Great commotion of birds, there is a pair of red-tailed hawks hanging around, although today is the first time I was sure there were two when I could hear their voices together. They were screeching like crazy, yelling back at the crows that were mobbing them. The crows were shrieking back and circling around. The whole tangle of birds moved from east to west, past my house. The jays let loose with their alarm calls as did the small birds and with a woosh, the bird feeders was left empty, swinging in a silent yard. I stepped out my door to search the skys and could see small birds sitting is the branches of trees all around me waiting for the big guys to finish the battle or at least move it farther away. The hawks could only fly short distances and low and moved in short hops being inexorably herded east. Long after they were out of view, I could hear the crows harassing and haranguing as they circled and kept pushing the hawks west. This is an audio clip I took.
This is from Cornell, a mobbing picture I like:
https://ww.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/media-browser/60384781
I took the opportunity while the crows were distracted, to throw out some peanuts for such stalwart defenders, my avian sheepdogs. Another great reason for attracting crows. My favorite reason though, is to listen to the summertime play of young crows, they are trying out their calls and playing, I’ve watched them have a tug of war over sticks and literally wrestle, with one on it’s back beneath the other, squawking and jostling. They arrive as a family, adults, year old juveniles and the rambunctious, shouting, playful, kids.
SUDDEN SWERVE: So there is this covenant on the cottage, that it can’t be used for commercial reasons. What I don’t know is if that applies to an individual fisherman using his own boat at his own dock at his (OR her) own home should a fisherman want to buy my place. Anyway I asked Dean, my realtor, if the potential buyer was aware, and he said he’d sent the covenant to the guy’s realtor and assumed he told the fisherman.
So I don’t know on that point.
I got the new septic design, it’s a water treatment plant really, no leach field needed, so it’s much smaller, hopefully cheaper and certainly less difficult to put in. I took it to the code officer and he’s already said he likes these systems. Apparently, the waste water they produce is actually potable. I know, everybody but Anne winces at the idea!
Next is to get a couple of bids. I had gotten an earlier septic plan but it called for a 4 ft. high mound right behind the cottage which is the only direction it could be expanded, it required cutting down the pines in back, the only 2 shade trees on the property, and would have meant I would need a new well.
So, we had an estimate of what all that would cost. Not only will this be a much smaller installation, but it goes toward the front, no mound and all trees spared, as well as the well so the cost should be lower, hot diggity.
The realtor said the main objection to the cottage that people have, other than the ones who want to build a big house there, is the missing septic and even with an allowance to replace it, they don’t want the bother of putting it in, can’t blame them, so looks like I do it. The cost will be the kind of money I didn’t think I’d need until after the cottage was sold. Doable but painful. I figure the sooner I do it, the faster it might sell, so I’m hoping to get going on it soon. I consolidated my mortgages a couple of years ago so once I sell the cottage, I’ll only have one mortgage payment since my house is paid off.
enough sewer talk.
Today is a woodpecker day, large and small. The smallest ones I usually see are the downy woodpeckers and today I saw my first, since I put up the feeders last month. That was about 15 min after I saw my first pileated woodpecker of the year. The hairy one came a day later.
This has been a place the large pileated ones return to each year, mostly I see them in a small piece of wooded brush between the driveway and my northern boundary, where the woodcocks hang out, but I see them all over. I’m including two pix I took of a courting couple of them from some years back. Unlike the female turkeys who just graze as the males display, at least the female woodpecker seemed like she was aware of his efforts even if she refused to look at him.
