Saturday, In the Park

What with all the Earth Day activities going on, the beginning of garage sale season and everyone being out of town (Pittsburgh, southern Maryland, Costa Rico!) and the very cold early temperatures (around 25 degrees before the sun got above the yardarm), turnout for the weekly Saturday bird walk at Hills Creek State Park was pretty light--as in just five of us with one having to leave early to go to work.

No matter. Those of us who were there had a good time and spotted some great birds! There were the Ruddy Duck and and Horned Grebe as well as several Common Loons on the lake, the several (!) pairs of Ospreys, a Barred Owl in the woods, and what we believe to be a Lincoln's Sparrow on the edge of one of the fields. The last is a real rarity in the area and will probably lead to some questions from eBird. But we got a pretty good look at it, got to hear it sing a couple of times and, between my Merlin App and Sibley's guidebook, I'm fairly confident with the ID.

From: ebird-checklist@cornell.edu
To: joated@aol.com
Sent: 4/21/2018 12:41:54 PM Eastern Standard Time
Subject: eBird Report - Hills Creek SP, Apr 21, 2018

Hills Creek SP, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Apr 21, 2018 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.5 mile(s)
Comments: Beautiful morning, but started a bit chilly at around 25 degrees. [It was in the upper 40's when we finished.]  Walked the usual route for a Park bird walk.
46 species

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Barred Owl: In the woods along the Mid-State Trail between the campground and the lake.
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow: One bird. Viewed out in the open. Distinctive song, yellowish mutton-chop whisker markings, thinnish bill. No yellow above the eye visible as in a Savannah Sparrow.
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch

Active Morning in Tioga County, PA

I had an interesting morning. It started with an early wake-up at 5 AM because today is Saturday and there was birding to be done at Hills Creek SP.

As I was feeding the cats, I heard a suspicious "thump!" out on the deck. Flicking on the outside lights my thoughts were confirmed. There were two bears out there raiding the feeders. The smaller was about my size (a shade over 200 pounds) while the larger was half again as big. I rapped on the windows and the large bear high-tailed it over the gate and into the woods. The smaller was too busy eating sunflower seeds and even ignored my second attempt to scare it away. It wasn't until I opened the front door and shouted at it that it reluctantly gave up its post and headed off after its partner in crime.

I decided NOT to feed the outdoor cats at that time...just in case.

******
After a brief stop at the McDonald's in Mansfield for a couple of sausage egg McMuffins a cup of coffee, I headed to HCSP to eat breakfast and listen to the birds wake up. I didn't start counting species until 7 AM. (The bird walks start at 8 AM, but by then I had already listed 15 species just around the park headquarters. We were to see/hear all of them during the walk.)

We started our walk shortly after 8 AM with 15 participants, several of whom are expert birders and photographers. We had a young girl with us--with her grandmother, a science teacher from Wellsboro, several members of the Methodist Church of Wellsboro (Rich Hanlon is the pastor there and was a leader of the walk this week), seven were members of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society, and a few other folks dropped by for the birding. Being as such a large group tends to move more slowly, not everyone could stay for the entire hike, but I believe everyone had a good time.

Three of us were keeping the (more or less) official count and, while we didn't quite agree at the end, we were all pretty close to the 48 species I recorded.
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Spotted Sandpiper
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch

All in all, not a bad day. This may have been the best morning I've had at HCSP in a long time.

PS: The outdoor cats did get fed when I got home at noon. The three of them were present.

January 10th. Winter. BAH! Humbug!

*sigh*

Almost a month since my last post. Christmas has come and gone. New Year's, too. We've had one--count it, ONE--snowfall that required shoveling. But we have had many, many days where the high temperature was under 20 degrees F and the low was below 0 degrees.

******
I continue to feed three outdoor cats as well as the six indoor kitties. I've built two insulated shelters for the outdoor girls and on the real cold nights at least two of them make use of those shelters. Where the third goes, I have only have a few ideas--under the shed, under the hunting camp 150 yards down hill, or, perhaps, there's a hidden den on the hill somewhere among the branches and grape vines I've piled up.

****** 
I've also been feeding the fireplace during the cold weather. I may actually burn all the firewood I've had stacked behind the garage--some of which has been there for three years. That's a good thing as some of it is starting to get a little punky. Mostly the softer poplar. It's also okay because I've some wood left from the crew that cleaned the powerline right of way to harvest as well as several birch, ash and maple trees I want to fell. As soon as the wind drops and the weather warms a bit.

