Thank you!

The Honey Sale at the Holiday Gift Shop went fantastic! 

A special thank you to Cameron and Marianne and Marta and Lidia for all their enthusiasm, time and inspiration. The crafts and balloons and equipment were amazing!

Also, a special thank you to all of you who purchased some honey. 

I hope you are enjoying it. 

A portion of the proceeds will be used to purchase 2 packages of bees, the box and hive and training through Heifer International (www.heifer.org/bees)

Be on the lookout for fun information regarding bees in the coming blog entries.

Wishing you a wonderful Holiday!

Little Humbugs!

As a follow up for the Holiday Shop Honey Sale and Pollinator Information Sharing, I thought I would for the next few posts, share some fun pollinator sites that are children friendly and also informative and very much worth a visit.

On this site, they provide a little downloadable booklet about how to save pollinators, providing beautifully illustrated pictures and excellent information: http://www.littlehumbugs.com/pollinators.html.
Enjoy!

Bee cartoons!

After the last two visits, I see why bee doesn’t drop in on grandpa more often.

An interesting take on the troubles bees are having. 


Below is the link to the site for more fun cartoons:
http://joemohrtoons.com/category/hank-d-and-the-bee/

Save the Bees!

My friend's son, Cameron, has been so very excited and eager to learn more about bees and to help me sell my honey, as he is quite the salesman.

On Friday, December 9th, at his elementary school, they have a holiday shop, where the children can come and purchase reasonably priced gifts for their parents, friends and siblings and he and his mother have invited me to participate. Cameron and his friend, Lidia, have made amazing bee crafts too, including bee necklaces, bee headbands and bee ornaments and Lidia will offer bee nails.

They also created an amazing information board as they are more concerned with getting the word out about saving bees and other pollinators than making money!

Stay posted for more information about how to save the bees!

Pink Footed Goose Sighting

Curiosity got the best of me today. 

There have been loads of cars parked down by the reservoir of Pine Run and I thought they might be hunters but instead they were BIRDWATCHERS! What a pleasant surprise! Cars from all over including several from Maryland.

After investigating, they are on the lookout for the

Pink footed Goose 

which normally lives in Greenland, where it nests on cliffs next to glaciers

 and migrates and over winters in northwestern Europe.

Here is a video of one swimming and walking - note the feet are not so very pink!
http://ibc.lynxeds.com/video/pink-footed-goose-anser-brachyrhynchus/bird-swimming-walking

There have been a few sightings the past several years in PA dating back to 1997. (see http://www.dvoc.org/DelValBirding/Species/PinkFootedGoose.htm)

I was curious how the word gets out and I found this site: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/PENN.html#1322742016

Also, a local birder had more information about this event on his blog: http://birdchaser.blogspot.com/2011/11/pine-run-pink-footed-goose.html

This is quite an exciting moment for birders and we were told if the goose stays longer we can expect folks from all over as far and wide as from CA coming to get a glimpse, since it such a rare event.

Happy Goose Watching!

October Snow brings more tricks than treats!

"It was only going to be a dusting!" 

I happened to just catch a snippet of the news on Friday afternoon and was shocked to see a snow storm headed our way with 6 - 12 inches forecasted. Friday night was spent putting on the snow blade in the dark, just in case, and it was a good thing as we woke up on Saturday, October 29th to heavy snow falling -

Note that most of the trees still have leaves. 

Power went out around noon and as we meandered around the house to past the time, we suddenly heard an abrupt knocking at the window and were shocked to see some wild turkeys pecking and eating some berries that had fallen from the Green Hawthorne tree.

 As startled as we were, they headed off towards the woods, past the truck,   . . .

 . . . leaving these huge tracks behind. Stepping outside to take these photos, you could hear branches crashing through out the woods. 

The next day, we had bright sunshine, clear blue skies and brilliant white snow  . .  .

 . .  but we could then see all the damage . . .

We lost about 10 branches total, many falling from the tops of the trees and bringing other branches down as they fell. One massive branch from the old maple covered the driveway. 

We were fortunate though, as many folks were out of power for days or lost entire trees. 

Below is a snowfall total from Accuweather for the Northeast breaking records everywhere. No one in this area we talked to can even recall having snow in October. 

Apparently, power outages have increased in our area by 60% in the last few years. 

Is it system issues or more intense storms?

Funky Fungi

Earlier this fall, between September 8 and 9, Tropical Storm Lee passed through, bringing buckets and buckets of rain, dumping over 7 inches and causing flooding throughout the Delaware Valley region and beyond. Normally, in early September, we have about 42 inches for the year but this year we had over 49 inches. 

This excess has also translated into more fungi and mushrooms to enjoy, such as  . . .

Elegant Stinkhorn (Mutinus elegans)

The top of it is covered in brown spores that are spread 

by insects, that are attracted to it

 due to its strong smell. 

  . . . and this Brain Fungus - not its official name - it is hard and hand sized and grows up in the grass. It had bites in it from the deer but must not be too tasty as it was left for not . . 

 . . . and these Puffballs - they were all over in various shapes and sizes. This one is hand sized and stalked. They are of the division of fungus called Basidiomycota and produce a cloud of brown dust like spores called statismospores as seen below when you step or poke at it. 

 . . . and also this type of  Puffball, but it is not stalked and grows up 

from the ground on a small stem that dies away. 

Here are a couple online mushroom identification guides:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/major_groups.html

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mushroom_cap_morphology2.png