Friday, May 17, 2019

More EcoEcho Excursions: Hearing the Lynx "call" and Seeing the Swainson's Thrush

So if I had not listened to the Lynx calls on youtube, as I had been researching the scat as the corroboration of the tracks that went into the tree (and vanished my chipmunks) then I would have been greatly awed and scared. I think I did hear this Lynx call once before a couple years ago - I remember distinctly being really freaked out - what the hell was that? I remember thinking. Now I knew but still I was totally amazed by this strange call that is a cross between a Bigfoot monster and and old pissed off lady. So to hear those Lynx calls - I linked them on the old post from several days ago - linked above.

And I did hear the Swainson's Thrush again in the night - and remembered - they did sing nocturnally. But when I saw it today - then I remembered how actually seeing the bird is considered very rare. And I remembered how it likes to catch insects on the fly - sure enough - it did astounding air maneuvers. So like a Phoebe - but twice the size - pretty impressive. And to think this bird was flying over the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica probably just a week or two ago.

https://elixirfield.blogspot.com/2019/05/like-veery-in-reverse-rare-morning.html

So that confirmed my earlier blogpost on the Swainson's Thrush - good thing too since I never heard back from the "expert."

And so first thing I did when I got up to the mini-forest was an experiment in creating a "foundation" of adobe. I wanted a place on the ground that was a bit elevated off the watery grass forest-floor. So I bought some quickcrete cement but as I had researched - I only used about 1% into a mix of 4 to 5 buckets of clay (down to 2 buckets of clay) against 1 bucket of calcium carbonate (barn lime) and 2 buckets of dried horse manure. I mixed all these on a tarp.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the result - and when I tried a third batch - it was with a new bag of lime that had not been soaking. The lime that had soaked had turned "creamy" just as reported while the new bag was coarse. But with the creamy soaked lime then the adobe cob had an amazing creamy texture - and due to the fibers in the horse manure - with straw cut up - the clay did not crumble at all.

So then I put up that new tent I got for free on Craig's List - over the "screen" part of the adobe foundation floor. So I hope that the floor dries out as it is now covered. Except the screen walls can still let in rain - as it is supposed to rain tomorrow. But overall it should stay dry. I plan to then "cut out" - that other floor that is some toxic plastic - Polyethylene I think was the "tarp" floor used in the back half of the tent. The fumes are really toxic. But since I made that adobe floor foundation - then I can get rid of the toxic floor.

And then if that works out - as my adobe batch experiment - then I can start building a Kang bed stove heater - using the same mix.

And then I did 4 more logs of Shiitake on Birch - using the Solar Oven to heat up the wax to cover up the holes I drilled with the Bauer - special drill bit for Shiitake.

Then I talked to a Chinese restaurant - they said they pay $10 a pound for dried Shiitake (Chinese Black Mushroom) that they get wholesale - so it's the chemical laden sawdust shroom from China.

Anyway we'll see about marketing these shrooms if I get any harvested this fall. I did also soak some logs - as it had not rained much at all. But it is supposed to rain tomorrow.

I didn't hear the Flicker woodpecker again and the cowbird was around a bit - not in the forest but on the edge where the utility company clear a swath of trees under the electrical lines. So that new clearing attracted the cowbird.

And the Veery has not returned yet - although it returned last summer after I saw it my first summer there in 2017. Or was it a Veery couple. I'm not sure, exactly.

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