******
We didn't go into New Jersey on Christmas Eve because of weather forecasts of several inches of snow that we would have had to drive through on the way home. (That "storm" turned into a dud producing only an inch of snow at the Aerie.) We DID manage to get into NJ on January 7th for my grandniece's first birthday. NJ, of course, had a heck of a lot more snow than we did having just suffered the snowmagedon of the year.

******
Tiadaghton Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count took place on January 1st. While the temperature was hovering between 5 and 6 degrees most of the morning, we did have very little wind and mostly sunny skies. We also got to see quite a few more birds than last year. Las year we may have spotted 15 BIRDS. This year we spotted 15 species and 270 birds. We did our birding from the car and covered 78 miles of back roads in central Tioga County--the southern edge of our club's circle. The club had a total of 52 species and 3670 birds within our circle.

******
Terry and I have decided upon--and booked--a cruise of the lower Mississippi for May. We'll be on the Mississippi Queen, a paddlewheeler of the American Cruise Lines. The boat leaves New Orleans on April 28 sailing up the Mississippi to Vicksburg and then returns to New Orleans on May 5th so we'll be on the water for Terry's birthday (May 3rd). We've also decided to drive down and back so as to add a possible side trip to either Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri (to see Doug and Lucille) or to Columbia, SC (to see Jim and Pat). At almost $900 per person round trip for a flight out of Philly to New Orleans, we may actually save money driving!

******
Terry will be getting a partial knee replacement tomorrow at the Corning Hospital. She's bone on bone and in significant pain that shots have not helped alleviate. She has the same doctor doing her knee as I had replace both my knees. This time, however, he'll be supervising a robot that will do the surgery. Maybe she'll have less leg bruising than I did. Both my legs were balck and blue after surgery.

******
Well, I guess that pretty much sums up the last month or so.

Saturday Birding and Celebrating

Yesterday (August 19, 2017) marked Theresa and my 45th Wedding Anniversary. As it so happens, she was in North Carolina for an EGA Seminar and I was home with the cats. (Sometimes things get reversed and I'm out fishing but occasionally, we are both in the same place.)

I decided to celebrate with some birding. (Okay, so it was the Tiadaghton Audubon Society's annual picnic. Still counts.)

Oldest Audubon Society in PA!

Before the picnic, I stopped at a couple of spots to do some birding. Things were less than active and I only spotted a few species at each of the stops. I did have a frustrating time with a passel of small birds flitting about in the leaves of one tree by the Ive's Run boat launch. They would never stay still long enough to bee identified, let alone photographed. I did hear some Black-capped Chickadees in the crowd, but there was more than that.

Anyway, I did manage to get some critters to pose for me.

Red-tailed Hawk at the Tioga-Hammond Connector overlook.

Northern Flicker at the Tioga-Hammond Connector overlook.

Pair of Ospreys on the pole along road up to the Tioga-Hammond Connector overlook.

Eastern Phoebe on the Railroad Grade Trail, Ive's Run.

Muskrat in pond along the Railroad Grade Trail, Ive's Run

Painted Turtle in pond along the Railroad Grade Trail, Ive's Run

Visit to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

I haven't visited Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in a number of years and since we sold the property up in the Adirondacks, I haven't even driven past it in over two years. Yesterday that changed.

With three other members of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society, I ventured north early Wednesday morning to view and photograph birds at Montezuma. Fresh from all the excitement created by the visitation of a rare White-winged Tern in our own back yard, this would be a much more relaxing outing. Robin and Sean, Gary and I would spend over five hours walking and driving around the refuge's main pools, the Seneca Canal and surrounding areas. We'd run into a couple of folks who had made their way to the WW Tern sighting, too.

When the day was done, I had over 200 photos to go through (many duplicates with just slight changes in camera settings) and over 35 species on my check list. My list of species doesn't do justice to the sheer numbers of individual birds we saw. There had to be hundreds of herons, egrets and coots for example. And migration hasn't even begun! Nothing spectacular pops up on the list, but we all had a very nice day spent with good company doing somethings we all love doing.

First the list:
Montezuma NWR--Wildlife Drive, Seneca, New York, US
Aug 16, 2017 8:15 AM - 1:45 PM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 mile(s)
Comments:     Walked the trail around the visitors' center then drove the road through the refuge and ended over on East Road past May's Pond.
37 species

Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck
Mallard
American Black Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs 
Ring-billed Gull 
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Kingbird
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
American Goldfinch

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S38677291

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Now the photos--well, some of them anyway:

Killdeer

Osprey (There were many, many young osprey as well as juvenile Bald Eagles about. Never did see and adult Eagle, however.)

