Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 386
One of the nicest weeks of the year to help us get ready for winter. My son Jason came up this weekend to help me with some of the last-minute chores. Biggest of that was to clean out the garage stall so I can get my truck in for the winter. Much of the stuff went up over the garage, window screens and box and parts from the long arm quilting machine set up. Loon platform parts, wheelbarrow full of wood, canoe motor batteries, and chargers. Move the trout pellets bin, get the bird feeders off the floor, hang up my mountain bike, get the metal outside fireplace stored away, store lawn chairs, and sweep the floor, it was ready for the truck to move in. I’m sure many other folks need to do the same when summer is over.
Amy Sauer came over earlier in the week to help me get the owl nets up and get my caller back in action louder than it has ever been and it worked. The first night I caught three Saw Whet Owls one an hour and no Barred Owls were heard around the area. The second night I caught just one owl just before midnight. The third night I got three and one just before midnight that wasn’t even I the net. When I went out to fold up the nets, I shined my light down the net lanes and no owls seen in the nets. I pushed up the first net and there was an owl on the ground under the net. I kept my light on it and tried to grab the bird, but I missed and it flushed up into the spruce tree about eight feet up. It just sat there looking back down at my light. I should have taken a picture but decided to get my butterfly net and try that. I’ve caught them in the office when they got free in the house, which only happened once, so I tried it and into the net it went just like catching a butterfly. These owls caught have been mostly females. Friday night when Jason was here the first check, I got an owl and he photographed me banding it and letting it go. Just a half hour later he went out with me and I had another owl. He filmed this capture and this was the smallest Saw Whet Owl I ever caught so I knew it was a male as they are smaller than females by weight and wing cord. I thought this one might even be able to turn around in my water bottle with the top cut off that I weigh them in, but he didn’t. He was calm and out the window he went off on his journey south with a band. The next two nights with the moon growing I had no catches with the nets up for five hours each night. One night there was a Barred Owl calling not far away which could have kept the little owls away as they would be a snack for the bigger owl.
The nets are set up right under beech trees along the driveway and most of their nuts have fallen to the ground but the burrs that hold the nuts are still hanging on the trees. These burrs are a bear to get out of the net and luckily, I’ve only got a couple in the nets. The deer on the other hand have been feeding on the nuts which are on both sides of the nets. I blew all the nets lanes clear with the leaf blower, but the nuts are still there on the ground, and my local herd has been out there every night. I think one little buck with two-inch spikes has hooked into my nets as I’ve had to mend some holes which are not fun to do. One of the hazards of banding I guess, and it is that it’s good I know how to sew up these holes.
The photo of berries last week was Winter berry and not bear berry bushes. Seeing a lot more of these now that the leaves are off and the birds that are travelling south and some even that spend the winter here will be feeding on these when they get ripe. Once near the South Inlet Bridge I saw a mix of over one hundred Cedar Waxwings and Bohemian Waxwings feeding right beside the highway. They won’t be doing that now as all those bushes were removed during the new construction over the wetland.
Big game season is open so hikers and hunters will be sharing the woods and trails so be aware but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Saw whet owl release
