Kathy Feeney’s March robins

Kathy Feeney of Buxton called me over the March 5 weekend to report that she heard a new sound at her backyard bird feeders and was surprised and thrilled to see a flock of robins on the ground eating seeds.

That’s the first report we’ve heard of robins this early. I certainly hope they found a shelter from all our heavy snowstorms, however.

A few reports on weather

We just read a Sept. 5, 2001, American Journal that told of Nancy Dacar’s attendance at a national convention of the American Legion in San Antonio, Texas, and during the big Sunday parade there the weather was 107 degrees. Although the route was eight-tenths of a mile long, Nancy said it seemed like eight miles. Young boys in uniforms kept running out with cold bottled water as the Legionnaires marched on the hot, black asphalt in their navy blue jackets and caps.

But Nancy, a Mainer, has been enduring this stormy weather here, along with the rest of us. The March 13 Maine Sunday Telegram reported that the winter’s total snowfall in Portland is about 103 inches. Our snow total in Portland’s Saturday storm was about 13 inches.

We heard from Alice Gamage Allen, who now lives in Sebago, that in the last storm their power was out for 30 hours. She was fortunate that her son Neal, in the house next door, had a generator. They had no trouble with power outages this last weekend, except for the heavy mounds of snow falling at times. It was a pretty storm, with huge flakes of snow falling at times. Harry Foote called it the most visible snowstorm he has ever seen.

Betty Halloran Kennedy of South Portland is just back home after a lovely week in Sarasota, Fla., with her son and his wife, in their second home there. She flew from Portland to their Pennsylvania home and joined them there to continue on to Florida. So she had a nice change. Also Chester and Dot Knowles of Scarborough have had a week’s vacation in Vero Beach, Fla., for a family reunion with my former Maine friends Bill and Barb Knowles Merrill at the Merrill home there. Chester and Barb’s sister Nancy and her husband of Arizona joined them there too. Doesn’t that sound exciting?

We’ve heard comments in TV reports and newspaper articles that many older people, out shoveling again, are sick and tired of all this snow. When will it stop? But a young mother on the ski slopes said she loves it. “It’s awesome,” she said with a smile. The reporter also asked her small son, on his skis, what he thought about the cold, snowy weather, and his reply? “It’s awesome,” he also said with a big smile.

We know that the calendar date for spring is coming right up, March 20. So theoretically we should not expect much more snow.

Hungry owls were invading Minnesota

We read in the March 8 New York Times that Minnesota is being invaded by owls, from the spruce belt that ranges across the top of the Northern Hemisphere. They have been driven south by a crash in the population of rodents, in particular red-backed and meadow voles and mice, the favorite food of the great gray owl. More than 2,000 of these owls, along with 200 hawk owls and 300 boreal owls are being reported.

Ornithologists and birders call this an irruption, and this one is of historic proportions.

Vole populations fluctuate according to weather conditions. Cold, wet weather is bad for their food supply and bad for the voles.

The owls have also been moving into northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Also in southern Ontario there are now hundreds of great gray owls.

The article says that, as the owls are following the rodents, birders are following the owls. The birders are from both coasts and other countries.

Sadly, nearly 500 owls have been found dead, hit by cars. They have little experience with automobiles in the far north.

Some of the survivors are being nurtured back to health at the University of Minnesota’s raptor center.

The article on owls has beautiful pictures of the birds at the top of the five-column story, and the diet which each species prefers is written under these pictures.

Lucretia Douglas writes about poison ivy

I always enjoy the weekly column by Lucretia Douglas in the Bridgton News. It is entitled “Cricket,” and Lucretia’s road in Sebago is Cricket Lane. She and her late husband worked for many years on their farmland, raised cattle and tended large gardens.

This is her article about avoiding poison ivy:

Warning

If you have been clearing brush along roads or stone walls, be sure to scrub yourself with yellow laundry soap, if you can any, and rinse thoroughly, as protection against poison ivy. I always used Fels Naphtha soap, but can’t find it anymore. You have to do it just as soon as you finish the job – don’t wait.

Recipe

For years we enjoyed stuffed eggs my mother prepared for picnics and parties. This recipe from Lucretia Douglas’s Bridgton News column, adds a few extra, besides just mayonnaise and perhaps a little mustard. It sounds tempting, but if I make it, I’ll have to eliminate the garlic powder, as one member of my family dislikes garlic (even a quarter teaspoon).

Lucretia’s recipe

Here’s a different version of deviled eggs.

The day before serving, hard cook two dozen large eggs.

On the day of serving, cut eggs in half, lengthwise. Remove yolks to small bowl and mash.

Add a half cup mayonnaise, a quarter cup stuffed green olives, 1 tsp. oregano, a half teaspoon salt, a quarter teaspoon black pepper, and a quarter teaspoon garlic powder.

Mix well. Fill whites with yolk mixture and refrigerate until serving time. Arrange on platter, garnish with a few sprigs of parsley.

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