Green Heron. We saw many of these come flying into the channels and reeds Only a couple allowed us a peek at them.

American Coot. There were rafts and rafts of coots foraging on the algae in the ponds and/or just paddling about..

Pied-billed Grebe. Dozens of both adult and immature grebes were fishing in the ponds.

Common Gallinule.  There were many of these in the narrow channels between reeds. And a surprising number of little black, puffball/lollipop babies were also present.

Wood Duck. Many hens were seen. This one played coy behind some reeds.

Trumpeter Swan. A dozen or so trumpeters were spotted in different spots. This one was snoozing in a shallow pond and woke up only long enough to show its black bill and to do a little stretching.

Greater Yellowlegs. Scores of shorebirds were to be seen. Few could be IDed without debate. LOL!

Lesser Yellowlegs. I think.

Common Egret. Hundreds were to be seen hunkered down in the pond next to the NYS Thruway and at the end of East Road. HUNDREDS

Great Blue Heron. Again, hundreds were present virtually everywhere, but especially at the end of East Road.

American Bittern. How Sean spotted this guy is a mystery.

More Birding Today

I made stops at Hills Creek State Park, The Muck and Darling Run on the Pine Creek Rails-to-Trails path today. It was a pretty good day when taken together though things certainly slowed down in the midday when I reached Darling Run.

Hills Creek yielded the largest number of species--and I only covered a small part of what we do on our Saturday walks. I primarily stayed in the day use/beach area walking the shoreline. I did go to the northern end at the Beaver Dam boat launch and picked up a Tundra Swan (very late in the year!), Double-crested Cormorant, and a Barred Owl there.

Canada Goose
Tundra Swan*     (Large white swan with all black bill.)
Wood Duck
Mallard
Common Merganser
Double-crested Cormorant
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Spotted Sandpiper
Mourning Dove
Barred Owl
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
* First of the year

There was another oddity: A male Wood Duck seemed to be hanging with a female Common Merganser. Now, I know that they both will lay eggs in the same nest boxes, but these two looked and behaved like a mated pair. A real odd couple.

The pictures (I apologize for the poor quality. The subjects were backlit and made getting them in focus difficult.) :

Tundra Swan

Spotted Sandpiper

The Odd Couple: Female Common Merganser and male Wood Duck

******

The Muck was my second stop and it too produced some "new" birds.  The trail out to the blind was partially underwater just before reaching the boardwalk. The recent rains have really raised water levels! Nonetheless, I waded through the 2-3 inches of water and am glad I did! I was not in the blind long when a Common Gallinule showed up. And far out in the water there was a Canvasback. Both were "new" for the year.

The Muck list:

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Canvasback*    (Listed as "rare for this time and place by eBird)
Ring-necked Duck   (Listed as "rare for this time and place by eBird)
Great Blue Heron
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Gallinule*   (Listed as "rare for this time and place by eBird)
Mourning Dove
American Crow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Marsh Wren    (Listed as "rare for this time and place by eBird)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Yellow Warbler*
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird

The pictures:

Common Gallinule

Ring-necked Duck

Canvasback

******

It was nearly noon when I reached Darling Run and with the lateness of the day, I wasn't surprised that things were very, very slow. After checking out the eagles' nest across the creek, I walked from the parking area south along the bike trail to mile marker 9 (about 1/2 mile) and back.

The meager list form that mile walk:

Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Gray Catbird
Common Yellowthroat
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird

Only one bird "posed" for a photo:

Female Downy Woodpecker

Female Downy Woodpecker

It's been a couple of beautiful days weatherwise and in the field. I think I'm going to stay home tomorrow even if the weather is nice and spend some time around the house. We've a team together for the Global Big Day coming up on Saturday and, with the Hills Creek bird walk kicking things off, it's going to be a long day of birding.

Finally We Got Some Sun! So I Went Birding.

We started the day with a light coat of ice on the deck and 31 degrees on the thermometer. But, the clouds finally burned off and the temps rose into the low 50s by midday, so I decided to head out and do some birding.

My first stop was up on the northwest corner of Cowenesque Lake where I've had some success in the past. It wasn't great today as the only waterfowl visible were a bunch of Canada Geese and two Double-crested Cormorants. There were several first-of-the-year birds, however.

