Goodbye April

April 2020 may have seemed like a long month to a lot of people!

Our local weatherman said last night that this is the first April in 74 years that the Portland jetport did not record a daily high over 60F.  Brrr.

Add that to the heavy rain forecast for tomorrow and that will make my annual tradition of rolling in the dew more than the usual challenge.  Youth does not come cheaply as we age!

I have been sighting a lot of birds.  The pair of pileated woodpeckers are back.  These are very large black and white birds-about crow sized, with a red crown.  I suspect last year's nest site may have been blown down in recent storms and they are on the search for a new one.

I had a lot of spring clean up-the late heavy wet snow a few weeks ago that left us without electricity for several days  broke several maple limbs that were starting to bud.  The goats got the budding branches and the limbs will be cut for firewood.

I still have goats-down to three now,; the aging wethers Obi and Moonie, and the doe-no longer a spring chicken herself-the black doe Anna.

We have at least one pair of American goldfinch still hitting the black oil sunflower seed.  The males look very much like a canary and their song is similar.

The white breasted nuthatches and chickadees are also still hitting the feeder.

I usually stop feeding out once the snow cover is gone, but I have a very large female Eastern gray squirrel that will sit on a branch at dusk, mere feet from the living room window, staring intently at me if the feeder is empty.  She sits on her back feet with her left paw pressed to her breast, totally ignoring the cat looking back at her.

This is not a brief glance-she will sit there until near dark staring into the lighted living room if the feeder is empty.

The wood ducks are back in the stream-every morning I creep down the road, pausing behind the hemlocks and peer intently down the stream hoping for a glimpse of them.  With one or two exceptions, they spy me first, even after holding absolutely still for some minutes, and my only view is their backsides in panicked flight downstream.

We had a very close up view out the front door of a pair of brown creepers-they look like a cross between a wren and a nuthatch-on the side of the house looking for insects.  That was thrilling, since their coloring and tree clinging habit makes them difficult to spot in the woods.

The robin population has crashed.  I have seen one or two when usually there is a half dozen working the lawn for worms.  We had some bad storms during nesting season last summer-whether the population took a hit there or some other reason, is unclear.

 I saved at least one group of nestlings from a red tailed hawk either last summer or the year before.  Red tailed hawks love robins babies-and not in a good way.

The parents had put the nest right off the deck in a thick fir.  I noted that most successful robin nests were located with a thick leafy branch directly over the nest. In this case, I would hear the robin parents shrieking in alarm and dash out the door to find the hawk perched on the branch over the nest, trying to get the nestlings directly underneath.

I would clap my hands and scare the hawk away, and did that at least ten times in two days before the nestlings finally left the nest.  The parents followed them around in the undergrowth for several days until they were fully fledged.

I am glad to report I have at least one hen turkey lurking about-we saw her roosting in one of the big hemlocks over the hill at nightfall several days ago.  Whether she survives turkey hunting season-which just began Saturday and runs the whole month of May-has yet to be determined.

Planting season

I managed to get a small amount of snow peas planted a couple of days ago. I had saved the seed from last year's crop and been meaning to plant earlier than this. 

Years ago in another lifetime a friend of mine used to pride himself on getting peas planted by April 1. You would think with climate change that date would be even earlier, but it seems our cold and wet hangs on later.

I think it has to do with Arctic weather, actually.  As the days lengthen exponentially the further North you go, and with less and less annual ice build up, things warm up faster North of us, dropping lots of what is basically snow fog and moisture into the air.

That might seem unreasonable, because our storms and moisture do come from the South-usually right out of the Gulf of Mexico for the whoppers, but you can't deny heat evaporates water and clouds are cooler than direct sunshine.

I checked the atmospheric CO2 levels as recorded at Mauna Loa observatory, hoping to see that levels had dropped since everyone is supposed to be staying close to home and not burning up the fossil fuels.

I was surprised to see that the levels were 3 ppm higher than the same day last year.  One sad fact about some of the gases-once in the atmosphere they can linger for a long time.

Added the the loss of forests by area AND volume, and how long it takes for a tree to reach 100 feet in height, makes for a grim forecast.

Hopefully humans will change behavior prompted by the impact of this pandemic-travel less and telecommute for starters.

I was rather disheartened to hear about the push to get schools open for the last few weeks of the year.  The rationale appears to be that "children come out of COVID very well" and "If they are in school the parents can get back to work."

The focus seems to be on trying to social distance kids and provide PPE for school staff, but no mention of the impact on the sick or elderly that live in the households of those children being potentially exposed.

One absurd suggestion was to divide school days in half and have kids attend either morning or afternoon, essentially doubling school transportation emissions just to enable parents to get back to work at minimum wage jobs.

And don't forget, once an employer reopens a business and calls back the employees, if they refuse they are no longer eligible to collect unemployment compensation, leaving low income workers with no choice but to trust that their employers can assure the safety of themselves and their loved ones.

The New World

So...COVID-19 anyone?

I know my pals from all over the world are being impacted by this new virus, and thought I would check in after a long absence.

I am fortunate, in that probably the least affected would be a germaphobic hermit living in the woods shunning society!

My biggest impact is that my daughter had to come home from college and finish her year online.  Today was a CHem 2 exam, stressful for both of us in that I tried to make myself invisible and she was stressed out.

However, I have a small chicken roasting the the toaster oven, stuffed with sage and celery and onion, cozied up to a couple of baked potatoes, and  the fortune that she is a a budding chef peeling and chopping carrots as I type.  All that is left is homemade gravy.

Hang in there, stay creative, love your family! More soon!