Catching up

Over the past few weeks, I've become the owner of the cabin that I've posted about and that has taken up much of my time. Once I got the banking together it was a several day wait to get all of the details and paper work ready, but on January 16th, I signed the closing documents.

Because it is just a shell at this point, much of the time spent has been getting permits together and planning out the work that needs to be done. I've started on the electrical work, but it does go slow.

Travel time up is three and a half hours and without lights or heat it takes planning to make a trip worth while. I am excited about having this size of a project and really want to do as much of the finish work myself as is possible - for the experience if nothing else.

On a different note, as I sat working and catching the birds back and forth to the feeder, I noticed that my Titmouse count is up 6 or seven at times. The cardinal pair has been in and of course the chickadees. There's a light snow falling and they can sense the coming colder weather forcast for the week so I'm sure they'll be stocking up all day.

Every Journey

One of my tasks for the year is to work on my photo collection of raptors. Luckily, today, I was in the right place at the right time and "captured" this Red Tailed Hawk as the first of what hopefully will be many steps along the way for completing this task.

While it may seem that blogging is taking a back seat, rest assured, once I get the cabin purchase settled, all the permits are in place, and the weather begins to be reasonable, I'll be back much more.

Iceman cometh

Well, in one of the final insults to Winter, we got a wintry storm last night, but everything fell as sleet and freezing rain. I guess it did make for a wintry scene although the trees probably don;t appreciate it!

This N That Update

If it seems as if I've fallen into a snowbank and can't get blogging, that's only part of the picture. Actually, we've had very little to no snow here in Michigan, but I have been busy caught up in in the details of buying my "retirement cabin" in the north woods of Michigan. As this is the first property that I have ever purchased (my Bay City property is inherited), I had no idea all of the work that it takes to find some land, make and offer, get a down payment, get a loan for the balance, plan what to do next, and finally get to closing.

Well, I'm 99% of the way there and on Tuesday I should be the proud owner of 10 acres of forest with a new cabin shell waiting for my touch to finish it off! While I'm excited as all get out, the time it's taken to get to this point has sometimes been discouraging.

But finally, let the adventure in ownership begin anew!

Red Bird

Some of the regulars at my balcony feeder include a pair of cardinals. Everytime I see this brightly colored male cardinal visit my feeder, I can't help but to smile and stop to watch as he picks through the sunflower seeds before deciding which to take away to eat.

First Birds

I think of myself as primarily a field biology or naturalist, I also wish I was more of a birder than I am. More often than not, I only get a day or two to get out to find birds weekly. One of my resolutions for the New Year is to get out and about more.

Regardless, here's today's list of "accidental sightings" as I did not make any special efforts to get today:
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Mallard
Common Merganser
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
European Starling
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
House Sparrow

All of these were seen either at my balcony feeder or from the balcony window while I pretended to work! (Before you wonder, I can see the stretches of the Huron River from my windows!)

New Visitor to feeder

While it isn't anything unusual really, I started off the New Year with a new visitor to my balcony feeder:

but here is a Downy Woodpecker that found its way to the apple tree top outside my balcony and then appeared up on the feeder that I have outside my windows. Considering that I'm on the second floor, this is the first time that I've seen him stop by. I've got a steady stream of chickadees, titmice, blue jays, cardinals, and even crows, but this was an awesome sight just the same. I guess I'll have to whip up a batch of suet and see if I can keep him coming!