Ice Out

The ice went out on the Rum River yesterday.  Finally!  I've been checking out the river every day for the past two weeks expecting it to break up and flow away.  The ice doesn't disappear all at once.  The ice from a straight part of the river stays intact and gets caught up in the river bend.  Eventually the pressure of the water and the warm temperatures crack the ice into smaller chunks that flow away with the stream.  I'm glad to see it go. 

The Birds

This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard the sound of many birds chirping.  Many birds.  Very many birds.  The sound was loud and I thought it sounded like robins.  I peeked out the window and saw many birds with reddish breasts sitting in the tree tops.  When I went outside to give the chickens some fresh water (and a handful of sunflower seeds) the birds were everywhere.  Robins, hundreds of robins, were singing from my yard, the neighbor's trees, and the trees across the street.  A flock of migrating robins stopped to rest and talk in my neighborhood this morning.  It was almost scary.  See, this is why I never watch horror films.  Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds, came out over 50 years ago and I'm still scared.

Pulled Out

I have been collecting maple sap for the past couple of weeks.  Today I pulled the last tap out because I saw the tips at the top of the tree had the reddish hue of buds.  I've heard that once the buds come out on the tree the sap does not taste good.  I don't know if that is true but I'm not going to risk it.  I have 6 and a half gallons of sap in the fridge to boil and that is enough for me.

Twelve Patients, Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital

Eric Manheimer wrote Twelve Patients, Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital.   He ought to know.  He worked there for 15 years as the chief medical officer.  He writes the story of people who fall through the cracks in society.  Abandoned children, psychotic homeless people, traumatized teens, and drug addicted Wall Street brokers all have chapters in this book.  One of the hardest chapters to read was about the author's own treatment for his cancer of the esophagus.  The stories in this book are medical but also psychological, economic, social, and even anthropological (hoping that is a word).  Bellevue is the oldest hospital in our country and treats the rich and poor, the criminal and the crime busters in New York City.  I thought all twelve stories were fascinating.

Triple Skunked

You could say we got triple skunked on the owl survey route last night.  Our favorite restaurant, The Bank, was closed.  The meat market, Thielen Meats, was closed due to a fire.  And we didn't hear any owls singing on our route.  But that would be looking at the glass half empty.  We did have a good time.  For the first time I felt like I had a really good handle on our route map.  We never got turned around or confused once.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a different restaurant in Pierz called The Pioneer.  The roads were good despite a heavy dumping of snow the night before. One section of gravel road had water flowing across it and our very last road had a pudding-like feel to it but we didn't get stuck. The sky was clear of clouds and as the night went on a million stars shined in the sky.  Between the stars and the sliver of a moon we could see quite well.  Last year it was so dark we couldn't see, only hear, trumpeter swans fly over our heads.  Last night we could have seen those trumpeter swans if they came.  No trumpeter swans this year but we did see eagles, sand hill cranes, red tailed hawks and crows.  I caught a glimpse of my first great blue heron walking in the St. Francis river on the drive up.  At our first stop an extremely loud pair of sand hill cranes flew over us and landed in a shallow pond across the street.  The cranes stood there with their feet in icy water talking, talking, talking.  Just like a tornado siren gets louder as it faces your way as it turns on the pole, the cranes got louder as they faced us.  The sound they produce makes me think their throats must hurt.  Our third stop should have been quieter because there were no cranes there but the wind whistled loudly through a big stand of red pines.  I don't know why the owls were quiet tonight.  Owls hoot when it's cold.  Maybe the winter storm upset them.  Our seventh stop was quiet but we were right outside two pig barns and it was a very smelly stop.  Our eighth stop is supposed to be right on the main street of Pierz outside the Bootlegger Bar.  We just don't feel comfortable standing, clipboard in hand, outside the back door of the Bootlegger bar in the dark on a Friday night.  Somehow that just doesn't feel right.  So we took the liberty of moving our stop a couple blocks down to a Christmas Park.  It's a park full of Christmas decorations like a big gingerbread house, a reindeer workshop, and a big candy cane.  We stood there, in the dark, for a full 3 minutes before we noticed we were parked directly in front of a fire hydrant.  Somehow that was funny as heck last night.  So we never heard any owls.  We heard cranes, geese, the wind whistling through the trees, machinery, cars, trucks, and dogs.  We saw Orion.  We saw the big dipper balancing with the handle toward the ground.  And we saw the moon.  With ten stops of five minutes each we were outside nearly an hour.  As we left town the bank said the temperature was 31 which surprised me because my cold toes were telling me it was in the 20's.  Our conversations had a strange flow to them.  We'd stop and listen in silence for 5 minutes, get in the car, blab constantly while we drove a mile to the next stop, experience five minutes of silence, and then pick right up on the same conversation again as if there was no 5 minute break.  So I learned something tonight.  It's fun to hear owls on the owl survey but not essential.  Spending time with family is what makes the experience worthwhile.

A Gift

One of the people I contact at my job knows of my interest in birds.  We took a bird class together once.  He brought me a gift today.  The gift was a photo he took while on vacation in Belize.  This photo is full of bright green leaves.  In the center of the leaves is a little bird with a maroon berry in it's beak.  The bird has a red head, a black body and yellow legs.  He asked me to identify the bird.  I had no idea.  I've never seen such a bird like this before but I was pretty sure this wasn't a Minnesota bird.   He said it was a red capped manakin.  I love the photo.  All the green leaves feel like a healing balm to my eyes that have been deprived of color by a long winter.    I taped the photo to the top of my computer monitor at work.  Then I searched the net for the red capped manakin to learn more about it.  The male red capped manakin's mating dance came up.  OMG!  For sure this would make a girl's heart go pitter patter!

 

 

 

 

My First

I had my first of the year sighting of a turkey vulture yesterday.  I saw it gliding around in the air above my yard; wings tipping back and forth in the brisk winds.  I know they hang around here and I wish I knew where they nest.  I found a poem about vultures that I want to share.

“Vulture”
by X.J. Kennedy
The vulture’s very like a sack
Set down and left there drooping.
His crooked neck and creaky back
Look badly bent from stooping.
Down to the ground to eat dead cows
So they won’t go to waste
Thus making up in usefulness
For what he lacks in taste.