
Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 312
We are having a few sunny days after days of rain right through the holiday weekend, not very nice for campers and cold to go along with it which held the blackflies at bay. When that sun came out so did the blackflies, even with a bug jacket, yesterday they found places to get in and bite. I want to mention deer ticks also as I did have one on me last fall after skinning a pine marten, so I think it came off the critter. At Crown Point, I saw several and I think I brought some home on my clothes as I found them on things here for a few days. Then I found another one just yesterday as I had been tramping through the woods checking Loons on my clothes, but not on me. I know some people in Old Forge found them on their dogs and cats, so they are around and be aware.
The folks down south of us from Texas to the east coast have been having much violent weather with heavy rain, hail, and tornadoes. This has gone on for more than a week with several people killed, millions out of power and many homes and businesses flooded out or destroyed. I think this has affected bird migration as many latecomers had to go through all this violent weather in their flights. This may have killed many birds and put many others of course northward. We banded Hummingbirds at Stillwater on Sunday and there were very few birds there and mostly males. We only saw three females. We caught and banded twelve new birds, and we got two recaptures that we banded in July of last year, so some birds made that long trip from South America.
Going back a week, we had some strong storms pass through this area and most of those missed us at the banding station as luckily, they went both north and south of us. On pick up day, 5/17, we had a large group of volunteers to take down camp and the net lanes. Near the end a quick hard shower hit which got a few wet who were picking up the nets. On the way home I hit one on the Blue Ridge Road which was a gully washer for sure. I have never driven in such intense rain ever and on such a curvy road it was a challenge. It rained so hard I could only see the highway once and a while and sometimes it was like a ton of rain fell. I was only traveling at less than 20 MPH, and it seemed like a flood was coming over the hood of my truck. I had a car following me very close and in one of those big drops they disappeared, and I never saw them again. I met a few cars coming in the other direction and hoped they were on their side of the road. When I reached the railroad tracks it was all over, and I heard on Vermont Public Radio to watch out for a storm just entering Essex County which I had gone through. I’m sure there were some washed out shoulders on the road with that much rain falling in such a short time. I thought of some people who were out hiking, and they might have gotten hit by that intense rain and wind.
Many of the Loons got north ahead of this weather and they have been on territory for more than a month. Many have already made nests and are on eggs at this time in this area. I heard of one pair that lost their first nest, and they will probably renest. When we started watching Loons last year, we had several pairs that were already on nests, only to have their nests swamped by heavy rain. Some of these renested and others just had the summer off to fish for themselves.
The weather has been good for the wildflowers, and I’ve seen them in bloom everywhere on my hikes. Many of these bloom and then they seem to just disappear. Hope you can get out to enjoy them while they are flowering.
Give wildlife some space and leave babies where they are as mother isn’t far away but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Hummingbird in hand by Jeanne Tommell
