Adirondack LettersNo.12: A Chickadee Story. Hints of Balsam and Pine: Nature Reflections in a minor key from our quiet corner of the Adirondacks. For Fourpeaks Guests and anyone who ever dreamed about a wilderness getaway. CLICK & GO! (On this page.) Adirondack Letter No.12: "A Chickadee Story." More stuff in An Adirondack Miscellany. (On the next page.) Chickadees in Winter. List and Links to all the Adirondack Letters in this series. 
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to get on our mailing listAnd receive occasional Adirondack Letters like this. "A Chickadee Story" Adirondack Letter No.12 Subject: "A Chickadee Story." Adirondack Letter No.12 Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 18:37:33 From: Your Adirondack Guide < Martin@4peaks.com > To: Fourpeaks Visitors At: < youremailname@youremail.address > Dear Fourpeaks Visitor, November a couple of years ago I remember things didn't feel right. The air was cold and the forest world all around was already bare and still--you could see right through it to the end. But something was wrong. The flock of small black and grey birds that gathered every year at the lilac by the Stone House back door was nowhere to be seen. At first I blamed myself for not putting out the Winter feed early enough. The large clear plastic holder let out seeds from the bottom. Maybe they weren't visible enough. I got the big sack of mixed oily black and striped sunflower seed from the cellar bin and added an extra amount all around the perch. Maybe the hop vines scared them off, so I cut all that away. I worried about them through most of December. I put another feeder on the garden fence as well. Maggie made it as a sixth grader on a weekend visit to the Wildlife Center in Newton with a new friend from school. They worked with twigs, split oak and found woods pieces with the help of a young nature instructor. There was a sizeable gap through which some seed would always fall. All by itself on the corner of the fence with seed drizzled about and lots of air space around, they found that first. It took a week. There was only two, the lead couple from a nearby forest flock on a search for food. I refilled that crude inefficient feeder many times. By January the pair had found the big seed store. Soon they brought along a half dozen more of their frail fellow creatures. I added a tray of peanut-suet mix. Their numbers were nowhere as many as in former years. But it grew in time and things were again as they should be at a Northcountry home in Winter. A year ago I took up living at camp for good. When the time came I struggled with the choices. Bird feeders I used for years were lost like many other personal favorites in the maelstrom of a broken marriage. I checked out the Aubuchon in town and found quite a number of efficient models in plastic and steel. Then there were a few of the little painted wooden houses. The Agway in Plattsburgh had an even larger selection. One looked like it could hold a quarter bushel with lots of little perches arranged all up and down the long see-through tube that held the seed. Removeable too for convenient refilling. None of them felt like camp. One day a 2-1/2 gallon water jug from the recycling bin, some scraps of pine and an old broomstick I saved just fell together for a perfect camp bird feeder. I nailed it up outside the office window at Camp Barn. Low cost, created in such a totally accidental manner and in very little time--it fit right in at once. This time I remembered the method for attracting a new flock. I broadcast a generous amount of seed all around the drive in front plus even more at the tractor side shed to help them find it. It took a while and I worried same as before. But Eric assured me our Adirondack woods have an active chickadee population in all seasons and this store would surely find some happy customers. Soon pecking noises with an occasional loud thud regularly pierced the quiet. Tiny compact bodies poised over the seed. Hulls cracked with a swift blow. Watching them endlessly dart back and forth from pine to perch became a favorite winter pastime. George watched the busy feeder from the window in the sun. See it now at his "Office" webpage http://4peaks.com/ftramp02.htm Forty degrees today. Water is dripping from the roof edge like rain, running off