it's getting warmer

West Bank turkey

It is finally getting back to more normal temperatures in Minneapolis. The turkey was out again on the West Bank of Minneapolis. She is becoming a regular fixture. People are photographing and looking for her. More Yellow Rumped Warbles (YRW) are out. I saw lots of YRWs on the West Bank and in the backyard. There were a lot of YRWs in the backyard "hawking" for insects. There was one Chipping Sparrow. The resident male Cardinal was hanging out in the Elm tree checking out the Blue Jays. There were about five Blue Jays in the yard pecking away at the corn suet.


"Sam" the crow stopped by earlier to yell at Misha, who was to close to the bird feeder. We named the crow "Sam" because we don't know if it's male or female. This crow has a small white mark on its right wing. If you get to know crows you can tell them apart. Sam has been hanging out harassing the squirrels and the orange kitten. Sam has a thing for suet and likes to hide the suet in the shrubs.

Sam the crow

it has been cold for days

Female turkey

It's near the end of April and it's cold, very cold. It has been unseasonably cold for days. It's Monday and this is the third day in a row I've seen snow. I've heard reports from birders that birds were seen flying south from the snow in Northern Minnesota. Last Saturday we woke up with a dusting of snow, but in Northern Minnesota they woke up to several inches. It was so cold I pulled the containers of lettuce and kale onto the porch. Too cold for cold weather crops. Eeks.

I was looking for migrating songbirds but saw one lonely cold Yellow Rumped Warbler. As I headed back in, I saw the turkey that had been hanging around for about week. She had eluded me before but today without anyone around I finally got a photo.

The backside of the turkey as she foraged for food

DIY cold frame

This is an easy DIY cold frame. Is used two cedar container planters (bought on sale for $40) and used an old window for the top. A cold frame will extend your growing season. To vent this cold frame use a piece of wood to prop up the window or place the wood under the window.

Misha inspecting my work

Resources for building a cold frame:
DIY Network
DIY coldframe
Green building a cold frame
Strawbale cold frame

the white throated sparrows have arrived

The White Throated Sparrows have arrived in Minneapolis. During this time of the year White Throated Sparrows migrate to Northern Minnesota. Brown Thrashers are also seen migrating during this time of the year. Some stay in the metro area during the nesting season. They are shy but beautiful birds.

White Throated Sparrow

Brown Thrasher
Photo from Wikipedia

White Throated Sparrow
Photo from the Pennsylvania Game Commission

a shy goundhog

A shy juvenile groundhog by the Mississippi River. A very cute rodent. As soon as I took these photos the groundhog ran away.

compost harvest

It's time to "harvest" the compost. We started composting last summer with very little knowledge of how. We composted leaves, grass and plant clippings, green waste from the kitchen, added coffee grounds, water, and air. It all turned into black gold.

Digging out the bottom of the compost. It's a little lumpy and needs to be sifted out.

Use a screen to sift out large materials. I made this screen from an an old chair frame. I stapled (with a staple gun) a wire frame to the wood. The holes in the screen are small enough to sort out the large material that has not composted but large enough to let the compost through. Chicken wire might be to large, but in a pinch it would work. I used wire mesh that is a 1/4 of an inch wide. Then formed the wire to the frame and stapled away. I didn't care how it looked but how it functioned.

Place screen over a large pale or bucket and screen the compost.

Sift compost

In the end you will have compost for potting soil or mulch.

Add compost to potting soil.

no/low/neutral carbon birdwatching

This one of my favorite places to birdwatch, along the Mississippi River in Mpls. In the past year I have become a "lazy birdwatcher." I used to drive hundreds of miles to see one bird and plan entire camping trips around seeing warblers. Now I bring my binoculars with me and bird where I am.

Some new migrants to the area are Northern Flickers, Hermit Thrushes, and Yellow Rumped Warblers.

Photos from Wikipedia


Interested in neutral carbon birdwatching? Look at carbon neutral birding.

first spring flowers

The first spring flowers in the yard, daffodils.

tax day

I waited until the last minute to do my taxes. Not only because of procrastination but I'm in denial about how much I'm paying for the Iraq war. The median income family in the United States paid $2,628 in federal income taxes in 2007. Of that, $1,109 was spent on the military. Contrast that with the $228 spent on anti-poverty programs, $115 spent on education, training and social services, and $69 spent on the environment, energy, and science. This is what I was avoiding thinking about.

Look at where your tax dollars are spent

last chance to catch snowflakes on your tongue

The weather is really strange in Minneapolis tonight. It's a thunderstorm of rain, sleet, and snow. What can you expect with Minnesota weather in April?

it also rolls down hill - by badphairy

I have pestered Badphairy for months to write for treehouse party. Badphairy has graciously honored me with her writing. Read Badphairy at LNEWS: EXTEMORE, The Wit, Wisdom and Mental Meanderings of a Bad Phairy.

