Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol.107

Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 107

Everyday this week was in the eighties, so what will July and August (the hot months) be like. I haven’t looked ahead, as there isn’t much I can do about the weather, and I just take what comes. I do record temperatures each day and measure rain and snow fall. So far this year, we are behind on rainfall and water has stopped going out of my pond a couple times, which normally doesn’t happen until late July. The trout are still frisky just because it is so deep and there are springs in the bottom of the pond, but not enough to keep the water flowing out because of evaporation off the surface in these higher temperatures. 

I’ve seen several people in the water swimming in some of my loon lakes, but they weren’t staying in very long. The surface may be warm, but dive down a few feet and you will find it is a tad colder. This is where the fish hang out, but they will come to the surface for a quick snack and then go back down to that colder water. 

This heat has brought many flowers out that normally don’t bloom for a couple more weeks. The rain has been just enough to water these shallow rooted flowers and keep them looking nice. I did get a few zucchini and cucumber plants at Zone 3 which finished off my garden, which has more flowers than veggies this year. I put the tomatoes in with my chestnut trees. I’m trying gladiolus this year for the first time, and they are all up more than a foot already, but inside my fence. I have quite a few deer resistant plants out by the road for passersbyes to enjoy. Yesterday, my daughter, Erin, was coming home from a day outing and a good neighbor from up the road was cutting some of the flowers. She said to my daughter, “I didn’t think I would get caught, but I know Gary.” Then she says the flowers are for the front of the church in the morning, so I guess that makes it alright. I have let some folks cut flowers here and I take flowers to View nearly each week during the summer, but they aren’t free for roadside pickers; thanks, grow your own! My trail camera has you picking, so I know who you are. They are wildflowers, not your flowers. 

I’ve been doing Boreal Bird Surveys from daylight until about nine several mornings back in the Plains and the bugs have been bad. I wear a full bug jacket and gloves to keep them off. One morning, I was wearing hip boots as I went up Sumner Stream Stillwater. It’s a good thing I did, as the beavers had put in three new dams and I was near the top of them a few times; a canoe would have been better. I’ve done this survey for several years and did it all by canoe the first few times. Then after the search for a lost man when the old dam was lowered for search purposes, it had been just a walk along the stream. The inside tops of my hip boots were covered with hundreds of dead blackflies when I took them off.  

These Boreal Bird Surveys were done by Brian and Ellen Keelan each year and they reported the birds they had seen and heard, some boreal birds, in that habitat. Boreal birds are Gray Jay, Black-backed Woodpecker, Northern Tree-toed Woodpecker, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Boreal Chickadee, Rusty Blackbird, Lincoln Sparrow, Palm Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and Spruce Grouse. I record all birds I hear, as someday, we may be looking for this species also. The reason for these surveys is that Boreal Birds are having a tough time even living in our boreal habitat with increasing temperatures, both summer and winter. There are five stations where you listen and watch for these bird species for ten minutes, then move on to the next spot. These listening spots are a certain distance apart, some are on streams and rivers in boreal habitat and others are just walks in boreal bogs, like Ferd’s Bog and Beaver Brook. 

Some fawns have been born so watch when you see a doe crossing the highway, as there may be a fawn making its first trip across the highway. Sometimes they even just lay down when frightened and that might be right in the middle of the highway. 

When hiking, be prepared for bugs, as they are still out there, but that’s another story. See ya. 

Iris, Allium and lemon lilies. Flowers along the driveway.