Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 323

It has been an extremely hot dry week with only one series of Thunderstorms passing by some to the north and more to the south. I could hear it pounding over around Limekiln Lake over the hill but none of the rain fell here. I had to water both the flowers and the veggies. The tomatoes are coming on, but I’ve had to water the ones in the pots every day.

They sure got enough water in Wisconsin yesterday hearing totals of fourteen inches in a few places. When you get that much rain things are going to flood and flood, they did. Looking at the weather map these storms swept across Minnesota up into Canada but not the parts that needed them that are on fire. It did knock the smoke down around here but today in Utica I could smell smoke from the fires once I was out of the car. It all depends on which way the wind blows and around here that is mostly west to east which end up out to sea.

I missed the sturgeon full moon as I had paddled a lot that day. I got out my tripod before supper and set it by the door so I wouldn’t forget it. I ate supper and sat down in my chair to write in my diary and the next thing I knew it was twelve thirty and I could see the full moon through the trees out my back bedroom windows. Well at least it was visible and full, but it didn’t look red from the smoke like it did the night before. Maybe I’ll catch the next one. That is going to be on September seventh, the corn moon and total eclipse that night. I remember filming one off a dock on Limekiln Lake from beginning to end. It started just after coming up over the big pines on Limekiln Beach at about nine o’clock PM. It totaled about midnight and didn’t come back all the way out until around daylight. My daughter-in -law Linda stayed with me until it was completely covered, then she bailed out and went to bed. I stayed until the end, and it was clear the whole time. I slept in that morning for a while. It was a neat experience.

Ted Hicks and I went up to Stillwater to band Hummingbirds Saturday morning from 7:30 until 11. We had several visitors, some who had never seen us band before. A group of three from Germany who were staying with Jim Fox took lots of photos and asked lots of questions about Hummers and Loons. They hadn’t seen any Loon chicks yet, so I pointed them to a few local ponds and lakes that had chicks. I hope they get to photograph some before they go back home across the pond. We only got twelve new birds banded and two returns from last year. Not one male was caught that day. We saw a couple, but they never got into the trap. I had one Hummer escape out of hand and so did Ted before he got it banded. One escaped out from under a hand in the trap and it didn’t get a band either. They are fast little buggers going both backwards and forward.

Members of the Old Forge Garden Club and some volunteers put together flowers for the opening of the National Watercolor Show at View. Over three hundred people came through the door for the opening a week ago and it is beautiful. So much talent out there painting such beautiful paintings.

The Loon babies are growing. I have a couple pairs on one lake that both have young, one has two chicks born a month before the other single chick in the other territory. I had a trail camera on the single one that was born, and the other egg was left in the nest. I don’t know how that one made it as a doe, and her two fawns were around the nest more than the Loon. They did everything but lay down on the eggs and there was a little buck that passed through a couple times also.

Watching another Loon this week who may have had a fishing line attached as it bathed and bathed, which many people think that the Loon has a problem. They go upside down and splash around like crazy getting their feathers clean.

So many boats on the water this summer be careful out there but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Loon take off by Glenn Smith showing bands on both legs