FYI - That exit off the GSP is at least a 2 (closer to 3) hour drive for Donna!  This is down near Atlantic City.

Awwwww, Janet! This is like telling me there is no Santa!

Bobbie, did you sign up? You have to at first. Then go to #70, click on it, then click vote, it will ask you to sign in name-password/type the words in the white box and your in, then your vote counts.

http://www.refresheverything.com/thehugsprojectofelkhart

I knew I was not doing it right! Thanks, Girlfriend... will do. So many good causes on the site, but I guess our troops need us to cut them a break on something.

(NTK) GARDEN BIRD TIP OF THE DAY - Fatballs are a great food source for small insectivores such as Goldcrest & Wren. If buying fatballs from a shop, remember to take the plastic mesh off them as birds can get their toes tangled, causing infection. Why not try making your own & popping them, along with some apple slices into a fatball feeder?

I make my own fat cakes and the birds seem to love them. I save the containers in which a store-bought suet feed comes in - these are rectangular in shape and fit into those hanging suet baskets. I melt lard along with lots of wildbird seed, raisins, apple chunks, leftover mashed potatoes - anything pretty much that is not salty! Melt the gunge. (It's hot, so mind if you are doing this with kids!) Let it cool a tad. Then pour into the containers to harden. It pops right out then.

If you want to do a few at a time, line them up on a cookie sheet so you don't get glop all over the countertop.

Hope you understand what I have been trying to describe!!!

A bird that hit this window and left an imprint. Look carefully at just the window, see the outline of the bird? This was taken in Ireland.

We have resorted to a large silhouette of a BoP on our kitchen window as we were getting more than the usual number of strikes, esp in summer when the youngsters are about. We think the birds see our back kitchen window and the one at the side as "clear", thinking they can go straight through. Perhaps it is pure happenstance, but ever since the silhouette went up, we have had no hits.

I can just see you... paint roller in one hand... decorations in the other...

Roadside Secret Santa at it again along NJ highway

By WAYNE PARRY

(AP) LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - An annual Christmas mystery is playing itself out again along a busy New Jersey highway.

A Secret Santa is once again surreptitiously hanging ornaments from a large pine tree by the side of the Garden State Parkway in the dead of night.

A gold star was hanging from the boughs of the tree Tuesday morning.

It’s the fourth year in a row that the ornaments have shown up on the same tree in the southbound lanes in a sparsely populated area of Little Egg Harbor Township.

No one has come forward and acknowledged decorating the tree. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which maintains the road, has said it isn’t responsible.

The ornaments appear gradually, starting with one or two, and eventually growing to about a dozen by Christmas.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Sounds like Ireland! But haha, I am all nice and toasty inside - those poor unfortunates on the Thruway have my sympathy... but... were they told NOT to travel??? Oh dear...

Still at #70 - Let's start voting people.  Many of us have family members in the desert and they appreciate all of our efforts.  Thanks!

 

Arrrgh! Am I doing something wrong? I got as far as your entry but then I got dumped so don't think my vote counted. Do I click on that link (70 at present) to vote? Duuuuh on me!

I am back in Ireland again after a quick trip home to ROC... where I was delighted to meet MAK and Shaky in person (!) at the Highland Park Diner (we have decided that it will be our "local") - and Donna (telephonically). What delights! Thanks to them for finding the time for me, and to the others who sent greetings through them. Hoping that a Springtime visit in 2011 will mean more face-to-face encounters with both folks AND falcons!

And I got a tick... in my sister's back yard - a Northern Harrier. MAK and Shaky may remember that I was trying to describe the bird, quite unsuccessfully. Then I noticed it seemed to have a plan for quartering the neighbourhood and sure enough, it came and sat for a while - in good light - in the big walnut tree. Very pale breast and under-parts was all I had seen - but then, hurrah! It did a magnificent fly-past and there was that unmistakable white rump. Male Northern Harrier. Good for me!

Thanks again, MAK, Shaky and Donna - Meeting you meant so much!

Slainte from a snow-bound Ireland! I will send pix to Donna and maybe she can post.

Carol P. "The unbanded juvie Peregrine in Irondequoit was very light colored.  I believe she was a female and she looked alot like Aura.  A blondie blond.  Gorgeous!" 

Hi everyone.
I saw this juvie yesterday!!  I was going to visit my Mom at the Episcopal Church Home during my lunch hour, and just as I was crossing the Ford Street Bridge, I saw gulls and pigeons dispersing in all directions, with an extremely light colored PeFa in hot pursuit.  I've never seen such a "blondie
blonde" and thought perhaps I was mistaken as to the species.  But she (?) sure looked like a Pefa!
Thanks Carol, for giving me hope that my mind isn't completely gone - YET!!!
Miss you all,
Carla P.
xoxo

This wee girl (?) is kinda in my neighbourhood! I don't, as a rule, do much sky-watching as I drive down Ridge Road East... Will have to stop more when I am home... What a great report!

What fascinating information - both about the bird and the word. Thanks!

(I'm packing! I'm packing!)

(Did not realise that was your pic, Donna! Haha!)

Prothonotary Warbler???
greetings Aafke

I can't even pronounce that... much less ID it! Great little bird, tho... (What's a "prothonotary" anyway??)

Amazing! Never heard of this delightful bird, and look what I find! Sweet little blog.

http://10000birds.com/desis-first-twitch-or-midtown-prothonotary-warbler.htm

Prothonotary Warbler???
greetings Aafke

I can't even pronounce that... much less ID it! Great little bird, tho... (What's a "prothonotary" anyway??)

Wouldn't this be a charming sight??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9116000/9116120.stm

[CHIRPY BIRD-DAY, ANNETTE!Slainte!Bobbie]

CHIRPY BIRD-DAY, ANNETTE!

Slainte!

Bobbie