When San Francisco protests, they do it right. In a somewhat sideways answer to Protest Zones (which should be renamed Police Brutality Zones), and Designated Free Speech Areas (hey Pelosi, who put the moron in your oxy?), or even you know, protesting on the actual day the protestable action (or significant anniversary/escalation/what have you) will take place, protestors for freedom in Tibet climbed the guy wires on the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl banners.

Yesterday. The torch run is tomorrow. Talk about planning ahead. The era of blond-dreadlocked, bitchy radicals scheming about rally chants till midnight while chain-smoking has been replaced, apparently, by dreadlocked, bitchy radicals scheming at 3:00 am about the best quality jumars, carabiners, and gorp. Frankly, in the struggle of worker and proletariat, REI seems to be winning. I’m not sure who’s going to be happy about that, but I do know the tobacco companies hate it.

Seems like Cal is serving its purpose in training the next generation of protestors for Bay Area success, as tree-sitting is still going on over at the Cal campus across the Bay. In case you have nostalgic memories of pole-sitters or your family treehouse, know now and tremble with fear paltry non-Californians, that tree-sitting is a skill (or set thereof), involving possible use of zip lines, hanging tents, and shit buckets. Yes, shit buckets. What do you think people spend hours and hours packing down from camps on Mount Everest? Yep, shit buckets.

We’ve been shown thrilling expanses of snow, dangerous cliffs, people slowly freezing to death, but no shit buckets. Never thought of Mount Everest as a giant Potemkin village? Do it now.

SF is a community infinitely familiar with shit buckets, though we like to call them “parks”, “bus stops” and “doorways”. Predictably, any city with that much poo, is also rife with the flinging of same, though we like to call it “politics”. Thus we have protest factions who don’t even have to protest on the day of the torch run. We are so dressed in blinding Tyvek that any poo flung within a month or so of an event, ends up staining our brothas fines .

Even so, poo is fertilizer, kids, and here we have one of the most vibrant discussions about China, Tibet, the message of the Olympic Games, the power of sport, the thrill of victory, etc, etc, etc. Without that discussion, this would just be American Gladiators with a bigger budget.

Yes, sports are important, human rights are important, global opinion is important, and we deserve to care more than every two to four years. Remember that when your hear bitching about stupid protestors who need to go get jobs. Those people do have jobs. They’re carrying the shit buckets down the mountain and making sure they are displayed for all to see. Maybe we’ll send less shit up the mountain tomorrow.

At least, that’s the hope.

Sartorial elegance, see: Blazing Saddles

backyard birding

A few spring migrants showed up in the backyard a Brown-creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. It was a dark cloudy day and horrible for taking photos of these birds. The bird photos are from Wikipedia. Birds are pictured left to right, Brown-creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

I saw five Brown Creepers feeding together on the Elm tree in the backyard. There were two Golden-crowned Kinglets and a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The creepers, kinglets, and Black-capped Chickadees were singing and feeding in the afternoon rain.

Last year I took this photo of a juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. These migrating birds usually make a stop to feed at the birch tree.

free fertilizer find

Spring is slowing creeping into the northland. This weekend I started the garden spring cleaning. The perennial plants have been covered over the winter with leaf mulch, marsh hay, and covered with pine branches. I started the cleanup by removing the mulch to see what has survived the winter.

Surveying the yard I found a lot of rabbit droppings. This is great free fertilizer. The droppings have the highest nitrogen of available barnyard manures and don't smell.

The Coral Bells, Sedum, Bee Balm, and Monkeyflower, survived the winter and are already green. For a gardener this is the hope of spring. I still have a lot of work left to do to get the garden and yard ready.

Marsh hay and mulch

Rabbit droppings

Sedum

Yard material for the compost pile

Coral Bells

Motherwort, is considered a weed but it's a useful herb. It is green in early spring.

Bee Balm / Monarda

Black-eyed Susan / Rudbeckia hirta

Monkeyflower

7:15 a.m. murder

I woke up to the sound to crows cawing loudly and screaming alarm calls. I was trying to sleep in for another for another 10 minutes, but the loud raucous wouldn't let me sleep. It struck me that maybe they were really pissed off that a predator was in their territory. I ran outside to see a murder of crows mobbing a great horned owl. The crows were harassing and dive bombing the owl. They cawed as loudly as possible. The crows did everything to let the owl know it wasn't welcome in their territory. Once bluejay joined the crows for a while but its calls were soft in comparison. After about 10 minutes the owl had enough and flew off. The crows followed in a relentless chase.

This is the best way to find a Great Horned Owl. Crows hate owls.

The Great Horned Owl is in the middle of the photograph. A crow on the right side mobbing the owl.

The owl is in the center looking down at me.