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Eagle sitting on the Osprey stand deserted by the Osprey in my last pic. Also shot from my deck.
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Osprey on a dock pole (enjoying a recent catch) shot from my deck
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Eagle sitting on the Osprey stand deserted by the Osprey in my last pic. Also shot from my deck.
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Now I am pushing it - but the fall Monarch migration here has to be seen to be believed. Shot this today. Incredible creatures feasting on the local goldenrod on their way to Mexico. You see more and more that were tagged - I didn’t notice any here. Would love to understand how they select the one pine tree they all roost in.
Sage - in case you see this - the big local story was a couple of Roseate Spoonbills were spotted flying over Cape May yesterday. I didn’t get a picture but they are out there. One spent the summer near Atlantic City. Another sign of global warming, no one remembers them this far north (NJ) before.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
We were sitting on Boston Common on sunny Tuesday, all kinds of geese and ducks moving around on sea, land and air, bunches of pigeons, and a big fat red tailed hawk sitting in a tree selecting his next meal like he was at Chipotle.
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This will be pretty pixelated (if I can get it to post correctly at all) because it is from my phone with fairly maximal zooming, but hopefully it looks as impressive as it felt at the time. This is out behind my house. I was 40 feet away with nothing in between us when this picture was taken. I was surprised he let me get this close, and in 20 years of living here, no hawk has come this close to the house before. Really fun to see!
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Great shot Phredd3!!
Finally started the process of putting up my barred owl box. This afternoon I cleared out a few branches from a Douglas Fir tree on the back half of my property that overlooks a field and then runs into private forest land. Cleared the branches to create a clear glide path in and out, which was recommended. Proximity to evergreens was also recommended for roosting. This will be IN the evergreen but I figure so long as the glide path is okay, then it should be fine.
Going to fill it with cedar chips and pine needles tomorrow morning and actually mount it. Probably 12ish feet up. Saw a recommendation to put metal flashing around the tree to deter raccoons but they'd be able to access from other branch pathways.
Male barreds start looking for nesting hollows as early as January around here so Nov/Dec was the recommended time to get it up. I heard a few in the dead of night last week so I know they're around. Will post pictures when I get it up.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
My brother lives about 2.5 miles from me. He was telling me recently about an owl in his woods. We have barred owls all around us. Said one night it sounded like it was at the foot of his bed.
I was jealous.
Apropos of absolutely nothing, I had this recurring nightmare as a kid about a menace at the foot of the bed. I grew up on the SC coast and caught blue crabs either intentionally or accidentally. I knew how strong their claws were. The recurring dream was that the evil pinchers were at the foot of the bed and trying to grab my feet. The reason I remembered the nightmare was, when I would tuck my knees up under my chin to escape the threat, my legs cramped. I would wake up in terror, and I had to persuade myself it was safe to extend my legs and get rid of the cramps.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
My wife has regular night terrors. She'll wake up screaming that something or someone is above her or in the room. One night when we were living in Utah she woke up screaming. It, of course, roused me out of my own dead sleep and I said, "What's wrong!?!?"
"There's someone in the room," she said.
I sprung up, trying to prepare for battle.
"Where?"
She pointed toward the door. "Little people, in bear costumes at the end of the bed."
I looked at her.
She looked at me.
I looked at her.
"I may have been dreaming," she said and then collapsed back into the pillows and promptly went back to sleep.
She barely remembered it in the morning.