NO OWLS LAST NIGHT

Last night, as the night before I did a 10pm round of our conifers, mainly the ones in the grove opposite The Mount. But I also checked the pines that surround the Redemptoristine Convent, especially where they slope down towards the river. All I saw were the gleaming red lights bouncing off our "curious noctural grazing deer". No Long nor Short Eared owls. No Saw Whets either. Fr. Gene has told me that the huge conifers between our two entrances along 9 W have "hosted owls" in past years. I will check tomorrow. There are mere patches of snow on our fields and meadows. I would like just one good week of snowshoeing. Let's see what the midnight brings.

GIANT "WELCOMING ESOPUS OAK

This oak I guess was "born" more or less when we bought 200 of these 400 or so acres from Robert Livingstong Pell in 1904. I see it as "welcoming". It welcomes all who come to see our beatiful property, to look at our birds, our deer, our abundant wildlife...It ALSO "has welcomed" many of my Redemptorist brothers and sisters who have been lain to rest in our Mt. St. Alphonsus Cemetery which is located just northwest of the orchards and just above one of the two large ponds that then feed off through the pastures into the Acre Pond.

Just southeast of our orchard with this imposing oak is the remaining silo of a barn torn down last year. It will be rebuilt way out in Montana I am told. Well, that barn and the horse stables where a "much younger Hudson River Birder worked".... that will be for a future blog. Please be patient (as those phone messages always tell us).

JEALOUS OF CENTRAL PARK

The disadvantage of being a birder here at The Mount is that our property from Highway 9 W to the River is about a half mile wide. The reason for this title, Jealous of Central Park is that my friends, Bob and Deb De Candido, Brian and others have been seeing these White Winged Crossbills for the last month "down there". But up here, scouring as I am our Conifers, and we do have many, I have yet to see one. We have "barrels" of Eastern Bluebirds. The Red Winged Blackbirds have been down on our marshes leading into the Acre Pond. We have many Downy Woopeckers as well as Red Bellied, Flickers and at least one Piliated Woodpecker that nests near the dock on the Hudson. So maybe I shouldn't be complaining. But I am! I don't know that the Central Park Owlers would consider it ethical. But I have this nice big flashlight. And I plan to check our conifer spots tonight around 10pm. If I "hear a hoot" that flashlight will light him/or her...up. Well, just for enough time for me to see them...

This is the first time in the ten years that I have been back from the Dominican Republic that I "am truly enjoying winter". I really am. Buying these snowshoes was the best investment in my winter health and good cheer I could have ever made. Many times I have seen our or an "other" Bald Eagle overhead or one of our local immature, maybe first year Red Tailed Hawk...right overhead. God bless winter...and the other three seasons that will follow.

My Friends Brian, Bob and Debra

B

Today I added a link to my favorites. It is to Debra Allen's Bird Photography Site. Bob De Candido and Debra are well known birders in Central Park, NYC. I met them in 1997 when I was up on a inner city parish mission in Bushwick-Brooklyn and East Harlem. It was September. I had discovered a nice old set of binoculars and wandered over to Central Park where I discovered the "Hawk Watchers" (..and "Counters"..) On the top level of Belvedere Castle (which is right below the park's Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, and right beside the Delacourt Theatre Bob, Debra, my friend Brian and many others like Richard, Eva, Lloyd,.... watched the huge Fall Migration of Raptors. I was "hooked on hawks", and I was making some nice new friends like Bob, Debra and Brian who has also come to see our Esopus lands here at The Mount. Bob and Debra are also naturalists. Debra is a wonderful nature photographer as you will see when you visit her website. Both of them have spent time in Central America, in Thailand and in places like Pennsyalvania taking part in various studies of hawks, nesting habits and the like. Bob will just "love" my new gmail address. Because it has the name of a raptor that he and Debra are presently studying in New York City--- the American Kestrel or "sparrow hawk" as they are also known. When I lived in the South Bronx I discovered one of their nests and Bob and Debra came to photograph it. I never told them this. But I once wrote a story about Kenny and Katherine, two inner city kestrels that "watched people"....for instance....people like ME who were watching them.

ROBERT LIVINGSTON PELL

I would like to tell you something about how this Hudson River Birder got to live on this Hudson River-front property. I place I love to visit is what we used to call "Pells". It is the northern-most border of our property that was owned until 1904 by Robert Livingston Pell. Nearer to On that property which had at one time ten artificial lakes back in the 1800's Pell grew grapes, and planted the famous apple called the "New Town Pippin". He sold the best apples for as much $30 per barrel. He had at one time 20,000 of these apple trees 40 years old. The first and second quality apples were barreled. And with the third quality apples he at one time produced at one time 300,000 barrels of cider. In 1908 my Redemptorist missionary congregation acquired the Pell Estate and in 1908 built in Mt. St. Alphonsus ("The Mount") which one of us once called My Grey Grandmother on the Hudson. It was a seminary until 1987 and then became this Retreat Center, continuing to be....."a wildlife and scenic wonder.."

