John Farrell’s blog

This is a picture of the light fixture moved from the Spangler home in Nazareth, PA to the Farrell home in Reisterstown, MD. Donna’s mother’s sister, Aunt Lucy, tells us this was a wedding present given to their mother by their father in 1916. It is believed to be an original Tiffany lamp but we have not figured out how to validate that, yet.

In the contract to sell the house, we named the light fixture as an item that would not stay with the house; nonetheless, the first offer made for the house stipulated the light fixture was an item to remain in the house. The offer was withdrawn before we could counter that the light fixture was not negotiable. Before this happens again, we replaced the light with the brass fixture from our dining room. Now that the light has a new home, Donna and Sarah have decided the dining room needs to be repainted to match the colors. Hope that doesn’t snowball…

The lighting fixture in the lamp had to be repaired before it was energized. The wires inside the fixture had frayed to expose the copper wires and start burning the insulation, which is not a good thing. I need to replace the wiring, which is at least 60 years old, but it will work for now. We also had to replace 4 of the 5 lamp bulbs because the glass and bases had come apart. I’m not sure how the light was working without starting a fire but it didn’t for which we are very thankful.

Here is the eagerly awaited Reisterstown Wildlife Habitat News update:

The major focus the past two weeks has been on the Bluebirds and the Baltimore Orioles. We can see the Orioles in the tree tops but still haven’t had too much success attracting them to the backyard habitat. We’ve tried everything: nectar water, oranges, orange marmalade, grape jelly, and orange suet. All the sure fire attractors haven’t worked. There must be something better in the neighborhood. I suspect they like the horse barn and fields across the street.

We did see where they have have built a nest in the top of a tree in our neighbors yard, which must be 50 feet from the ground. It’s hard to see the basket nest they build but here is the best picture I can get with a zoom lens. We keep trying. I even created a feeder with orange pieces in a nectar bath with grape jelly as the center piece. Come on, now, it can’t get any better than that, can it!?

For the past two weeks or so, the male and female bluebirds have worked tirelessly to feed the nestlings. Here is a video recording the female at work. You can hear the chirping of the little ones crying for food. When the female leaves the box, she has something white in her beak - she must be taking out the trash, which there must be a lot of with 5 baby birds in that small box.

Mother Bluebird feeding her nestlings! from John Farrell on Vimeo.

This goes on continuously throughout the day, rain or shine. This morning, the male bluebird was stuffing himself with mealworms to feed the nest, which he did several times. A short while later, we heard the Sparrows making a lot of noise at the nest. A quick check revealed the nestlings were gone. Now the Sparrows want to take over the box. I’ll clean the house out - hopefully the parents will build a new nest and repeat the cycle of life. Two years ago, they did that 4 times.

Donna’s Dad built another birdhouse this past week. It is sized for Chickadees, Nuthatches, etc. No birds have found it yet. The Wrens have several nests. They are building one in the small house over the arbor at the side entrance to the house, which is easy and fun to watch.

We’ve had so much rain and cool weather that the butterflies have been few and far between. The same can be said for the Hummingbirds. We expect the warmer Summer weather and blooming flowers will bring them out in great numbers. The trumpet vine is loaded with buds, which is a great attractor.

There is a lot that happened in our wildlife habitat this week:

The Bluebirds eggs must be hatching as the parents are busy going in and out.

I will try to get a picture of the nest later today.

The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have moved on to where ever they go from MD.

The Chickadee nest is empty so the eggs must have hatched while we were visiting Nazareth last week.

The Wrens and Sparrows are battling for nest space. The Sparrows tore apart a Wren nest in the pottery house near the side entrance to our home so the Wren took over a Sparrow nest in the bluebird house in the front yard. Go figure!

I moved a bluebird house from behind the back yard to the side of the house near Jack’s Magnolia tree. There is a Sparrow nest with eggs in it but they appear to have been scared away, unlike the Chickadees when we moved the house in which they had their nest.

The Baltimore Orioles are in the area - we can see them flying around in the trees around our house. Donna has put out jellies and sugar water to attract them into the yard. So far, the only attraction they have shown is to the colored yarns for nesting material.

We have adult and young (so tiny) hummingbirds visiting the nectar feeders.

With the warm weather, we should start seeing more butterflies again.

We saw our first male Baltimore Oriole (birds, not baseball) on Mother’s Day. This weekend, we saw both the male and female but it was hard to tell what they were doing. This morning (Monday), while doing some yard work, I saw them taking yarn from the nesting material Donna put out for them. The female came to the material several times and flew away with big pieces of yarn for her nest. The male watched over her from a close tree, as if guarding her.

Hopefully, they will return for water and food once their nest is built. We’ve tried for several years to attract them to the habitat with oranges and sugar water but didn’t try the yarn until this year.

