Ducksez!

Jess Chillen'.

Things are Growing!

New Hatch!

Blogger has been down for a few days but I took this photo of the robin chicks today!

Bird Visitors

While waiting to get photos of some White Crowned Sparrows this Catbird landed near me. I shot this "blind" from my chest because I could barely move.

It went down to the seeds for a while and chased any smaller birds away while it ate.

Upon the Catbird's depature the smaller birds filtered back in.

At one point there were 3 White Crowneds but I only got a photo of 2 at once.

These lovely birds never stay very long so I love the few weeks they are around. I notice the White Throated Sparrows seem to have moved on already and these won't be far behind.

A Chickadee joined in and a Titmouse was nearby too.

Whistler of the North

I just heard my first White-throated Sparrow of the season! Welcome back to the whistlers of the north!

Black-throated Blue Warbler

The warm flow from the south landed numerous first of the year migrants in our neighborhood this weekend. As I have been blogging I have heard a summery song and finally went out with the binoculars because I just couldn't place what it was. Finally a I scored a few really great looks and confirmed the little fellow, a Black-throated Blue Warbler!

Lawn Care Tips

We have hired a couple of local Flickers for our lawn care needs. I photographed the fellow while he was hard at work in our back yard. The gal was is our front yard last evening. We are waiting for them to bill us (pun intended).

Aereation
If your lawn soil is compacted, your lawn might not be getting the air it needs to thrive. Lawn aeration attends to this problem, pulling up plugs of soil and allowing water and nutrients to reach the roots of your grass.


Lawn aeration strengthens the roots, and strong roots equal a lush, green lawn. Aerating once or twice a year will generally do. With a lawn aerator, lawn aeration can be an easy do-it-yourself project, but any good lawn care provider can aerate for you as well.

Aerate the highest traffic parts of your lawn most frequently. Heavy foot traffic can make soil practically impermeable, and lawn aeration can go a long way to solving high-traffic-area problems like slow growth and low resistance to wear and tear.

Lawn Grubs
Some lawn areas are more attractive to June bugs laying eggs. More eggs are deposited at night in warm soil areas such as next to sidewalks and driveways and often near outside lights. Open areas free of trees and shrubs are preferred and moist soil is favored over dry soil. This year egg laying is likely to be concentrated in watered lawns since most unirrigated lawn areas are dry. The ultimate irony - in most years highly managed turfs are more likely to get hit with grubs.

Grubs are the immature stages of some beetles. In our area the highest populations are annual white grubs. Grubs are whitish, "c" shaped and wormlike. The adult is the tan 3/4 inch June beetle.

Damage will usually occur in August through October. Grubs feed on grass roots until the grass dries out and dies. The turf can easily be pulled back like a carpet. Turf can survive some feeding. Less heavily watered turf should be scouted for grubs in early August. Peel back the grass. Just a couple grubs per square foot are not a problem to an otherwise healthy lawn. Ten or more per square foot are necessary to justify treatment.

Home gardeners have some options for grub control: Don't water during July and August. If the weather is hot and dry, cool season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass will go dormant. If a few grubs are detected, water and fertilize appropriately so turf can recover from some feeding then reseed or resod areas damaged.

A Slice of Paradise

RGBisMe graduated from his 9 week program officially on Saturday. We chose the gravel road out at Fisherman's Paradise as our running location. It's a nice level mile and a half out and back on which we don't have to watch for motor vehicles. I do carry my pepper spray because we have run into loose and sometimes aggressive dogs in the past.

Saturday was gray and drizzly and I ran without the iPod. I was able to enjoy hearing many spring birds as I jogged up Spring Creek Canyon. It's rare when I can't spot a Belted Kingfisher or two even while I am running and this day was no exception.

I jogged on the grassy shoulder so quietly that a couple of men taking a walk were startled when they noticed me. The one guy admitted he thought they were being approached by a bear and were goners. I chucked and said, "A very little bear." It surprises me how many people who seem to enjoy walking in nature have a very present fear of being attacked by bears. I agree bears deserve respect and being aware of every situation is best. The central PA black bear does like the easy picking humans sometimes provide like garbage and maybe fish guts but they do not lie in wait and seek out humans to attack on the trail. I warned the men that yet another jogger would be approaching so they would not be startled again.

