Maggie's Farm

A reposting from November, 2006

Stone walls are "newer" in New England than the early enclosures, which were made of wood. Split logs, like ol' Abe used to make, but not post-and-rail. They were the criss-cross leany sort which rested the rails on tilted posts. And to keep animals out of the cottage garden, they used paling fences.

But in post-glacial New England, where the fields seem to grow stones over the winter, you had to put the loose rocks somewhere, so why not make a wall?

It is hard to walk through any woodland south of Maine without stumbling across an 18th century wall, and sometimes you find an old apple tree in the corner, or an old apple-tree trunk. No doubt planted by the farmer for home-made cider, which was the only kind of booze the average Yankee farmer could afford.

This hilly, rocky woodland, as can easily be seen by the size and species of the trees in the photo, was pasture until about 40-50 years ago: it is a young beech and oak woodland, typical of acidic lowlands in New England, and well-past the point at which it is appealing to grouse and woodcock. Good for the wild turkeys, though.

The booming deer population, alas, vacuum-cleans the undergrowth, making it inhospitable for lots of small critters and birds: either we eat those deer or we return wolves and mountain lions to New England. (I'd vote for all of the above.)

These woods are dotted with low-lying vernal - and autumnal - pools, which are excellent for the toads, tree frogs, salamanders, Box Turtles, etc. "Wetlands," as some term them. I call them swamps, and I love them: they are a cradle of life.

Look at the next two photos on continuation page - it gets worse.

A re-post from 2005. The Red-Tail migration is in full force right now, and I am seeing them everywhere. I had one perched above my porch a week ago, eyes fixed on my bird feeder waiting for a squirrel.

The Red Tailed Hawk is the most commonly-seen hawk in the US and Canada, especially in winter when he likes to hang out along highways and in suburbs, on the look-out for rodents. His white chest is usually more noticeable than his rusty-red tail which is only seen from the back, or when he turns in flight and the sun catches it.

He is a "buteo" - the large, plump, soaring family of hawks with rounded wings (called buzzards in Europe).

The Red Tail is a versatile creature, able to make a home even in NYC's  Central Park, where "Pale Male" has been raising families for several years on rats and pigeons. This hawk's call is a distinctive "Keeeeeeer" which sends a chill down the spine of all little warm fuzzy critters.

He'll take a pheasant from a shooting field, but his hamburgers are rodents - rats, rabbits, squirrels and mice. He will grab a foolish pigeon if he can. He is migratory, with population shifts south during winter, such that our New England winter birds are likely Canada breeders.

Learn more about the mighty Red Tail: Click here: All About Birds

I cannot fulfill my usual editorial duties today because I will be busy getting ready for our annual conservation charity event tonight for Ducks Unlimited.

Eleven million acres under protection for wildlife habitat, with no government money - that's a darn good cause.

We will pre-post some useful new stuff today, and stuff from the archives. No dead air!

Image: David Maas "Wood Ducks", over a DU Reclamation Project sign

This came in over the transom (thanks, C):

Stuart Brown describes Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear  playing with sled dogs near Churchill, Manitoba on Canada's Hudson Bay.

The photographer was sure that he was going  to see the end of his huskies when the polar bear  materialized out of the  blue, as it were: 

 The rest of the photos and story on continuation page below:

A repost from 2005:

Birding  (it used to known as bird-watching but that didn't sound cool, and birders are of course cool) is the most popular and rapidly growing  form of outdoor recreation in America.

Besides all of the excellent birding handbooks that are out these days, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has a good basic site for basic info and identification, All About Birds, which we use all the time. They also have an advanced site, The Birds of North America, which is by subscription.

Other things that CLO offers: A home-study course on bird biology, behavior, and identification and the necessary A Field Guide to Bird Songs.

Photo: Two warblers after banding. These are immature birds in fall plumage, a Mourning Warbler on top and a Connecticut Warbler below.

A re-post from April, 2005:

I keep a pair of cheap Nikon 7X35 compact binocs in the car, just in case I happen to encounter an interesting bird. They work very well as opera glasses, too.

