Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 337

Yesterday was kind of a wild day with snow, sleet, and freezing rain in sheets as I was walking in the woods. I had one leaky boot that kept my foot a little colder than the other. About time to get a new pair of hip boots, I guess these must be six years old and had lots of miles on them. This time of the year while I’m trapping dogs and some folks cross the street as the airs of my trapping lures blow through the air. My nose gets used to it and I only get a fresh smell when I open the garage door.

The only new birds I had this week were a Brown Tree Creeper and a small flock of Evening Grosbeaks. Over two hundred Redwing Blackbirds I had moved down to Star Livingstone’s feeder in Woodgate the next day on their flight south. They were only a one day wonder here and there also. That many birds would clean out your feeders in less than an hour and they did. I caught a few before I left the yard and a couple when I came back home. One I let go along with three Slate Colored Juncos just before dark. That lone Blackbird must have missed the big flock as it was here all alone the next morning wearing his new shinny band.

I hadn’t gotten any reports of Carolina Wrens this fall as my sister-in-law Ruthann, contact on Willsboro Point is not with us anymore. As her memory I had a picture she sent me this summer as the Carolina Wrens nested in a plant on her porch. They gather so much stuff for their nests you wonder if they can find the little ones inside. My friend Ellie Geroge had one at her feeder at Paradox Lake. I had several Fox Sparrows this fall and many others in the area had them at their feeders also.

I’ve seen several hunters going down the ski trail out back and many were wearing no orange as required. One gentleman was carrying his gun over his right shoulder holding on to the barrel, an accident waiting to happen certainly not something taught in a hunter safety class. When hunters see me out on the trails checking my traps, they ask me why I’m not carrying a gun. I say it would be just something more to carry and in all the miles I’ve walked I haven’t seen even one deer. When I came out of the woods the other day and I was driving down the South Shore Road I saw six deer before I got back to Inlet. I guess they are all roadside.

Hunters who track deer should have a good season as those conditions have been great for over a week with new snow every morning. I have seen a few nice big buck tracks in my travels but no one following them.

I did get a report of a cow moose seen and caught on a trail camera just south of Old Forge, probably the same one seen by Gray Lake a week ago.

My sister Patti and her husband Ed reported the first flights of Snow Geese landing in the fields near to their house which is just south of the Point Au Roche Campsite. Many times, there are thousands of Snow Geese gathered in that area on their way south. It is quite a sight to see if that many flush from the water in front of you added to the noise they make.

Locally there are some good ducks on the Fulton Chain on their way south but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Flock of Blackbirds