Sharp-shinned Love Affair

This weekend was a busy one. I dismantled an old dog run, I dismantled an old compost pile (with yummy albeit frozen composted soil in it), I built 4 planting beds + 2 half planting beds (i.e. they aren't finished and yes, that yummy compost is going in them), I went to a seed swap where everyone complained about voles (so I lined the bottoms of my new planting beds with fine wire salvaged from the dog runs - I'll post pix when the last two are finished), I dismantled and moved two beds and reassembled, and I watched, mostly listened, to a lovesick pair of sharp-shinned hawks.

It started Friday night while we were having a hurried dinner out on the picnic tables before rushing off to see the premiere of a local high school history film (which was fabulously well done I might add). We kept hearing these, at the time, unseen hawks just going off. We speculated but we had to get on the road. The next day though they were in full form. They seem to have claimed the land we have lived on as part of their territory as they kept swapping places on one particular aspen tree. Maybe we'll be lucky and have a nest! Or not so lucky as far as seeing any other birds this summer - I noticed that it had gone deadly quite where the other birds were concerned. However this weekend I did see my first spring robin and this morning on my bike ride in I heard my first varied thrush. While at the seed swap we had tundra swans and a bald eagle flying overhead. That and a week of really warm weather and it must be summer, even if the ground is still frozen half an inch down!

Morning

The view from my office

This morning's weather report: "Clear starry skies and a full moon this morning". Then a breif update on the volcano that is trying to erupt. They forgot to mention owls. Just after my breakfast and snowshoe through the woods (our morning walk when there is thick fresh snow on the ground) with D. Dog there came an enormous crash and the snow fell off the roof. I look around, the D. Dog looked around, the D. Cat streaked to the porch door which has a full pane of glass in it. And there, sitting in the snow, was a Northern Hawk Owl, it's tail stretched out absurdly behind it. They look a lot smaller when you're looking down at them - something I have never done before as they're usually perched on the top of spruce trees like funny hats. Apparently it crashed into the window and sat there staring at the D. Cat who stared back, their eyes strangely similar.

I'm not really sure why these past few days have found so many large predatory birds on my porch - I'm delighted to see them up close but a bit concerned that they might hurt themselves. Good thing the D. Cat is an indoor cat! Of course, I didn't get pictures of either - I was too busy looking and observing their every mood - you'll have to forgive me.

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Oh...not to be crude...but who wants a pic of my poor toes? Vote by your comment!

Weekend Fun

This weekend a co-worker (I'll call him Life-Long-Ranger) and I (and the D.Dog) went for a x-country ski on the River-Known-For-Its-Expensive-Salmon. It was amazingly sunny and the four major mountains practically shown with reflected sunlight. It wasn't particularly warm but it wasn't particularly cold either. We skied for miles, enjoying the scenery that is hard to access any other time of year and enjoying the mostly smooth surface to travel on. Only occasionally did we have to avoid jumble ice. On the way back my toes were aching a little but I didn't particularly feel like taking off my boots - I figured the blister could wait.

At home it was immediately clear that I had bled rather profusely through my sock and yes, indeed, I had major blister-ripage on both of my big toes - mashed meat. Sigh. You'd think I'd know better by now.

Sunday morning I was being lazy, soaking my feet in brine and watching the D.Cat watching the birds feeding on my porch. The birds are predominantly common redpolls with two variants of pine grosbeak in attendance as well, the russet and the pacific. Occasionally a Stellar's jay would chase the group away. Then suddenly all of the birds vacated, a huge bird soared by, then came back and landed on my porch railing. A rough-legged hawk. It sat there, thumping it's foot against the railing and then chewing on it distractedly. Then it flew straight at the window, bounced off it with its feet, and flew away. Well you can imagine the D.Cat's excitement although the bird was twice the size of her. She ignored my dire warnings of how one ought not to mess with such birds because they would as soon as eat you as be eaten. Lucky for me she's an indoor cat.

Once my feet were bandaged up enough the D.Dog and I went off into the woods again - sans skis since I couldn't bear the thought of putting the boots on. But we made good tracks hiking in the woods for 4 hours where we saw a little saw-whet owl just beginning its breeding calls. By the end though the D.Dog was on a mission for dinner and it was getting colder although not much darker since the moon was so full and we headed home.

I apologize for the lack of photos - I'm needing to get my system back into working condition.