Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 381

The leaves are changing fast with many reds along every roadway and shoreline. I was up in the Stillwater Fire Tower on Saturday with the sun out most of the day after the fog lifted in the morning. The temperature was thirty-four when I left the truck in the morning and it didn’t get much above sixty all day but there was very little wind. I even got to see smoke coming from one of the lease camps on the private land around the tower which popped up among the very colorful leaves that were everywhere. I had a couple of men catch and pass me as I went pick sticking things out of the trail as I went up. I photographed clumps of mushrooms and beech drops along the trail. The mushrooms were growing right in the trail and not there anymore when I came down as they were crushed by the foot traffic that came up that day. The Blue Jays and White Breasted Nuthatches were working on the beechnuts on the trees along the trail. It was the first day of bear season and I heard few volleys of shots early in the day. Several small flocks of Canada Geese were moving south during the day and one Bald Eagle sailed by the tower mid-morning. The tops of the red spruce trees around the tower were covered with cones that were visited by Red Breasted Nuthatches, Black Capped Chickadees, and a couple of Red Crossbills. Two Common Ravens flew by the tower cab a few times as they were also working on the beech nuts. One American Beech right below the tower was covered with nuts in burrs not yet harvested by the birds, squirrels, or bears. Most of the beech trees along the trail had at one time been visited by black bears as you could see their claw marks scars on the bark where they had been climbed up in other years.

Many of the visitors were doing the fire tower challenge, some had already gone up the Rondaxe Tower, and others were going there next. Several told me of other towers they had climbed this year. A large group of adults and children from the Unirondack Camp on the Number Four Road and Beaver Lake had lunch on top of the mountain. A few people fought their fear of heights and made it up into the cab of the tower. Jim Fox, who was very instrumental in the rehab of this tower, and he has a camp on the reservoir, came up with his son. It was nice to see that he made the climb.

On Thursday I got a report of an adult Loon over the dam at Twitchell Lake. About a week ago an adult Loon was photographed on a lawn along the shore of the lake, but that bird got back into the lake. Right where this happened there is a resident pair of Loons with two chicks and I’m sure this bird was an intruder, and it got attacked by the resident pair to protect their chicks. It may have been injured so badly that it couldn’t fly out, so I think this Loon over the dam was the same bird. I went up with Don Andrews and Jeff Haynes to capture this injured Loon. The Loon had gotten back into the lake, and Don took a tour around the area by the launch to see if he could find this bird. He found the pair with two chicks in the first bay on the right. He came back in and a Loon called off to the left of the landing, so he went over to investigate and found the grounded Loon in the bushes. Another loon was nearby, maybe it’s mate as they were communicating with each other as that was how Don found this bird hiding. We all went over to the site, and Don tried to net the Loon, but it never moved, so he got out of his kayak and grabbed this loon with his hands. He got bitten a couple of times on his hand until he controlled the head as he brought this bird to the tub in our canoe. The other Loon that led Don to this one followed us right over to the launch calling a few times. I took this Loon to Long Lake where I met Dr. Nina Schoch who gave it some meds and took it back to her place for more examination of its injuries. She determined it needed more help and it was taken to rehab in Vermont the next day where we hope it will recover.

The leaf peppers are out but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: 8 person canoe getting to the starting line