the ice sheet right into the shed. The frost is out at Stonehouse Road and I'm mudded in. Soon they'll pair off to raise a family in the dark woods, each couple in their own secluded place, separate from the flock all Summer long. We'll miss them. But we'll be sure the feeder is full again come Fall. CLICK http://4peaks.com/fkchick.htm for more about our chickadees plus a poem. Thanks for reading this. If you've ever been a guest here, go to http://4peaks.com/fgift.htm for a earnest invitation to visit us again. If you've never been--check our up-to-date Availability Calendar http://4peaks.com/femail0.htm and make some time. There's a lovely quiet season coming up. Till then please visit On-Line: http://4peaks.com/ "Explore our 700-acre rest and play-ground." http://4peaks.com/fcamp.htm Pretty Camps in a Hidden Valley. http://4peaks.com/fotrails.htm Walks with views & Beauty spots. http://4peaks.com/fgstbndx.htm Photo Guest Book--Meet our guests! http://4peaks.com/fk5stay.htm NEW! "Stay Awhile In Style" Your Adirondack Guide, Martin Schwalbaum P.S. If you liked this Letter, tell a friend. CLICK to Recommend-It! http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=174630 If you didn't like it please send it back (reply) with "REMOVE" in the subject heading. Thanks. Member Whiteface Mountain Visitors Bureau Member Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau ****************************************************************** This is No.12 of a really occasional Letter, "Hints of Balsam and Pine from our Corner of the Adirondacks," for Fourpeaks guests or anyone who ever inquired about a Fourpeaks Vacation/Getaway. To see them all CLICK HERE http://4peaks.com/fkhint.htm To get off our list send this letter back (reply) with "REMOVE" in the subject heading. ******************************************************************  Fourpeaks Chickadee Bird Feeder. These hardy little birds keep us company through the long Adirondack Winters. We help them out with a generous handout of sunflower seed all winter long. CLICK HERE for Feeding Birds in Winter: The Black-capped Chickadee, to learn about their social behavior and aptations. It's fascinating. CLICK HERE for A Chickadee Story about our Fourpeaks Chickadees at Camp Barn. CLICK HERE for more views of our feeder and how you can make one yourself at very little cost. And CLICK HERE for a poem about them.
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to get on our mailing listAnd receive occasional Adirondack Letters like this.  An Adirondack Miscellany Newspaper and Magazine articles, Books and lots more. January 1998 Ice storm of the Century Devastates Northcountry. May 1998 Town of Jay Happy 200th Birthday Party at the 1829 Southmayd Stone House June 1998 Natives and Outsiders at the Jay Old Covered Bridge. July 1777 Jane McCrae Murdered by Indians in Ft. Edward NY Adirondack Great Camps: Adventures in the Wilderness. Miss P, the famous www.Internet web purrcat, interviews Tramp, our Fourpeaks barking cocker. Ironman USA comes to Fourpeaks. Chickadees In Winter Flying Critters on your Adirondack Vacation. Adirondack Letters: "Hints of Balsam and Pine from our corner of the Adirondacks." AuSable River Swimming: Where the Pools Are Never Crowded, And Water Slides Are Nature's Own (New York Times) A new novel about Fourpeaks: Moss Krupnick's Daughters of Utopia, 196 pages, $9.98 For your Adirondack experience--"Stay Awhile In Style!" Plattsburgh-Republican November 2002. NATURE WITHIN REACH: Luxury Camping. (July 2004, Southwest Airlines SPIRIT (In-flight Magazine.) Annual Jay Yard Sale. (First Sale August 19, 2006.) Glamping. (Glamorous Camping.) (Jan-Feb, Nov-Dec 2008, Women's Adventure Magazine.) .  Are you in this picture? Fourpeaks hosts now welcome paying guests to a 700-acre rest and playground for vacations in the Adirondack Great Camp tradition. Couples appreciate Fourpeaks secluded settings. Outdoor loving families have fun exploring our accessible wilderness. Folks with dogs enjoy the open spaces to run their pets. A private nature rereat. For a vacation away from it all. Are you in this picture? CLICK HERE to find out! [More about this at Frequently Asked Questions.]  Inquire about a Fourpeaks Adirondack Vacation/Getaway. (Easy Inquiry Form.)
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