Brownheaded Cowbirds

Bitter cold rain again.  At the feeder at Ginty Creek, brownheaded cowbirds have arrived.

They are parasitic – they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests.  The other birds must rear their enormous chicks and their own chicks are either evicted or smothered.  They are called cowbirds as they like to sit on cows’ backs (or on moose or deer) and eat the insects flushed out of the grass by the animals.  They are constantly displaying to their brown ladyfriends.  They give a thin whistle and a sort of curtsey.

Solar power batteries

It was too miserable to work outside, so I did some maintenance on my solar power system.  Here are the deep-cycle, 6-volt batteries that store the power from the solar panels and drive this computer.

Framing a room in the basement at Ginty Creek

Then Mogens and I started framing a room in the basement.