Highlights of recent wildlife habitat experiences in Reisterstown, MD, are noted below:

We have tried numerous tactics to battle squirrels, which eat the food intended for the birds. We finally have had success with a plastic covered post supporting the feeders. Squirrels cannot climb the plastic coated post and the feeders are high enough off the ground that they cannot jump up to grab a feeder. Before anyone protests, squirrels are still welcomed - they help themselves to seeds on the ground and peanuts from their own feeder but they no longer take over the yard from the birds. It has been funny to see birds and squirrels come to the old location of the feeders only to find nothing there. They eventually figured out that changes had been made but it took several days, especially with the squirrels.

One unexpected benefit of the new feeder arrangement has been the large number of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks attracted to the habitat. In the past, we had seen them occasionally but this year there are a half dozen males and several females that frequent the feeders. The male colors stand out boldly.

Bluebirds have become an annual resident of our habitat. This year, they have nested in a birdhouse built by Donna’s father during the winter. The birds have a nest with 5 eggs and visit the house daily to attend to the nest. No signs yet of hatching but that will come soon.

We also have two Sparrow and a couple Wren nestings. Yesterday, I saw a newborn Sparrow on the bird bath. I got within a couple inches of it trying to get it to sit on my finger but it flew away as its mother came close if she would be needed.

A surprise nesting this year is by Chickadees in the empty Blue Bluebird house. The Chickadees built their nest in the bird house near where the new bird feeders were located so the house had to be relocated to keep squirrels from jumping from the bird house support to the bird feeders. With special handling, the post was pulled from the ground with a nest with 5 eggs in the house. The post was carefully set in a new hole about 15 feet away. The Chickadees were confused for a short while but quickly found the new location and resumed their nesting activities.

Finally, we have been awaiting the arrival of the Baltimore Orioles. In prior years, the Orioles have been seen in the area but our attempts to attract them into the backyard habitat have had limited success despite offering sugar water and pieces of fresh oranges. This year is no different, however, on Mother’s Day, we had our first Oriole sighting. The male Oriole was seen on a bag of pieces of yarn Donna set out in the yard for birds to use for nesting materials - he flew away before I could take his picture and hasn’t been seen again… but he’ll be back.

The Spangler home in Nazareth, PA is being prepared to be offered for sale very soon. The Spangler’s are Dan’s maternal grandparents. The house was originally built by Marion’s father more than 90 years ago. She was born in the house and never wanted to live anywhere else - her wish was granted. Marion and Dale purchased the house in 1950. Now it’s time for another family to live there. The house was not occupied through the winter because Dale lived with Donna and John after Marion died in August. No effort was made to sell the house until now because of the surgeries John had in October and February. This turned out to be beneficial because the market price for the house is thought to be higher now than it would have been in the Fall.

So far, we have worked over a couple weekends sorting through 59 years of the stuff that accumulates in everyone’s home. Clothes have been donated to local charities and lots of stuff has been hauled away to landfills. We are finishing the last couple projects and expect to list the house for sale soon. Nazareth is a nice place to live and raise a family. If anyone is interested, please let us know.

Donna and I will not be home to celebrate Sarah and Mike’s 1st anniversary with them on April 27th so we gave them their gift early. Actually, we left it laying face down on the floor in our family room for them to come get it at their convenience. They wasted no time as their excitement level was pretty high. Here is a picture Sarah posted on twitpic.com. We’re glad they like it enough to put it in a place of honor in their living room.

This artwork is the second generation of the original given to Alicia and Dan at Christmas in 2006, which they too have prominently displayed in their home. Each has its own unique features, especially the pieces of aluminum cans.

Both of these artworks were the creative idea and artistic creation of Donna, with technical and assembly help from John. We worked cooperatively together to create both pieces, which is noteworthy on it’s own account!

Aunt Joyce was my Mother’s younger sister. Joyce died after a short illness on April 13. She lived 82 years in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. She was the youngest of her siblings, and was the last of her generation in the immediate family. She is survived by her son Michael, and his family, who live near Philadelphia, and her daughter Laura, and her family, who live near Milwaukee.

I will remember Joyce as always being fun to be around, and having kind of a mischievous spirit, in a good way. We didn’t get to see Joyce very often because we lived so far apart but she made several visits to our home in Maryland when she visited Mom and Dad in Virginia. We always had fun together and enjoyed being with her.

She will be missed but not forgotten.

Five days ago, I blogged about the 1st signs of Spring. Now I have pictures of the Bluebirds, which have become regular visitors to our backyard in Reisterstown, MD.

This picture shows the male checking out the empty house. The female was with him but she is more cautious and camera shy.

This morning, the male Bluebird was waiting for the mealworms to be put in the feeder. He quickly helped himself. He’s apparently not afraid of me taking his picture, which is probably a good thing.

We also put out feeders with nectar for hummingbirds and orioles hoping they will arrive soon, too.

As it turns out, the answer to my questions was right before my eyes - I misread the report as less than 0.6 when it actually is less than 0.06 - way less than the 0.2 level I was hoping for. A genuine senior moment! A reading at this level is considered to be undetectable, which is what was expected after the surgical removal of the prostate. This is good news and a result to be thankful about, and encouraged by. The next PSA test will be done in August.