Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 364

Memorial Weekend was pretty much a cold and wet washout for many campers, and some went home Sunday morning after being wet and cold for just a short time. This is what it was like at Crown Point for the whole two weeks we camped out there we and cold, but we stuck it out. The weather this weekend did keep the bug at bay, but they had a few highlights just to let you know what is still to come in the bug world. I think it is going to be a bad time with the mosquitoes with all the water that is just sitting there for them to hatch out in. I know my bird bath was full of wigglers when I came home from Crown Point who got dumped on the ground. There is a little frog pond just out back where a scoop of gravel was taken out that holds water for a few weeks before drying up. The wood frogs lay eggs in there every spring, and they normally get to be frogs before it dries up. It is also a mosquito hatchery when it has water, so I put in some of the rainbow dace from my pond who loves to eat the wigglers. Then the Common Grackles find the dace when the water gets low. It is a food chain right in the backyard which keeps the mosquitoes at bay.

I must relate a story that occurred when we were out in Montana in February. The crew went grocery shopping, and I stayed in the parking lot guarding all the camera equipment that we had in the two rental cars we had. Parked near by was a beautiful white ford pickup truck that had been beautifully restored by the owner. He came out and I struck up a conservation with him as I do many times with strangers. We talked about the truck and how he had changed the color from blue to white and what job he had done living in this area. He said he worked in the gold mines which were right outside of town, but he was now retired. Precious metals had been found in these mines which were a by product when he was working in the mines but now are more important than gold. He said “you know who owns these mines the Russians” which was certainly a surprise to me. He and a fellow worker and their wives got a free trip to Russia for working in the mines. He was arrested while there and he didn’t know if he was going to be going home but he did get home. I asked why he was arrested and he said just because he was an American.

Hummingbird Bander Ted Hicks and I went to Stillwater on Memorial Day to band hummers on the Restaurant porch. We got there just before eight and there were several hummers buzzing around. We got the trap set up and I caught hummers until eleven. We had several visitors and kids who got to hold a bird in their hand after it was banded. I trapped and Ted banded and gave out information about the birds, where they go, how old they can be as he measured, weighed, and looked for fat on them. He banded twenty-nine birds about as many males as females and we had two recaptures one from last year and one that we banded in 2021 making that bird at least six years old. The rain for the most part held off and we only had light rain for a brief time. Ted had banded twenty-five on Saturday at the place he was staying on Eska Lake and only four on Sunday with no recaptures, so he felt these birds were still on their way north.

My may apple patch has expanded every year from the two original plants that I grew from seeds that I got from a plant near the entrance to the Black Bear Mountain Trail. I think chipmunks like the fruit, but some must survive or the chipmunks bury them near where they find them as my patch now has over twenty plants. It has almost doubled in size since last year.

New Bison stamps are now at Post Offices, or they can be ordered but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Hummingbird in trap