T Stands for Happy Birdday and Beeday

    Hi everyone. Happy new week to you.  It's also time for T over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog  so hello to everyone who stops by for T day.

    Last week was my birthday. My big event ended up being on an absolutely gorgeous day (50 degrees F/10 degrees C) with blue skies and no wind. It was even better since this day was squeezed in between a couple of snow events. March is so bi-polar like that, isn't it? At least in my area  it can mean 6 inches/ 15 cm of snow one day and then true spring weather the next.

   Anyhow, my birthday was a gorgeous day, and I didn't have anything going on. No was around and available to do anything either, but I was OK with that. I decided I wanted to go on one more snowy owl hunt down at Salisbury State Reservation in Massachusetts before the season was over. I brought the dogs with me because even if it wasn't a good birding day, we could at least go out for  a walk.

   It ended up being a fantastic birding day but because of all the fresh snow melting, as well as the full moon and it being a really high tide (spring tide), it ended being a terrible walking day. (Well terrible in the fact that had I walked the dogs, my car would have been a disaster zone with water, mud and sand.  And it already is a dog hair disaster zone 😉). I'm sure the dogs would have preferred a walk to my looking at birds. 

 The first bird I saw when driving in was a raven. Then I pulled into a parking area where there were a couple of cars. A man walking to his car told me I should go over to where the 2 women were standing because there was a barred owl visible from there.

   If I saw no other birds that day I would be thrilled because I really like owls. Even though I've seen barred owls a few times (there is even a pair that nests in the woods near my house but I rarely get to see them close up), and even though I hear them a lot, they are pretty spectacular birds.

  On my way back to my car I decided to walk a snowy trail out towards the marsh. There were a lot of ducks out there, but then I spotted something that didn't look quite like a duck nor a mound of grass.

   I used my camera's zoom to see that far off,  and the lump was the Northern Harrier that lives on the marsh.  But wait, is she sitting on a nest? Maybe. I looked it up when I got home, and these birds  nest on land in marshy areas. And in Massachusetts, they start nesting in March.  Plus the nests I saw online did look like this mound.  I'm not sure so I will have to go back  another day to see if there is a Harrier in this spot.

    With the fresh snow the views were nice too. (Although at this point spring  views would be better than snowy views...)

Ha ha.  I'd offer you a seat  so you can soak in some sunshine and enjoy the beautiful day, but I think the seats might be cold and a little wet. 

   This next photo is usually a parking lot and is usually filled with lots of gulls, but on that day it was a field of fresh snow but still filled with lots of gulls.

   When I went to leave I saw some orange traffic cones along the road and a few people there. I parked the car and walked over and asked what people were looking at. I was told there was a long eared owl in the trees.

   I never did see more than the top of the back of the  head and the ears. But since I have never seen a long eared owl before, I'm OK with that. And besides, seeing 2 different species of owls in 1 day was definitely something to celebrate. 

   One woman told me that there are 3 long eared owls that nest in this area, so you can guess I am going to go back and see if I can see more of one of them some other time. 👍

   Before I left for my owl hunt, I went down and shoveled out in front of the bee hive. There was quite a lot of snow down there, and since it was going to be warm, I thought there might be some bee action. Although there were no bees in the snow  before I shoveled, shoveling made more room for them to maneuver in and out of the hive enclosure.

    There's definitely some life in the hive since they did a huge amount of hive cleaning that day. This (photo above) was the view below the hive entrance the next day. I'm not sure whether it's the variety of honey bees I have right now  (Caucasian- A.m. caucaia) , whether it's the temporary winter shelter my husband put up, or a combo of both, but I'm happy they made it because this was one long and very cold winter. Whichever it is, I'm happy see all these signs of life.

    Even better, since today (Monday 3/9) it was warm,  there were lots of bees buzzing around outside. 😀👍❤

   Since this is T day, I need to share a drink. 

   This past Saturday my husband and I took a trip out to my daughter's home which is about 2 hours west of us in New Hampshire. We were going to have a family birthday celebration for me.  I haven't seen my daughter since Christmas, so it was nice to visit. Later in the day we all went out to dinner (my husband, my daughter, my son-in-law and me).  Here's my drink with my meal.

   I went with a beer because I figured it wouldn't be as strong as a cocktail style drink. The menu didn't list any alcohol volumes for the beers, and I thought I'd try this stout. Ha ha. I didn't realize it was 10% alcohol. Luckily I wasn't driving, and I had enough food that it didn't go to my head. 😉

   We went to a restaurant that was new for my husband and myself, but one my daughter likes to eat at. Even though they are not near the ocean, the restaurant is on a lake.

   My daughter raves about the chicken tenders. I noticed on the specials menu that night they had a combo meal: chicken tenders, haddock nuggets and clams. We were celebrating my birthday so I decided to go for it. I haven't had any fried clams since last summer, and they are a favorite of mine.

    I actually liked the fish and the clams better than the chicken, but the chicken was still delicious. And even better, it was a big enough meal that I could take half of it home for dinner the next night. :😀

   That's it for me. Have a great start to your week and Happy T day too.