Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 361

Writing from Crown Point Bird Banding Station where we are in operation for the fifty first year. At home the night before I left a black bear hit all my feeders that night and it didn’t get much because I didn’t fill them that night and the birds had pretty cleaned them out during the day before, so it didn’t get much other than the fun of taking them all down. I had left my garage door down as I had the truck backed part way in the garage in the rain to load up but I went out just before going to bed moved the truck and put down the door or it would have had a ball in the garage and that would not have been pretty. So, before I left to go here I cleaned up the mess and no longer feeding birds for me until I get my electric fence back in operation.

Coming over here via the 28, 28N and the Blue Ridge Road I always see turkeys and turkey families feeding along these roads and on this trip, I never saw one turkey so maybe the hard winter took a toll on them with all the snow and cold. Getting to our spot here behind the fort at about noon on Friday the camp was all set up, and all the banding nets had been put up by a great group of Volunteers and master banders Ted Hicks and Gordon Howard. They had only caught a couple birds already and we caught a few that afternoon, mostly Blue Jays but a few White Throated Sparrows and Song Sparrows.

After I got unloaded and blew up my mattress, I got out the Potter Traps and got those ready for action. I put up a few feeders which some of the birds were waiting for. I wasn’t but a few minutes and a big flock of blue Jays came steaming across the meadow, we looked over right toward the net lanes and we were in bird banding action. Some went in the nets and some were quick to get some corn in the Potter Traps. That went on most of the afternoon and the blue jays took a lead in the numbers banded for the year that afternoon which may hold for the rest of the two weeks here, the same as last year.

A beautiful full moon rose over the open fields behind the fort Friday night just before I went to bed. It got to shin through the clouds just long enough for a picture and hide again so I went to bed.

Saturday started off near freezing with some hail, and we heard it was snowing in the Old Forge- Big Moose Area. We had some light rain most of the day and the wind picked during the day right out of the north which comes right off Lake Champlain. That big lake hasn’t warmed up much so the air temperature blowing at us was much the same, cold. This cut down on the little birds traveling north who didn’t want to fly into that cold wind and they stayed further back on the Peninsula out of the wind and never made it to our net lanes. The Blue Jays kept coming across the field, so we had some action the rest of the day. We did catch a few American Robins and Black Capped Chickadees who made be residents in our banding area as some had brood patches which might mean they are on eggs or about to be on eggs.

It was only 41 degrees this morning birds were slow in getting moving again as the wind was still out of the north off the lake. We did have a few American Goldfinch coming to the feeders and hit our nets which gave us a few birds to show visitors what we do to process and a bird. The first day we did get a good return of a House Wren which we banded last year and today we got a male and female American Goldfinch which we banded two years ago on nearly the same date.

I did get a photo from Doug Riedman that he had a Ruby throated Hummingbird at his feeder on Friday the first same day as last year, so that bird was right on schedule.

Well that’s all from here more next week with a lot more birds to report from Crown Point but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Rose Breasted Grosbeak release