Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 317
The big heat wave for a few days was hot for June and may have brought out all the species of blackflies which don’t last very long before dying. So, they shouldn’t be a problem while you are out and about but the mosquitoes, noseeums, and deer flies have filled that void in a big way. I biked to Mitchell Ponds yesterday and they were pushing the bike most of the way. They chewed a little off both ears along the way even with bug dope and a bug hat on. The water was down by more than a foot in both ponds so the beaver dams must have washed out. There were fresh beaver cuttings in the upper pond, but the water level was the same as the lower pond. It has been a long time since that happened and there were no Loons present on either pond. It was a nice bike ride with lots of songbirds singing along the route and I saw a small brood of Ruffed Grouse flying out of the trail. Mother grouse did her broken wing act down the trail ahead of me as the chicks fled away. There were moose tracks in the trail and in the foot trail around the ponds. Lots of Turkey scratching in the trail but I saw no little ones.
There are three Bald Eagle nests locally and they are keeping the local duck and goose population as well as the loons in check. One nest on Fourth Lake has two young in the nest as does the one on Beaver Lake by Number Four. The Canada Geese young are down a few goslings on Beaver Lake since the first time I was there. The remaining ones were hiding in the cattails along the shoreline, not out swimming on the lake. A few years back when the eagles there had young in the nest, I saw a family of ten geese out in the middle of the lake. From a distance I was going to take a picture of this big family when they disappeared from the surface of the lake just like loons. These young ones swam underwater in all directions quite a distance which I had never seen before, and this was their defense from being caught by the Bald Eagles. The next week when I saw this family they were down a few members, so I think the Bald Eagles could see them underwater and pick them off when they came up or even underwater as they do when catching fish. I checked under the nest site and found no goose bones, just fish bones so maybe the goslings are just food for the adults. One adult there was on shore the other day feeding on something which could have been a gosling.
I was up South Inlet early yesterday doing a Boreal Bird Survey and the only ones I found were a Lincoln Sparrow and a Black Backed Woodpecker. Lots of other songbirds singing which I recorded. Nothing unusual. In the Plains doing another survey during this week I got a Northern Cardinal which is out of place. I remember while on a canoe trip down the Oswegatchie River with John Scanlon where we camped overnight. Getting up in the morning there was a Northern Cardinal singing there which was also out of normal habitat. Any port in a storm I guess will work.
While going up South Inlet there were thousands of Rose Pogonias along the shoreline, no matter where you looked it was pink.
On another trip I saw where Large Purple Fringed Orchids were about to bloom and I found a couple large Pad Leaf Orchids in bloom. The hot wet weather has brought lots of wildflowers to bloom early.
The Annual Loon Count is coming up soon July 19 from 8am to 9am and there are several lakes locally that no one has taken yet but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Large Pad Leaf Orchid