The full list of 27 species seen:
Canada Goose
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird *
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher *
Common Yellowthroat *
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Baltimore Oriole *
American Goldfinch
       * First-of-the-year

A couple were kind enough to pose and I was lucky enough to get some decent photos.

Gray Catbird

Green Heron

Double-crested Cormorant

Tough getting good shots when the birds hide in the bushes or won't stop long enough to get a decent focus. Doing it off hand without a mono-pod, tripod, walking stick, or a convenient tree to steady the camera as I zoom in isn't easy either!

******

My second stop of the day was up on the western rim of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania at Colton Point State Park. I drove to my usual spot almost across from Leonard Harrison, but there was not one song being sung nor one bird flitting about. So I was on my way home when I passed the trail head out to the Barbour Rocks Overlook and I figured, what the heck. I'd never walked out to that particular point before. It's a well graveled, handicapped accessible trail of 0.7 miles (one way).

Nice walk, but it was very unproductive. Except for two warbler species and a Hermit Thrush. I had heard the thrush before and the Black-throated Green Warbler, too. But this time I got some pretty fair pictures of them. Which is good seeing as they were totally silent at 4 in the afternoon.

My complete list from this little walk:
Turkey Vulture
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
Common Raven
Hermit Thrush
Hooded Warbler *
Black-throated Green Warbler
    * First-of-the-year

Now for some pictures (there's some heavy cropping going on with the three birds, FYI):

Hooded Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Hermit Thursh

And, if you want to get an idea of what the view was like.... This is looking south from the overlook.

Looking south from the Barbour Rocks overlook.

If tomorrow morning is nice, I may head out and do some more birding/picture taking.

Saturday Birding in the Rain

Those of you living in the North East do not have to be told about how wet it's been lately. Those horrendous storms from southern Missouri have made their way here and are likely to stay around for a good long while. While we haven't had the flooding the southern folks have experienced, we have had some tornadoes and wind storms that have produced damage. (Last Monday there were six tornadoes recorded in Pennsylvania--three were EF0 and three were EF1 in strength. Tuesday we had gusting gale force winds.) There's been a goodly number of power outages as a result. Here in Tioga County,  both Wellsboro and Mansfield have gone without power for hours on end.Even today (Saturday) Wellsboro lost power for a couple of hours as trees continue to fall and power grids get overwhelmed with recirculating the flow.

That said, the Tiadaghton Audubon Society held its regular Saturday morning bird walk at Hills Creek State Park today. With members absent to go to a birding festival in Erie and to band shore birds in Delaware, only Gary and I showed up to lead the walk--which started at 8 AM with just Gary and me. Two campers staying at the park did join us shortly after we started but we had to end the walk early when the rain returned.

I recorded 15 species in the HQ parking lot between 7 and 8 AM and another dozen or so in our brief walk around the beach area.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Ruddy Duck
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Spotted Sandpiper
Hairy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
Ovenbird
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird

There may have been other waterfowl on the lake near the northern end but they were too distant for a good ID. Some looked to be Double-crested Cormorants. And we didn't get into the best warbler zones on our brief walk and none of the little buggers bothered to come to visit us.

On the way home, I spotted 4 or more Wood Duck on a small beaver pond along Shaw road but didn't stop to look for more. Then I saw a Ruffed Grouse cross the road and meander into the woods. Not the brightest of birds, grouse depend upon camouflage and surprise to make good their escape. (Anyone who has unexpectedly had a grouse explode from cover at their feet will tell you how heart-stopping the experience can be!) This particular bird went for the camo.

Ruffed Grouse

Birds galore.

Went out on a group bird walk this morning on the Railroad Grade Trail starting at Ive's Run. Beautiful morning with the temps starting at 57 degrees, partly cloudy skies and no wind. There were five of us and we were entertained by a couple of deer watching us, a snapping turtle laying her eggs, a painted turtle crossing the road--although it was imitating a rock when we spotted it in the middle of the road--and a plethora of birds. American Redstarts and Baltimore Orioles were everywhere along the trail as were the Veery, Vireos, and a number of other warblers. I recorded some 44 species:

 

Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo 

Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
American Robin
Gray Catbird

Cedar Waxwing
Blue-winged Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
American Redstart
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch

 

This Week At the Aerie

SO....