These apple trees are about all we are growing these days. As I said they are near our Giant Oak. We have been told that our soil is wonderfully rich. What Pell did in the last century seems to bear this out. (People from winery have encouraged us to grow grapes that, they say, would produce a tasy Pinot Noir wine. Maybe it will happen.) Meanwhile I visit the grave of Amanda on the small cemetery that must have been one of the young daughters of those who worked for the Pells. I say, Amanda, what do you think is going to happen to this beautiful land that your family worked so long ago. It is as beautiful as ever. You remember the Eastern Bluebirds, Amanda? Well, for many years they disappeared from here. But about ten years ago people began placing birdhouse. Now they are the delight of our winter.

OUR "GIANT ESOPUS OAK AND THE FALLEN "ACRE SHACK"

Next to our nice old apple orchards (the few that survive the great Robert Livingston Pell era) ,stands this truly enormous oak. It has to be over a hundred years old, measuring some 23 feet around. It is one of the many wonderful symbols of strength , beauty and survival that surround us here at The Mount. However, sadly, not ALL survives !!!

You can see, even in the winter, the boards in the snow that are the last remains of what we used to call The Acre Shack when we played hockey, skated at night, traded gifts at Christmas and grew in affection for this wonderful Hudson River landscape..

Bro. Charlie's Wood Duck nest (an image of which is someplace on this blog) is right up to the right of where the Shack was standing. Charlie constructed the nest recent years long after the beavers, erosion and wind had flooded the Acre Shack which eventually fell.

The Acre Shack fell. But now we and our neighbors have a wonderful two lake wetland with plenty of ducks. (There are Black Ducks wintering on the stream that feeds the Acre Pond). It is so very apt the name of our great conservancy group in this area: Scenic Hudson. IT TRULY IS!!!

ALPHIE, POSSUMS AND OUR "ALBINO SKUNK"

I am patiently...waiting and hoping no one chooses BORED or CONFUSED as their reaction to this Hudson River Birder.
And so...let me tell you, in order about some of the "critters" we have on our Esopus land here looking right up the Hudson to the Esopus Lighthouse, which is on a diagonal from our main building or Norrie's Yacht Basin which is straight across the Hudson from us. Esopus Island is on a diagonal about southeast of us.
1. ALPHIE: is Fr. Gene's nearly eight month old female Black Labrador. She probably knows our property better than any of us. She now knows what a possum is and that they are not good to eat. She has seen but wisely not chased our herd of wild turkeys. And she has had at least two "uncomfortable encounters with......our
2. ALBINO SKUNK: Yes, there are albino skunks. (There is even a quite famous "albino squirrel" over in Tillson which has not been seen recently. The snow might have something to do with this.... )Our albino skunk, after these two encounters has not succeeded in convincing Alphie that skunks are not nice to "hang around with". Well, hopefully Alphie will learn as we all do.
3. JUNCOS: Juncos are birds that are like "little maitre des" They seem to get a nicer darker coat as winter wears on...or "wears out". And their neat white chest sometimes looks like a swell tuxedo to me. During my morning walk they flitter from bush to bush just ahead of me. The Eastern Bluebirds and Tufted Titmouses (Titmice???) as well as the ever present Black Capped Chickadees, and White Breasted Nuthatches "hang out" with them.
4. OUR EAGLE FAMILY: About three years ago an Audubon person from across the river spotted nesting eagles on our property. He has tagged some of the hatched eagletts and protected the nest also for which we (and the eagles) are very grateful.
5. BRO. CHARLIE'S WOOD DUCK HOUSE: Two of our largest ponds left over from the Pell Estate era in the last century have been host to, well, of course our "over eager beavers" who have damned them and damned them again. But many migrating ducks including Woodducks have "passed through". Our now deceased Bro. Charlie Summers constructed a very good Woodduck Nesting House and placed it at what we considered the proper distance from the pond, the proper height (about 10 feet) and with the entrance facing "away" from the pond. I have snowshoed many times up past it on route to the old Pell Barn (now fallen) and the little old cemetery that has graves of people born as early as 1732. But so far I don't think any wooducks have checked in. (Maybe this has something to do with the housing market.)

MY FRIEND SKIP

I never fully appreciated the wildlife here at THE MOUNT when I spent six years here about....40 years ago. I still remember that my friend Felo nearly went into ecstasy when he saw an osprey down the river near the entrance to Black Creek. He was raised in South Florida where ospreys, great fishers just enjoy the inter coastal waterways with so much to eat. A few years ago we had Wood Ducks here. So Bro. Charlie (now in the great "Wildnerness Beyond") designed a Wood Duck house which Fr. Tom later assembled and placed just away from our "Acre Pond" Well, that's what WE used to call it. Well, now that I live here I have met Skip Doyle who was born and raised right near here in Port Ewen. He has helped me learn to love and appreciate the beauty of my new Hudson River home. Now the beavers (protected as they are) have had their way and damned it up uniting it to what was the next lake along our 9 W property here in Esopus. They tell us that Arthur Pell the former owner of this and much more Esopus land had many artificial lakes on this property. There remain. let me think... about about 5 today. That was before 1908.

I don't have any pictures yet. But please be patient. There is still snow on the ground. But I will be walking and snapping photos so you can see what a great piece of God's creation THE MOUNT is. We used to help with the little Black Angus cows. Fr. Charlie who lives here now was one of the "seminarian farmers" in those days.