Maureen,
I really love your blog. I found it when I was googling “Sounds of Late Summer” and fell into your site. I started reading one article but found myself reading them all! I was happy to see that like myself, you love birds. I find myself searching the sky at every turn to see a new or interesting bird. I have even resorted to “calling” the Osprey when I ride on the canal on most days. It is amazing how much you can see when you really start to look. The same is true when you really listen. I have been blown away by the cicadas that practically “scream” during the midday sun in these late, summer days.
Through the years I had enjoyed watching you as the ever charming and professional TV Anchor but I never knew your real talent as a writer. I enjoy reading your insights on different topics and also the insights and comments of your subscribers. I will definitely find myself as a “regular” to your site. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, thoughts and a piece of yourself with others in the CNY area. Linda Quinn
The aforementioned comment is from a kind and knowledgeable lady I’ve known for many years. Linda Quinn is a registered dietitian and someone we turned to as a credible source for our stories about food while I was employed by WTVH-TV. Linda now represents New York State Apple Growers and they are lucky to have her. She is a treasure.
I last saw Linda at Dana Decker’s wine store in Old Fayetteville several months ago. It was great to reconnect and to meet her husband for the first time, so Linda, this article is inspired by you. Thank you for your lovely post.
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I wonder if readers most enjoy my two-cent observations about the news, or stories of my every day life, or tales of my family history growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts. It’s hard to tell because all comments are ridiculously positive. Someone level some criticism, please, and kids, I don’t mean you.
Now to the birds. I have become the Crazy Bird Lady of Berkeley Park. All who know me realize I pick up hobbies at the exclusion of everything else. Last winter I had beads and pieces of silver and wire spread all over the kitchen table for two months as I dove into my jewelry habit again. We ate our meals in the dining room, or more often standing at the little kitchen island, because the table was “taken over” by one of “mom’s projects” as Charlie affectionately refers to the mess.
See the chickadee perched atop the feeder?
My ebay obsession has occupied the dining room since February. All the junk I’m pulling from the bowels of the basement and the rafters of the attic get pulled to the first floor for photographing and temporary storage near the dining room window while I wait for my online auctions to end. My lovely room in the center of the house masquerades as an antique store turned post office with “treasures”, boxes and bubble wrap all piling up.
Now it’s birds. With apologies to Christian and all who enter my home, more often than not, you’ll find me frozen still like stone in the middle of my kitchen, watching the dive-bombers come in from the woods to the five bird feeders and one suet cage hanging around my patio and outside my kitchen window. If I move I’ll scare them away and they’ll face certain starvation. They need me. How they found sustenance between the last time I was into birding at my old house fifteen years ago and now, I’ll never know, but I have a reason to get out of bed every day.
In yet another way that I have turned into my mother, I marvel at the variety of backyard birds visiting my feeders. Mom used to speak of the goldfinches, titmice, chicadees and cardinals that she spotted at our home on Chandler Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Now I’m doing it. In fact, had I not had this involuntary training in backyard birdwatching as a teenager, I might be starting completely from scratch at identifying the most obvious of backyard birds. So thanks Mom, for your daily lessons in which bird was which, because they are all visiting me now in Syracuse.
A bird feeder and a suet cage attract nuthatches and woodpeckers outside the breakfast room window
What surprises me even more, is Christian seems entertained by the activity out the window too. He doesn’t show any interest in knowing one species from the other, but he does stop on his way to the refrigerator to notice there’s a bird hanging upside down eating fat just outside the window. Is he going to turn into his mother too someday as I have? Or will he become his dad and smoke cigars? Ick.
Today, under the threat of rain, I cooked my own bird suet. Now that’s pathetic. I rendered beef fat from the P and C grocery store at Nottingham, and added peanut butter, bird seed, cornmeal, popcorn and stale cereal. As of this writing, it’s still solidifying in the fridge, but the little bits I attempted to spread on the bark of an oak tree and which fell to the ground were gobbled up quickly by Otto, my combination garbage-disposal-mini-dachsund who will probably begin throwing up or pooping on my bed around 2:00 am.
Robins love the birdbath and I love the giant wind chimes by the patio
Linda, you refer to the screaming cicadas at this time of year. Are you hearing the crows as well? We have a roost or a pre-roost, I’m not sure which, in the University area and as soon as the weather chills, thousands of crows begin to migrate here from dusk till dawn until spring. It’s another sign of the season. The crows haven’t blackened the skies yet, but the Syracuse University students returned to the neighborhood today for the start of classes on Monday. Soon I’ll hear the roar of football fans in the Carrier Dome right from my front yard, and I’ll hear the crows in the trees out back.
Instead of exercising, I stand like stone at the birds at these feeders, so I don't scare them away from outside the busy kitchen
So far, I’ve observed northern cardinals, chicadees, tufted titmice, white-breasted nut hatches, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers and gold finches at my feeders, along with the robins, crows and bluejays who swim in the birdbath. Please tell me what you all have in your backyards. I’d love to know.
Now can someone please post a comment about vacuuming?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Vacuuming is a passing fad – it’ll never catch on. Birds, however, are here to stay.
Pat Ward, you make me laugh. Love the comment about the vacuuming, and thanks for your remembrances about the Kennedys
Maureen,
Thanks! After writing to you last week I have been out riding my bike on the canal and rollerblading at Onondaga Lake Park. What a beautiful week! I think I incorrectly identified the cicadas as “screaming” since after some glorious days I now hear it more as a symphony with the crickets and grasshoppers thrown in as percussion. The rise and fall of this melody marks the end of summer and the beginning of Fall. Apple season!
On my rides along the canal is where I meet up with the beautiful birds of prey, the Osprey. They sit in certain trees along the trail I know so well. When I come upon one I always start my “calling”. On this day, I got no response from the first Osprey located in Fayetteville. Further down the trail in Pools Brook were two Osprey situated in the big tree across the pond. I was so excited, I stopped a woman and her dog to point out the birds. I then started my calling. This time, though, the smaller osprey responded. This actually started a long back and forth between myself and the bird. Our cackling continued on for about 5 minutes! When I finally decided I needed to make my way back home, I passed the woman with the dog. She commented, “Gee, you were actually communicating with that bird!” I felt proud that I was making contact with this magnificent creature. As far as our conversation goes? Who knows.
Like you, we totally enjoy all the backyard birds that visit all year round. We have many of the birds you named. On special visitor we get in the summer is the Red Throated Hummingbird. The male has the red throat and the female does not. We hang two feeders out in our yard and love to watch them come. These are small birds with very big personalities! They flutter and tussle with each other and they communicate with us when we forget to fill the feeder or are sitting too close to them! This is one bird that I actually do understand. Lately, they are actually sitting at the feeder and eating as much as they can before the big journey southward. We will miss them and all the other summer birds that grace Central New York.
As far as the vacuum goes? You are barking up the wrong tree.
HA! Thanks for the lovely post and the comedic crack about the vacuum. I’m intrigued by your conversation with the osprey. I’ve seen but not heard them and wouldn’t know their call from a car I’m afraid. M.