RGBisMe was not far behind me and caught up to me as I checked that a friend's letterbox had been re-hidden by the last finders. It seemed fine so I did not open it up and started running as my dear fellow came up. We were together for a bit but I poured it on for the downhill knowing that I would be stopping to swap out the log books on our own two letterboxes father down the trail.

Both had been closed properly and neither contained hitch hikers. RGBisMe gave me a wave and ran on as I confirmed that the logs we had been planted over 5 years ago were finally full. The final finders had stamped their image and added a bonus sticker to the last pages of the logbooks. I feel badly that the next finders won't be able to enjoy the many varied images of the many signatures stamps. Some letterboxer's stamps have since been re-carved or totally changed so it was a lot of fun to see the old images that Archaeobirder, Mososo Kruppe and Janila used to use. The Loyalsock Skippers were the 4Rhines when they found it. Any future finders will have to make their own history in the new logbooks.

I realized that I had messed up the timing of my run a little bit by forgetting to turn off my watch at one point so I decided to not take too much stock in my total time running. RGBisMe and I crossed paths one last time as he was heading back to the car and I chose to enjoy the total 1.7 miles distance out to a wonderful bend in Spring Creek. It used to be near a by a reminder that it is penitentiary property. Since winter, neither end of Spring Creek Canyon has had signage posting no trespassing so I am thinking it is a bit of a transition to allowing public access.

I didn't want to push my luck jogging where it has been posted for so many years and I really didn't want to run too much more than 5k total that day so I chose to turn around at the middle of the bend. Just as I was starting to turn I heard the piping of what had to be a large raptor and I looked up stream to see the huge dark wing span and white flash of the broad tail of a mature bald eagle. What a treat to have seen this bird. It was my reward for running just a little farther than I had intended when I set out.

The special encounter set my mind to wandering in the way I love the most when I get in the groove of running longer distances. All of the wildlife that I live so close to and the beauty of the day and the area filled my head. I was very tuned in to how alone I was. I estimated it was probably a mile to the closest fisherman, RGBisMe or any other random person. I was fine with being alone and the worst of anything happening to me would just be part of my life. I hated carrying the pepper spray at that moment, I need to find a way to carry it without letting it induce fear or not carry it at all. I realized it felt hardly better than going out with a gun to protect myself from bears.

My pace was not bad for the return mile and I picked it up for the final tenth. I felt pretty good over all even with the stopping and starting in the middle of the run. RGBisMe had a good graduation run too. The Blue White game had ended while we were on the trail and it was a nice place to get away from the craziness that local sporting events can stir up.

Robin's Eggs!

On the western side of our apartment building.

Sonny Days

The prodigal son returned and we killed the fatted tofu as it were. Ravenboy was true to his word and spent a couple of days with us. He certainly didn't have much time and had plenty of things to do elsewhere. His flight back from Chicago was delayed quite a bit and he didn't get back to his NYC pad until probably 1AM Monday morning. I got a text from him a couple of hours later letting me know that he did secure a ticket on the noon bus home that same day. I was beside myself with excitement and was pleased the RGBisMe and I had done so much Spring cleaning in preparation.

The day was sunny and beautiful and my regular Monday morning workout was a breeze with joyous thoughts to keep me going. It was about 10:30 AM Ravenboy called with a glitch in our plans. His best friend, upsidedownasusual (Udas from this point on), had been taken to the emergency room by her roommate earlier in the morning. Udas had been suffering from bad migraines on and off over the past few months but the pain had became unbearable that night. Her roommate had to go to work and asked Ravenboy if he could go to the hospital to sit with her. The hospital was only a block away from Ravenboy and we all agreed that this was a must.

As the day pressed on, although they ruled out bacterial meningitis it looked like viral meningitis. Ravenboy kept in touch with us, letting us know that she was getting the care she needed, had been admitted and he had booked passage on a later bus to still come home. He saw that there was very little that he could do and visiting hours were almost over anyway. Her roommate would go to see her in the morning and we would all determine when he would go back on how Udas progressed over the day.

