
I’ve never been to a horse race in my life and would probably hate it. But I’d still love the chance to go and see the horses and be a part of the excitement.
I’m not a cyclist, so I must be missing something, but can someone help me to understand why the *serious* cyclists won’t use the multi-million dollar bike path at Sandy Hook? It’s plenty long and wide and has wonderful views of the bay and the holly forest and the ocean dunes. They even routed it through some of our favorite birding spots at the Hook – yet those darn people won’t use it and instead insist on putting themselves out in the middle of traffic like they own the road! Do they have some sort of a death wish? Is playing in busy shore traffic part of the allure of cycling?
I’m counting on someone out there recognizing this flower; it’s blooming in all the weedy places right now and I haven’t been able to come up with a name. I spotted this patch on a weekend walk with Luka through an overgrown pasture full of goldenrod, milkweed and thistles.
We had actually been walking on a dirt road around the pasture, but took a detour through the middle of it when I heard insistent osprey calls from the treeline in the distance. I wonder if it wasn’t a youngster recently left to fend for itself. Of course, it flew from the perch as we approached, but along the way we came across these flowers and many scattered piles of deer poop which Luka found just delicious! I swear that pup has to put everything in his mouth – thank heavens we haven’t wandered across any dead animals yet!
I don’t have the enthusiasm for identifying wildflowers that I had in the Spring and wonder why that is. I find myself noticing berries, mostly, and trying to guess which animals they’re meant to feed. It took me a while to realize that the ground-level clusters of red berries I’d been seeing were the fruits of Jack in the Pulpit – who eats them, I wonder? The viburnums have set fruit that will persist for months, yet the red dogwood berries are long gone by mid-September. The starlings see to that over the protests of the local mockingbirds. Fallen apples litter the ground, tempting deer and puppy the same, as Fall ambles our way.
What is it about being in a very public place that makes a puppy sooo prone to misbehave?
😉
Maybe it was all that seaweed he ate, but Luka was an absolute devil at the beach this afternoon! He had a grand time digging in the sand and darting off with clamshells in his mouth. He was so wild at one point I almost walked off and left him. You know how puppies get in that frantic mode where their ears stop working and they’re nothing but barks and snapping jaws – any bit of discipline just makes them worse.
I think maybe he was just cranky – his dinner was overdue and he’d missed his afternoon nap. He was snoring in the car on the drive home. He had a bath in the tub and then his dinner and now he’s sound asleep like a little angel curled up on his bed.
I’m not far behind.
Just me rambling about birds, books, bunnies, or whatever!
Today is the day when even common birds can be new and exciting again – if you keep a “year list” – that is! I had to hide my eyes from the house sparrows and other feeder riff-raff this morning so that my first bird of 2008 wouldn’t be the same as every other year, but was happy enough to settle for this mallard as the first of the new year. The next couple birds were canvasback, hooded merganser, and bufflehead found in the little creek that runs through my hometown.
