Spring Buds at the Mount

HERE ARE SOME OF THE BUDS THAT ARE BURSTING WITH LIFE AND BEAUTY HERE AT MT. ST. ALPHONSUS...ENJOY THEM!!!

More Magnolias from the Mount

MARVELOUS MAGNOLIAS OF THE MOUNT

We have four Magnolia Trees here at the Mount which are at least 70 years old.  And so they would have been planted somewheres around 1927.  Because of the high temperatures here in the Northeast this last week they reached full bloom yesterday, April 7th.  In earlier years they would bloom maybe at the beginning of May.  Ordinations to the Sub an Deaconate would happen here at the Mount close to the first Sunday after Easter (Low Sunday).  That Sunday had the Latin name of Domenicus in albis  (Sunday in White).  This allusion referred to the recently baptized adults at the Easter Vigil who would wear their white Baptismal garbs all during this week.

CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY

A HAPPY EASTER FROM THE HUDSON RIVER BIRDER

Well, what a day yesterday was.  I have seen a few Tree Swallows swooping over our 412 acres.  The Juncos are clicking like crazy and seem to have their lighter spring coats.  I saw an interesting stand off yesterday with an immature Red Tailed "accompanied" on a branch below by two Fish Crows.  they just "waited" till it took off and tore at her up and down till she or he made it to the next "resting spot".  One of the adult eagles was flying out towards the river yesterday afternoon.  One tree in our area where Eagles have nested was hit bit lighting a year and a half ago.  But I am sure that they will find another "appropiate" and "safe" place.  Thank God that the "eagles are back".  It is not such an extraordinary sight anymore to see them on our river.

Song sparrows, Field sparrows, lots of cardinals and off course American Robins are enjoying this early spring as are we all.  The "Peter, Peter" of our local Tufted Timouses is with us too.  OH YES!!!! And this is a very content and excited OH YES for me.  I saw two beautiful  Eastern Meadowlarks yesterday on our unmown fields at Pells.  The truth is that, as much as a patient birder as I am the only time I have seen Eastern Meadowlarks was years ago down in Columbia SC with a great now deceased birder, Mr. Robin Carter.  They are truly large and beautiful birds.  It was my "Easter Gift".
HAPPY EASTER ALL

...AND THE LAST SUPPER...JESUS BRINGS PASSOVER NEW MEANING

I hope this is alright.  Just below this animation on the Last Supper is a very wonderful animation that shows what the Passover was that Jesus was celebrating with his disciples.  Of course most Jewish people, even though they know that Christians share all the history of salvation and all of the Bible texts that they love and live, do not believe that Jesus was the Promised one or the Messiah... But at this Easter/ Passover time we all try to be in deeper contact with our COMMON GOD OF LOVE, MERCY AND KINDNESS.  Enjoy this You Tube clip on the Last Supper which features the song, "Always Knew That I'd be an Apostle"  from the play and move "Jesus Christ Super Star".

SPRINGTIME AND THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

meone said to me recently, "Your site doesn't always have birds, and you call it THE HUDSON RIVER BIRDER.   Well, yes, that's true.  But I am also a Roman Catholic priest and when springtime comes, sure I am excited about the birds.  Like for instance today was such a beautiful Good Friday.  It is warm.  There more robins than ever.  Yesterday, besides the many Eastern Wood Pewees I've been seeing I also heard a number of Phoebes.  And today, if I am not mistaken, I saw some Tree Swallows flying over towards the Pell Farm.  So, yes, I am the Hudson River Birder.  But springtime is also the time when we Christians believe that, just as the birds return North each April we celebrate the return of Christ to life after the sad mistake of his being condemned to death.  So I would like to share this very well done animated video on Passover.  It is a Jewish celebration.  But it explains a lot of what Jesus himself a Jew was trying to explain as he celebrated that very same Passover with his twelve apostles who were also very good and religious Jews.  ENJOY!!!

The Basin and the Towel for HOLY THURSDAY

ABOUT THE HUDSON RIVER WALKAWAY BRIDGE

I finally did the Hudson River Walkaway Bridge across the river from Highland to Pougkeepsie, NY.  It was a windy afternoon when our staff member at the Mount, Theresa and her friend Linda and I did the two mile jaunt which is supposedly the longest walkaway bridge in the country if not the world....
Here are some facts about it...from a New York Times article---(And I have added some of today's photos after the New York Times article...Enjoy!!)
The New York Times
Editorial
October 6, 2009
The View From 1889

The Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, built in the late 19th century to link New York and New England to the coal beds of Pennsylvania and the West, is a marvel of Industrial Revolution engineering. It fills the sky over the Hudson River, a muscular lattice of trusses and struts on giant footings, a survivor from a long-gone era before bridge mediocrities like the Tappan Zee. Anyone who has ever gazed on it from the riverbank and wondered what it was like to walk across will now be able to find out. It has just been opened to the public as Walkway Over the Hudson, the latest example of the new kinds of infrastructure - for tourism and recreation - that are reshaping the Hudson Valley. The bridge was abandoned in the 1970s and sat for decades because it was too expensive to tear down. Volunteers made fitful efforts to repair it as a walkway, but the project took off only about five years ago with big infusions of ambition and money, including federal and state aid and a $2 million corporate grant. This year's 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's river trip helped push the $38 million project to completion.

