Frank, Your comment about coyotes, yesterday, reminded me that I watched a pair of white-tailed bucks acting agitated, one evening, last summer. They were in the fields east of Trimble Road and far enough away that I could not see, at first, what got their attention. I eventually saw a coyote slinking past. That was the first that I noticed that kind of deer behavior. In my experience, deer act nosy about coyotes, like they do about most anything but these we’re obviously annoyed. I was curious about that, and wondered if maybe it was because fawns were still small enough to be prayed on by coyotes?Coyotes first appeared in Pennsylvania around 40 years ago, and the hunting community was horrified that they would “kill all the deer”. There were bizarre conspiracy theories, among the more dim witted of the hunting community, about the Pennsylvania game commission “bringing coyotes into the state to reduce the deer herd”. That turns out to have been nonsense, of course…there are still far too many deer in Pennsylvania in spite of the many coyotes and hunters. I think the nutty Q anon crowd has always been out there, but they really found each other in Donald Trump. This is the time of year that I spend a number of Saturdays pruning fruit trees and suckers off of stumps of trees that I cut years ago. You have mentioned stump killer in your posts and I’ve been wondering what that is? I’ve been trying to maintain the habitat at this stage, especially in the pond, and and it’s become a yearly battle with these trees. I’d love to be done with it. Have they taken the artwork to Clarkesville that you’ve been holding? slt
On Jan 15, 2023, at 8:03 PM, PRESTON FORSYTHE <pns_for@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We will trade you a few Towhees for one Short-eared Owl.
Preston Forsythe, North US 431, Muhlenberg Co., KY
Sent from AT&T Yahoo Mail on Android
On Sun, Jan 15, 2023 at 7:55 PM, Stephen Tyson<kytysons9152@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: We counted 47 species, here at the house, this weekend. The weather was dark and dreary, early yesterday, though it recovered in time for a lovely evening. Today was lovely though cold and breezy but not so breezy that it dampened bird activity. The Fox Sparrow has completely forgotten that it didn’t like it here and has been visiting the feeders, to scratch for cracked corn, nearly every day.I watched a pair of adult Bald Eagles winging south along the Red River, yesterday morning, and I saw one of them again this morning. I’ve lost track of how many consecutive weekends that is, so I’m thinking they’re going to make a winter of it, here.I counted at least 12 Red-tails, today, and nearly that many yesterday. The resident birds are in distinct pairs and it’s become relatively easy to monitor them because they’re staying within recognizable territories, in the surrounding fields. Several of the assorted juveniles are spending much of their time on and around our property, which has been a treat. The phantom Harlan’s has been a no-show since that nice look, two weeks ago. It was a three-owl weekend and I’ve added a link to our eBird list from yesterday, because it’s got photos of a Short-eared that I snipped out of a video, the Great Horned in the nest cavity and a sixty second audio recording of the Barn Owls calling, about sixty-five minutes after sunset. I heard the same quiet Barn Owl screech-call, again, this evening. The GHOW were really boisterous, before sunrise, this morning. I counted three to the south, one in the west and, later I saw the one on the nest, which made five for the day. I counted eight SEOW from the yard, last evening, mostly to the southeast. This afternoon, Debby drove back the farm driveway, to the north of the house, and counted about as many over that way. Most of the Harriers are now apparently roosting elsewhere but the Short-ears continue to be loyal to the same roost fields. On the bright side, it’s much easier to count owls in the twilight, when there’s fewer Harriers in the air. We missed Savannah Sparrows for the second weekend in a row and our Towhees are still nowhere to be found. We haven’t seen Towhees since before the December cold snap.https://ebird.org/checklist/S126162465Stephen (Steve) Tyson, Schochoh, Logan Co., KY
Species Name:Canada Goose
Northern Bobwhite
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk Barn Owl
Great Horned Owl
Short-eared Owl
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Blue Jay American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Horned Lark
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
American Pipit
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Field Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Northern Cardinal
