Still Snowy in VT.

2-29-20 VERMONT: It’s been a week, and the chimney work is finished. We have three re-lined flues including two patches in the chimneys where stove pipes had been cut in, now replaced with bricks. We're up to code.

After some blue-sky, sunny days, we’ve had rain and then snow flurries, and it all looks like winter again even though March starts tomorrow. We’ll be back in three weeks, and things might look very different then.

We hosted a dinner last night for John, Ken and Jane, Donna and Bruce and Diana and Steve. Judy made a feast for everyone serving curried chicken to accompany the India Pix. The tiger videos were the big hit.

NJ tomorrow.


Bally enjoying the snow.

The Maple buds know that Spring is out there somewhere.

Another waxwing working the raisin-like apples.

After one day of rain and two days of snow flurries, we are all white again.

Snowdrops, Carnegie, Waxwings.

2-22-20 VERMONT: We came up yesterday in the sunshine. It was a fast trip with little traffic. The day before I saw snowdrops up in the Short Hills yard and spotted a bloom on peace lilies in the sunroom.

They were up two weeks ago, but just opened.

Peace lily has this one and a second on the way.

That evening we heard the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, directed by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, at Carnegie Hall play Beethoven’s Symphonies 2 and 3. They use old instruments and have a cleaner, clearer sound than the lush sound heard with modern instruments. We loved the performance. The strings played the Third while standing, but sat for the Second. There’s lots of Beethoven this year, the 250th anniversary of his birth.


Carnegie Hall, home of stunning sound.

The orchestra and director at the end of 'Eroica'.

We have blue sky and sunshine here today. There’s a foot of snow on the ground around the house, it’s in the thirties with light winds from the SW.

I snowshoed out to the end of the pasture with the canine companions. They had had me up early, so I caught the sunrise. I saw a flock of cedar waxwings working the apple trees. The trees are covered with frozen, shriveled crab apples, the birds ate them last fall, this winter, and again now as spring is waiting in the wings. It’s an annual event for the waxwings. A small raptor went zipping through the yard at one point and all the birds vanished for a while. I’m guessing peregrine falcon.


Pink clouds before the sun.

The sun appears on the horizon further north than last month.

Cedar waxwings, from a flock of a dozen or so. Note the yellow tail, orange wing bar and black mask.

Game cam pix-feral cat on a cold afternoon in January at dusk.

Fox running across the new pond at night, very cold.

India Bird Pix IV.

2-20-20 SHORT HILLS: After the Keoladeo preserve, we moved on to Ranthambhore for the tigers, we also saw more birds, mostly new species.

River Tern looks a lot like the terns we saw in Antarctica and Spitzbergen.

Asian Openbill and Black-headed Ibis.

Peahens.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

Rufus Treepie. There were lots in the park and they hung around jeeps and people.

Black-rumped Flameback, a woodpecker we saw at Keoladeo also.

White-browed Wagtail.

Rose-ringed parakeet. They are everywhere.

Little Ringed Plover.

Red-wattled Lapwing. We saw these in Delhi at a fountain in an intersection.

Common Greenshank.

Gray Francolin, also at Keoladeo.

Two very tiny birds, the color of the ground, but no ID from Merlin.

Black-winged Kite.

Laughing Dove at Jaipur hotel.

A feeder friend, House Sparrow, hangs out at he hotel in Jaipur in a big flock.

Some dental equipment. I hope this tour of northern India wasn't too much of a yawner.

Again, any corrections or comments appreciated.

India Bird Pix III.

2-19-20 SHORT HILLS: Some more pix from Keoladeo and eagle pix. Keoladeo has more than 300 bird species, probably some of those are migratory, but I’m not going back for the ones I missed.

Gadwell, through the morning mist.

Red-wattled Lapwing, front and back.

Brahminy starling.

Northern Pintails and Green-winged Teal.

Graylag Geese.

Black-headed Ibis.

Oriental Darter [anhinga] hanging the wings out to dry. We also saw Cormorants do this.

Lesser Whistling Ducks and a Coot.

Ruddy Selduck.

Gray Heron.

Greater Coucal. Catch that red eye.

Bronze-winged Jacana.

Great Cormorant.

Black-headed Ibis, better look.

Brahminy Starling again.

We saw a lot of eagles in the morning boat ride, perched in trees. I think it was too misty/hazy for them to hunt until the sun burnt the mist away. I’m comfortable with the ID of the first one, but the others are probably all Spotted Eagles. There are three kinds—Greater, Indian, Lesser—all of which look very similar and I gave up trying to differentiate. Immaturity versus adult status is also confusing. Additionally, there are a total of 12 kinds of eagles in India.

Imperial Eagle.

Spotted eagle?

Spotted eagle?

Spotted eagle?

Spotted eagle?

That’s the last Keoladeo Post, but birds from Ranthambhore tomorrow. Any comments, corrections welcome.