the modest birder (1)

This description of our property should have begun the series of lazy chair birder blogs when I thought of starting them, but if the reader clicks on the label etc. etc.

When we bought it, the entire lot was 1.8 acres and is 2 acres as of 2007 when Betcher Rd was moved over; the NOT MAINTAINED area (about 1 acre) is part of a wooded "ravine" with a vernal creek. The lot is part of about 35+ acres of woods, more or less triangular, of which 1/2 has tangled undergrowth. Some of it belongs to a bordering, large farm (on the South to West side) that stretches beyond the “hypotenuse” of the entire woods that includes the homes on the 2 right sides. The farm ( “natural” dairy, growing its own feed) will remain undeveloped. Rte 113 borders the east and Betcher Rd. the north of the woods. The whole area is an almost 90° “triangle” of which the short side is on Betcher; the “hypotenuse” is irregular, going up (south) almost straight for 100 yards and then curbing to 113 on the high side of the vernal creek. Five houses are placed along 113 and 2 on Betcher (incl. ours) all around the high edges of the wooded ground, each on a 1.5 to 2 acre lot. Only three of these have small (front) lawns and most of their lots are unmanaged woods down to the creek or across it up the opposite slope. Most of the woods across the creek belong to the farm. Across 113 there are 2 small homes on wooded lots and a small farm (15 acres), set back with a square of one acre of dense trees and a typical farm pond whose overflow feeds our creek. The pond is edged with cattails. There's also a wooded corridor down the vernal creek going Northwest for 1.5 miles to the Perkiomen (which is now a scenic river/state park) also very wooded and left alone (in general). The Perkiomen bends there in a southerly direction and where Betcher Rd. crosses 113 to descend to Rte 29 along the Perk it's only 1/2 mile away. 2 farms beyond the trees on either side of Betcher (and not visible)were developed in 2000. The wide and wooded bends of the Schuylkill R.(also a Scenic R.) are about 3 miles away to the south, winding down from north-west to south-east. Across Betcher and between the creek and 113 there is a field (not mown) and a sloping tangle of brush, about 30 acres all together. This has been slated for development since 1999 (when we moved in) after Betcher Rd was moved over using part of that land (which was not completed until the Spring of 2007). The sale signs have since been removed and the land is rapidly becoming a "second growth forest."
In winter I can see most of the opposite forested slope and the farm fields beyond. The view from my armchair in the living room comprises almost half a circle from the SW on my left to the N on my right where it's cut off by the porch's jutting out and the trunk of a large white oak. I have made several terraces for veg., herb and flower beds (organic gardening). I don't maintain a lawn, but whack the open spaces on a monthly rotation to keep the view to the creek open and to provide foraging for groundfeeders. In winter we maintain 2 hanging feeders (I squirrel-buster and one 8x12 platform) next to a 20ft Norway spruce, 2 saucer feeders, one on a stone wall and one on a little table (in front of the liv rm –picture-window). Around each of these 2 feeders I also spread mixed feed on a 10ft sq. surface of earth. There is a suet cage on a nearby hickory.
The woods consist almost entirely of spontaneous hardwoods: hickories (some shag bark), two kinds of oaks, ash and walnuts. A previous owner planted 2 Japanese maples, one Norway and several native spruces (the latter are all dead and covered with Japanese honeysuckle) and several hemlocks. He also put in a "hedge" of yews between the neighbors on the South and East, these yews are interspersed between oaks and hickories, the hedge on the south side (Some 20ft wide in places) also had several pines that are now dead and maples have sprung up in their place. I have filled in several "holes" with "western" arborvitae and native red cedars.
When the road was moved (curbing away up the gentle slope from the creek's culvert to 113) we found ourselves burdened with a triangle of lousy soil above the old roadbed of which the foundation and asphalt was "sort of" removed). Our driveway was lengthened by some 30ft. I "annexed" the triangle and put in hedges on both sides of the new driveway with a row of different day lilies between the hedge and the drive. I had the triangle rototilled and am developing it into a wildflower bed. So far it's mostly wild with native weeds whose seeds came with the tin layer of fill that the road builders used to cover their sins. But I needed more sun for tomatoes etc. there are also 2 raised beds.
All in all, as can be seen in the other "modest birder" blogs it's not a bad place for a birder.
Updated 2013.