Winter

Here it is the 28th Day of February and it was a cool -40 F this morning as I drink my first cup of coffee. Life in the far north, has it's drawbacks. And this is one of them for sure. I'm looking forward to the lengthening daylight, and a lessening of the extreme cold with the slow slide into spring. It reminds me of that old Johnny Horten Song, "when it's spring time in Alaska, it's 40 below"

Help in Identification

Hello Robert,

I wonder if I could impose on you to post something on your blog for me regarding bird information. Here, in NC, we have an incident of what we believe to be poisonings of song birds. Nice, folks, huh? I park in a parking lot in downtown Raleigh (capital city) and we have been finding little piles of saltine crackers with some blue substance either smeared or dribbled onto the crackers. We believe that this is an effort to poison birds that sit in these trees and, naturally, occasionally poop on the cars beneath them. I have called in our state Pesticide investigative personnel, but they've never seen anything like this and the lab does not have the capability of testing for just any substance, so if we have some sort of lead, something someone else has encountered or seen to point us in the direction of what kind of substance this is, would be very helpful. We have racked our brains and just can't come up with anything that would be of a benign nature that is this color that anyone could be putting out for the birds. There has been some heated discussion in years past among some of the patrons of this parking lot pertaining to the yearly and seasonal presence of cedar waxwings that come through about this time of year in flocks and feast on berries on the downtown landscape trees. I think it is extremely coincidental that these mysterious crackers would appear just at the time these birds come through this year. Any help you or your readers could offer would be just wonderful.

Kathy
--
Kathy Imbriani
Laboratory Research Specialist
NCDA & CS
Plant Industry Division
216 W. Jones St.
Raleigh, NC 27603

Mailing Address:
1060 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699

919-733-3930 x 225
kathy.imbriani@ncmail.net

Cold snap

The permafrost crop is blooming, with this latest cold snap we have had. Last night, the tempertures dropped down to a cool -48 degrees F. No matter how one looks at it, that is cold. Extreme cold and its suppose to fall in the same range tonight.

Red Squirrel

Here is a shot of todays little Red Squirrel who visits my feeder. Even if it's cold here on the Permafrost Ranch, they always come for something to eat.

Midnight Sun Intertribal Powwow's New Blog

Greetings from far frozen north, it was a cool -38 degrees when I first got up this morning. I spent the better part of yesterday putting up a new blog for the Midnight Sun Intertribal Powwow, and here is the addy for those who want to share:

www.midnightsunpowwow.net/blog/

bob

Yaeagunah Ajahyeegee

A friend of mines music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmVkuXlktEk&mode=related&search=

Life on the Permafrost Ranch

Sorry Readers, I've not blogged any new pics or comments in quite the while. I guess it better to remain silent and be thought the fool, than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt. :-)