The bridge is part of a bigger web of things to see and do up and down the Hudson River. There are trails and bike paths from both sides linking the nearby Mid-Hudson Bridge, downtown Poughkeepsie, and parks, historic homes and landmarks. To the many civic, environmental and historic organizations that look after the Hudson Valley - including Scenic Hudson, whose land acquisitions have given the region a wealth of public greenery - the bridge has two jobs: be lovely to look at (and from), and energize the economy.

The Henry Hudson anniversary sparked many plans for legacy projects, many of them - including land purchases as a bulwark against view-destroying sprawl - still unrealized. Maybe as the economic and aesthetic benefits of this once-dreamy, impractical vision - saving and fixing a big old bridge - become clearer, people will summon the will and means to dream even bigger.

THE HUDSON RIVER WALKAWAY BRIDGE FROM HIGHLAND TO POUGKEEPSIE, NY

SMITH CEMENTERY "OLD OAK"--ESOPUS,NY

SMITH CEMENTERY IN DISREPAIR AT ESOPUS, NY

SMITH CEMENTERY AT MT. ST. ALPHONSUS, ESOPUS,NY

THE SMITH CEMETERY AT PELLS

On the Pell Farm which is the northern end of Mt. St. Alphonsus right down from the silo has existed since the 1700's what is known to us as "The Smith Cemetery".  Some of the names are also Terpenning which is also an old family here in Esopus.  There are twelve graves.  Some of the stones are quite small.  One with the name "Amanda" written on it, seems to have been a twelve  year old child of this family who I understand were workers for Robert Livingston Pell,  the original owner who sold it to us Redemptorists in about 1905.  Above you will find some views of the cemetery that I have taken.
VOLUNTEERS ANYBODY:  We would be very happy if some boy or girl scout troup were interested in helping us restore and maintain the Smith Cemetery.  Or anyone who would like to help us do it just contact me through this blog..

THE 'BIRDER' ON ROUTE TO LAKE LOUISE, NY

A WINTER TWILIGHT MOMENT ON ESOPUS AVENUE

ESOPUS WINTER AND GREAT HORNED OWLS

I truly "love" winter.  One reason might be that I got into snowshoeing.  And of course you need winter...and you need "snow" for snowshoeing.  Last week the northeast got lots of snow.  We did "pretty well" here in the Esopus area, getting what I call a "refurbishing" of the snow layer on our pastures.  So I as able to have two good days of snowshoeing though all our pastures going over to the Pell Silo and back along the riverbank.  We have some coyotes, but I haven't seen any of them.  I HAVE seen their "four pointed" tracks in the snow.  Last summer I saw the largest one and it was a truly beautiful animal with about five different shades: brown, blackish brown, auburn, whitish grey and tan.  But it seems that they are not able to bring down the full sized deer.  So winters, with no small fauns to eat, is rough on them.  Do I seem "predatory".  Maybe so.  But that's the way I have come to see the circle of life in the sub human world.  There is a true "communion" there.  I NEED TO EAT YOU TO STAY ALIVE.  It's nothing personal.  If I were a human being fighting a foolish war in Iraq or Afghanistan, now that would be something different.  Because human beings have many other ways of living and living "holy communion" without hunting down and killing one another....

Was that a digression.  Yes and no.  Well let this HUDSON RIVER BIRDER get back to the bird world. I have "heard" a number of Great Horned Owls the last few days.  The first ones were hooting at one another like this--(HIT THE TITLE ABOVE) the other night when I walked along the road in front of the Redemptoristine convent. And today, Sunday March 7th I heard them hooting up on Shaupeneak Ridge.  By the way I have climbed from the Esopus  Fire House on the Ridge lots of times.  Today was the hardest.  Why?  First I did not realize how difficult the two feet of melting snow would be to climb further up the hill.  (Last week I went to North Lake in the town of Haines Falls and there were a total of 5 feet of snow on the ground!!)  So it looks like the higher elevations like Windham, Hunter Mountain, Haines Falls go a whalloping snowfall)
Anyway it was a really tough climb today.  And even coming down Popletown Road towards Union Center Road.  Because until Bea Moore's home it is not ploughed.  My socks go wet on the way up.  So I walked the four miles home "sockless" in my hiking boots.  Enjoy the hoots

ICED IN SHORE OF THE MOUNT ON THE HUDSON