Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 329

Some much needed rain is expected during the rest of this week, mostly afternoon showers and thunderstorms with more rain coming in the area of the thunderstorms. Farmers in the areas around close to the western Adirondacks are harvesting their corn crops before they get dried out. Looking at some as I passed through farm country on Saturday you could see that the stalks were drying part way up already. Some areas up this way got frost on Saturday morning. I had thirty-four but up in Big Moose which is a little higher in elevation had thirty-two. Then on Sunday morning I had thirty-two, so I washed off many of my flowering plants before the sun hit them and they seemed ok this morning with no blacking of the leaves.

The autumn color is dull because of the dry conditions, and many leaves have already fallen as my driveway is already covered in leaves. Up on the Stillwater tower as Steward on Sunday I would say that the color is at peak to the north, east and south but still coming on in the west out toward the Tug Hill Plateau. I had forty-five visitors visit on Sunday and many were just out on a family stroll in flip flops and sneakers, not appropriate footwear for climbing a mountain. Some say that Stillwater isn’t a mountain, and the trail is not that rugged but there are lots of roots and rocks that can cause foot problems, it isn’t a sandy beach. The view was the best of the three times I have been up there this fall, and you could see a lot of the high peaks, all the Tug Hill Plateau with the windmills mostly visible. I did see some smoke from lease camps on Sunday morning as it was a tad chilly and the wind was blowing hard when I first got up there but went down during the day. On the way up I flushed a Broad- winged hawk who was hunting along the trail. I heard several Blue Jays who were working for breakfast in the beech trees. Up in the tower I had Ravens fly by, and one Turkey Vulture came sailing by in the wind. A small flock of Black Capped Chickadees were checking out the spruces around the tower most of the day. I only saw a couple dragon flies in the air where last weekend there were many in the air.

Volunteers are still monitoring the female Loon on Eighth Lake who has fishing line in it’s bill and dragging a lake clear wobbler. We will probably try to catch it again this week and free it from the entanglement. One of the chicks there is feeding much on its own and the other chick is still being fed by the male of the pair. There is a younger pair of chicks in the channel coming down from Eighth Lake into Seventh Lake that have been seen by boaters using that area.

Many songbirds are on the move, and my Hummingbirds have been gone for a week now. I saw a flock of 25 American Robins on Jean Birds lawn the other day and being so dry they would need a drill to find a worm, but they are probably catching crickets and grasshoppers. They also feed on crab apples and many of the berries on trees when no worms are available.

My Granson Jake and I went to the Big Buck Club’s award banquet on Saturday down in Canastota. I hadn’t been since before Covid and seeing many of the measures was nice and hearing some of the stories from the people getting their awards about the taking of their buck or bear were great. The club keeps track of records for both deer and bear taken in New York State. Records for deer taken with a bow, crossbow or gun and shed antlers found with minimum scores on the antlers for each typical and non-typical racks and bear sculls with a minimum also.

You may have missed the peak leaves if we get lots of wind and rain this week but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Stillwater Tower East