Busy week with lots of doctor visits

Monday morning I went to the Guthrie Clinic in Mansfield as soon as they opened. While the doctor was at the hospital doing rounds, I did get to see the nurse practitioner who diagnosed my aching neck as an irritated nerve caused by muscular spasms. She prescribed Naproxen (500mg tablets) twice a day for the pain and Flexoril (10mg) once a day before bed for the muscle spasms. I started taking them that night and WOW! What a difference!

Tuesday I was pain free and I've remained that way all week. Of course, they have also allowed me to sleep very, very soundly.

******

I went birding a couple of times this week and added a new species or two each time. Despite the super spring weather, we're still waiting the big rush of migrants here in the Northern Tier of PA. We've had a few waterfowl show up but not the huge numbers we've seen in the past. If the warm weather holds, the next week or two should see a rush of species heading north for breeding purposes.

Redhead pair on Tioga Lake

Common Mergansers (2 males & 1 female) on Tioga Lake

Green-winged Teal at The Muck (Wellsboro)

Ring-necked Duck at The Muck

Pair of Mallards at The Muck

Pair of Wood Duck on an old beaver pond near Hills Creek SP

Even with a 600, lens, the birds always seem to be just t-h-a-t much too far away for a good shot.

******

Terry's turn for a steroid shot to her spine (L2, L3) occurred Friday morning. She has a couple of bulging discs (along with some stenosis) that have been creating pain in her hips and thighs. The pain management doctor thought cortisone injections might help alleviate the problem. We'll know in a day or two how that's working.

******
Small Town America

The township secretary called on Thursday to give us a heads up. They were sending out a crew to work on a culvert on our street and the road would be closed from around 8 AM until 1 PM. She (the secretary) knew we normally go down to get the mail and do some shopping on a daily basis so she wanted to let us know to plan on taking the long way around.

Well, because of Terry hospital procedure we were gone long before they came to shut the road down, but when we returned, we took her advice and drove the long way around only to discover that the culvert they were working on was the one running across the road right at the end of our driveway. We couldn't get in.

We parked in our top most driveway (we have three parcels of land and three driveways but only one--the blocked one--leads to the house) and walked down the hill.

Long story short, two of the work crew were also township supervisors. They had noticed we had a small drain pipe running across our driveway (not on town right of way) that was insufficient (6" cheap pipe), partially compressed and in need of replacement. They wanted to know if they could replace it with an 8 inch pipe, stone the driveway for me and generally do what I wanted to do for two years--for the price of the pipe. I said, "Go for it!" They then told me to pull my truck down and into the house and not to worry, they would be done before I had to take Shadow to the vets at 2:15. They did the work and were done by the promised time. I expect I'll get a bill in the mail, 'cause they didn't even come up to the door.

******

About Shadow...she's become something of a problem child. Not that she's fighting or anything like that, she's just moody, off her feed, vomiting, and full of scabs. Some of the vomiting is hairballs from licking the scabby areas, but some of it is from food.

She, too, went to see the doctor this week. (Her visit will end up being the most costly out of pocket. No insurance.) Shadow lost five (5) pounds since last April when she was 14+ pounds. She tipped the scales today at a svelte 9.4 pounds. That's not good.

The vet thinks she may have irritable bowel syndrome, or a food allergy. She prescribed some steroids (for the existing skin condition, another drug for the irritable bowel, and some B12 (because poor digestion leads to a lack of B12 intake). She also suggested we change her diet. No seafood, beef, egg, milk, cheese, wheat. Just poultry, rice and oats. She had some moist food (at $2.50 a can!) and some dry food (also very expensive) to get Shadow started on a healthy diet.

I was given a pill "gun" to get the medicine into the back of Shadow's throat and was shown how to give B12 injections. Shadow will probably need those B12 shots once a month for life. When all this stuff gets put into motion and runs for a couple of months, I think I'll just go get a veterinary license and treat cats.

******

This weekend is the Maple Weekend in Potter and Tioga counties. There will be demonstrations of tapping and boiling at the sugar house at Hills Creek State Park and a number of sugar houses will be opening their doors to the public for tours and samplings. Terry and I will be going out early because one of the places is offering all you can eat pancakes for $7.

Then later in the evening, the Mainesburg Methodist Church has a chicken and biscuit dinner. And Sunday morning the Mansfield Fire Company has it's monthly breakfast.

*Sigh*

Diet is what you eat.

There is some snow in the forecast for Sunday into Monday, but nearly all of it will be to the south and east of here. We may get a dusting. With any luck, these will be the last flakes we see this "winter." The forecast also calls for 70 degrees next Friday.