Ravenboy came into town exhausted but very happy to see us and recharge at home. He calls it Zen moments that he gathers up from sitting out in our back yard. A few phone calls were exchanged and Udas continued to improve and it was determined she did have viral meningitis. During Ravenboy's visit she was quite bored in the hospital and he tried to cheer her by sending her pictures that he took with his cell phone.

RGBisMe shifted his work schedule so that the sunny days that blessed us were filled with family visiting, hiking (no climbing to rest the quads) and creek side biking. Hiking Tussey ridge was rocky but offered some awesome views of the valleys below. We had a 3 mile hike the one evening and Ravenboy said the tippy rocks were perfect physical therapy for the muscle groups he needed to focus on. We joked and told stories the whole way out and back the trail. Ravenboy made us reenact a scene from the movie Flash Gordon, making RGBisMe stick his arm into a hole. Did the stinging creature get him or not?

I kept saying that he looked like such a city boy getting his cell phone out every few minutes. Seeing him bushwhacking down the typical PA ridge top scree and holding his cell phone made for a great picture. I joked that "you can take the boy out of the city but not the city out of the boy." In all fairness, he was trying to send little shots of paradise back to Udas. She would then show her roommate as they sat in a Lower East Side hospital and wondered back to him via text, "Where ARE you!?"

Each day was warmer than the next. We had the entire family over for lunch one day and that afternoon played some frisbee in the park. We returned home to watch some dvds of our favorite tv shows together and just lounged around. On Ravenboy's last day in town we biked along a remote section of Spring Creek. We saw trout in the creek that were large enough to ride. Osprey circled to check out what strangers were doing so far out into their territory. Warm ponds of still water by the creek were home to many huge snapping turtles. We gathered shells along the edge of the pond to send back for Udas who was due to be released that day.

Spring wildflowers of Bloodroot and Hepatica colored the walls of the canyon. I couldn't resist stopping to photograph the curve of the creek, sheer wall of the canyon and my two favorite fellows biking in the distance in. The afternoon was mellow and perfect. Ravenboy soaked up every once of goodness home has to offer before stepping foot back onto the bus to the city.

Today is another sunny day. I know it won't be nearly as full as the rest of the week but we have so much to look back on and be thankful for. I am glad Ravenboy could return to share everything with Udas who is recovering at home now.

Birding on Lower Trail

Maga11 and I have been getting together regularly but not everything is something to put in my blog. I took some nice photos of our outing yesterday but also have to share what happened earlier in the week. The heavy rains meant I would probably have extra work with flooding and use of a shop vac. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with the needs of other tennents and their basmenet apartments so I asked he if she could come and get me away from the place for a few hours. We had a nice day of shopping, running errands,lunch of hot & sour soup with hot tea, art supplies and topped it off with shopping coffee at Wegman's.Wegman's is one place where we can get the brand of teas that we like. Before she left, I had to drop off some things with RGBisMe and asked if she wanted to stop in at my apartment at all. She said she would have to because she had to get her tea out. I mistakenly thought she had to pee, she meant the Wegman's tea she had purchased was in my bag of groceries. Now a pit stop is sometimes refered to as "getting the tea out."

The flooding came and the work associated with it also but the next day was quiet pretty. The swollen Juniata swirling against it's banks didn't stop Maga11 and I from getting out in the sunshine. We hiked a couple of miles on the Water Street section of the Lower Trail. The snow pack had not disappeared from most of the trail and the sun made it tricky footing for the most part. We only ran into one other walker during our couple of hours on the cold and slushy rail trail.

It was early for a lot of the cheerful birds I enjoy on their spring migration but we managed to see some regulars. Other than the letterbox we were in search of, Yellow Throated Warbler, we also saw and heard some Pileated and Downy Woddpeckers and a Kingfisher. It made us look forward to spring and getting out more often. Thanks for brightening up part of a dreary week Maga11!

Snowy Owl

On top of a road sign on I99 near exit 78


On top of the street lamp on I99 near Bellefonte