Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 360

The burning ban is still on until May 15, even with rain mixed with snow in the forecast for this weekend still no burning. With temperatures in the 60’s the wildflowers popped all around the yard and along roadsides. The yellow colt’s foot can be seen along most of the area highways. In some places the ditch is solid yellow. My yellow primroses are out and deer resistant as are the other colors. Spring beauty, trout lilies, hepatica, and trilliums are all coming out at the same time. My bloodroot got covered up with my new generator, so I’ll have to get some more seeds over at Crown Point where there are thousands of plants around the fort. The first place I ever saw these growing was in Marylee Kalil’s backyard.

Speaking of Crown Point it is that time of the year when many of the birds are migrating through the area and we try to catch a few in nets as they are passing. Some of the birds we catch are resident birds that nest right in that area, so we have a good chance to catch some of these banded birds for many years. The Banding Station will be open to the public starting Saturday May 2 from daylight until dark through May 15 closing at noon that day. We normally catch more birds early in the day and you never know just what we might catch in the nets as these birds stop to refuel on the little green caterpillars that feed on the leaves of the hawthorns that grow there. This will be the 51 years that the banding station has been running in the same place at Crown Point. We do have school groups that come to see what we do, and some students might get to release a bird that we band.

In the more than forty years that I have been helping at the station the rarest bird that I can recall was a Say’s Pheobe which was there when we set up and remained around for another week before leaving. We didn’t catch that bird but lots of people got to see this bird that is rarely seen east of the Mississippi River. Another bird that has only been caught and banded once at Crown Point was a Yellow Breasted Chat. This bird normally doesn’t go much further north in its travels than Pennsylvania. This is the largest warbler, and I had only seen it once in South Carolina. That morning master bander Gordon Howard had checked the nest and when he came back, he said to the group we need to sit around the table and have a chat, not knowing what he had in his catch bag. Then he pulls out the Chat and cameras, started clicking that morning. Birds can fly and you just never know what we might catch so come join us for a visit and see what we do. We are in the fields and woods down behind the fort, just a short walk from the parking lot marked by signs.

Hummingbirds have been reported in Clifton Park and several in Webster out near Rochester but none here so far. Our earliest date at Eight Acre Wood has been May 4 but that might be broken this year. My feeders are out and twice have been frozen in the morning so far. One time when we had snow on Mother’s Day which stayed for a couple of days and we lost a lot of birds that were here and that could find anything to eat. I have pictures of Evening Grosbeaks and Rose Breasted Grosbeaks eating at the same feeder. I thawed out the hummer feeders a few times and kept them going.

Next report comes from Crown Point but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Trout Lily and Spring beauty