Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 37

Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 37

We are into the shortest month of winter, but this year it has 29 days. My father would have a birthday if he was with us. It was always a standing joke that we were older than him, as he only had a birthday every four years. Not much winter so far and we just keep getting dribs and drabs of snow, just enough to keep the snowmobilers on the trails and skiers on the slopes. Now we will see how many January thaws we will have in February. During the last warm up, a young bear came out of hibernation and visited a bird feeder at Joan Morgan’s on North Street. It was pretty ratty looking, so they called DEC and the second time it came around it was captured and taken to a rehabber. Some other people saw bear tracks in the snow at that time in other places, but that was the only one that hit some feeders.

Sunday, the second Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, the first time in several years, so that means not much more winter (only 39% accurate over the years). Or maybe we will finally have some. My friend Ellie George, over at Paradox Lake, has her own groundhog, Paradox Pete, and he didn’t see his shadow on the snow that day either. We all know that winter will linger through April, and sometimes into May, in this neck of the woods. I can show you several snowfalls on Mother’s Day, years ago. Paradox Pete also predicted that the Kansas City Chiefs would win the Super Bowl, so he may be right about winter this year.  I don’t know if I would put money on this last bet another year, but who knows what might just happen.

This up and down winter has made some ice travel very tricky and we have just been lucky so far that some of our travelers haven’t gone through the ice. The rains have kept inlets to the lakes very unsafe and shorelines about the same. Some bubblers that are protecting docks have gone much further out into the lake than normal, so be careful when traveling on the lakes.

Over on Lake Champlain, the ice has been in and out in many places, as the wind gets such a big sweep that it will open places that were frozen the day before.  My brother told me last night that this happened on Willsboro Bay just this weekend, as the wind opened a big crack across the bay overnight and an 81-year-old fisherman went out in the dark on his four-wheeler and went in. He was carrying a big generator on the back to worsen his situation. He was in the water for what he thought was over half an hour before some other fishermen came along and rescued him with a rope. When they got him in the ambulance, his body temperature was 82 degrees, so he didn’t have much time left or he would have been dead. They had to cut a path to shore to pull his four- wheeler and generator out, which was much the worse for wear after that. Many thought it may have been my brother when they heard about the ice fisherman in the water, but my brother doesn’t have a four-wheeler.

I’ve been catching some birds under the feeders in the Potter traps and I got some neat returns; that being birds I’ve banded in previous years. One Black Capped Chickadee I banded in 2016, recaptured in 2017, and not seen since, or at least not caught until yesterday, 2/2. In the same trap was another Chickadee I banded in 2017, recaptured in 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, all in the same month of February. Then I got a Slate Colored Junco that I banded in November and it has been with me all winter, I guess, as I caught it again yesterday.

The Ravens and Bald Eagles have been coming everyday now, just knowing that breakfast would be waiting for them. The 16 Ravens and two Eagles can consume a fifty-pound beaver carcass in one day with nothing but the bones left. Then the coyotes carry that away during the night and make bone soup.

The cold temperatures have held what snow we’ve got, but that’s another story. See ya.

   

ol. 37

We are into the shortest month of winter, but this year it has 29 days. My father would have a birthday if he was with us. It was always a standing joke that we were older than him, as he only had a birthday every four years. Not much winter so far and we just keep getting dribs and drabs of snow, just enough to keep the snowmobilers on the trails and skiers on the slopes. Now we will see how many January thaws we will have in February. During the last warm up, a young bear came out of hibernation and visited a bird feeder at Joan Morgan’s on North Street. It was pretty ratty looking, so they called DEC and the second time it came around it was captured and taken to a rehabber. Some other people saw bear tracks in the snow at that time in other places, but that was the only one that hit some feeders.

Sunday, the second Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, the first time in several years, so that means not much more winter (only 39% accurate over the years). Or maybe we will finally have some. My friend Ellie George, over at Paradox Lake, has her own groundhog, Paradox Pete, and he didn’t see his shadow on the snow that day either. We all know that winter will linger through April, and sometimes into May, in this neck of the woods. I can show you several snowfalls on Mother’s Day, years ago. Paradox Pete also predicted that the Kansas City Chiefs would win the Super Bowl, so he may be right about winter this year.  I don’t know if I would put money on this last bet another year, but who knows what might just happen.

This up and down winter has made some ice travel very tricky and we have just been lucky so far that some of our travelers haven’t gone through the ice. The rains have kept inlets to the lakes very unsafe and shorelines about the same. Some bubblers that are protecting docks have gone much further out into the lake than normal, so be careful when traveling on the lakes.

Over on Lake Champlain, the ice has been in and out in many places, as the wind gets such a big sweep that it will open places that were frozen the day before.  My brother told me last night that this happened on Willsboro Bay just this weekend, as the wind opened a big crack across the bay overnight and an 81-year-old fisherman went out in the dark on his four-wheeler and went in. He was carrying a big generator on the back to worsen his situation. He was in the water for what he thought was over half an hour before some other fishermen came along and rescued him with a rope. When they got him in the ambulance, his body temperature was 82 degrees, so he didn’t have much time left or he would have been dead. They had to cut a path to shore to pull his four- wheeler and generator out, which was much the worse for wear after that. Many thought it may have been my brother when they heard about the ice fisherman in the water, but my brother doesn’t have a four-wheeler.

I’ve been catching some birds under the feeders in the Potter traps and I got some neat returns; that being birds I’ve banded in previous years. One Black Capped Chickadee I banded in 2016, recaptured in 2017, and not seen since, or at least not caught until yesterday, 2/2. In the same trap was another Chickadee I banded in 2017, recaptured in 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, all in the same month of February. Then I got a Slate Colored Junco that I banded in November and it has been with me all winter, I guess, as I caught it again yesterday.

The Ravens and Bald Eagles have been coming everyday now, just knowing that breakfast would be waiting for them. The 16 Ravens and two Eagles can consume a fifty-pound beaver carcass in one day with nothing but the bones left. Then the coyotes carry that away during the night and make bone soup.

The cold temperatures have held what snow we’ve got, but that’s another story. See ya.

Bear cub in the yard

 
Paradox Pete by Ellie George