For marine use - not for birding but for looking around - I like a 7X50. Mine are inexpensive but good enough, and with the exposure to salt water and banging, I don't want to worry about them.

For more serious birding and nature-watching, I like my Minox rubber-coated 8X32s. Darn good lenses, and you don't want additional magnification for wildlife except in special circumstances.

The cool birders who want to spend the money use Swarovskis - but the very best birders I know can ID any bird with any old cheap compact binoculars, unless they are distant, on a beach or prairie. Then a spotting scope is essential.

Great source for binocs -  Binoculars.com. They also have night-vision optics, spotting scopes, and rifle scopes.

Photo: Swarovski 8X42s.

Every five or six years our roses next to the house, warmed by the proximity and protected from the wind, manage to stay in bloom until Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving so early this year, it's less surprising but still a delight to see them even though they are a bit ratty.

For other holiday news, I was amused to see a Sharp-Shinned Hawk hit our bird feeder yesterday, aiming for a White Throated Sparrow. He pursued the sparrow through the shrubs but finally emerged empty-handed. So much easier just to go to the Stop & Shop for one's Thanksgiving bird.

Massachusetts Hemlock woods a month ago. We have posted on Hemlocks here.

Why are my Sugar Maples different colors this week?

Thanks to a loyal Yankee reader for this snap of a Great Black-Backed Gull on the blustery Connecticut coast this week with what I would identify as a small cold-water-loving Winter Flounder in his beak. A tasty sushi dinner for  either man or bird.

Our majestic Great Black-Backed is the largest gull in the world, and has been extending his range southward along the Atlantic coast for thirty years. Who knows why? But he competes effectively with our regular, abundant Yankee Herring Gull, a very fine, handsome, large and sturdy bird too, for whom Nor'easters and hurricanes are no big deal, and just an excuse for aerial acrobatics.

View from the lawn, last week. Yes, that is a croquet set-up in the grass.

This weekend. Thanks, reader.

The NYT reports that:

The rescue of the Florida Everglades, the largest and most expensive environmental restoration project on the planet, is faltering.

Seven years into what was supposed to be a four-decade, $8 billion effort to reverse generations of destruction, federal financing has slowed to a trickle. Projects are already years behind schedule. Thousands of acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat continue to disappear, paved by developers or blasted by rock miners to feed the hungry construction industry.

The idea that the federal government could summon the will and money to restore the subtle, sodden grandeur of the so-called River of Grass is disappearing, too.

Instead of complaining about the federal government's stinginess, why not consider what more Florida can do now, if not to restore the entire ecosystem, to stop the development of a habitat and a hunk of land that most Americans agree is worth protecting as a precious piece of our national inheritance.

Photo: NYT photo of the Everglades in Palm Beach County

Sparrows are the mice of the bird world.

Flocks of sparrows are on the move to, and through, our corner of Yankeeland this week on the Atlantic Flyway. Except for our most common and most distinctive species, I have trouble identifying many of them in the field - even up close.

The subject comes up because I IDed a Swamp Sparrow skulking in my raspberry brambles yesterday. One must admit that these are not particularly distinctive birds, except to the expert.

Photo: A Swamp Sparrow, from this photographer's site.

Raven is a heck of a photographer. This is Smuggler's Notch yesterday:

 Take a look at the rest of her leaf photos.

Milkweed turning autumn yellow at Maggie's Farm.

Newts have unusual life-cycles. Actually, this is a photo of a Red Eft I took yesterday. Red Efts are the land-dwelling intermediate form of our Eastern Red Spotted Newt.

They go from egg to gilled young newt to Red Eft on land and then, after a few years, back to adult air-breathing, breeding water newt.

Saw many of them yesterday in our Hemlock groves up above the beaver marsh, poking around the leaf litter on the balmy October day. They are surely only days away from hibernation deep in the leaf litter. 

Although they look like Gummy Salamanders, their orange color announces their toxicity to predators. Cute little critters that provide instant good cheer when seen.