Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 267
Hurricane Beryl left destruction from when it hit the coast of Texas until it left off the east coast. Wind and lots of rain and in some places large size hail and a few tornadoes touched down along the way even here in New York State. Some in the western part of the state which hit some homes and locally going across the Horton Road near Forestport. The rains were more than six inches in places that flooded out several roads and bridges across the entire state. Locally Lowville and Canton were flooded by six inches or more of rain and that moved across the Adirondacks hitting hard again in Essex County washing out many roads there. Then it moved into Vermont and hit some areas there that haven't recovered from the flooding from last year. Most of the storms went just north of here but we got three inches of rain in a few quick down pours. A few miles to the south they only got an inch of rain.
Water poured out of my pond, but I had no problems other than water running like a river down my driveway during a couple heavy downpour times and then running off. I didn’t have to water my flowers, but I did have to stake several up to keep them standing. My seven-foot-tall hollyhocks are still up, my monk's hood bent over but didn’t break so I got then hooked to a trellis or fenced in and upright again as some of them are six feet tall. All the other hollyhocks and dahlias which are under the eves weather the storm as I had them all tied up before the rains came. My potted tomatoes are more like I’m growing trees, and the wind did topple a couple of them over, but they have recovered. One dead tree did fall from the ski trail out back across my rail fence but that is firewood now.
The Loons well some did ok and others lost their nests due to flooding. Lost the nests on Fifth and Sixth lakes, the ones on Eight Lake got out a pair of chicks and on the water the day before the flooding as water was in their nests when we picked up the eggshells the next day. Some added nearly ten inches of material to their nests and still lost them as they got chilled in the process or rolled in the lake as they were building and rebuilding. We recovered many of these whole eggs from the water or from the flooded nests which will give us much important information.
A catch team from the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation went out one night this week to Forked Lake as a Loon there was tangled in fishing line. They caught the bird, got out the hook and line, treated it with antibiotics, banded it, took blood and feathers and released the female Loon who went right over and got back on her nest., nice save.
Some other loons weren’t so fortunate as Ellie George who watches some lakes for the Loon Program is lucky enough to have four pairs of Loons nesting on her lake. All four pairs had chicks and they were doing ok until the storm hit and she figures that two small chicks with one pair died from hypothermia during the heavy rains. They weren’t being protected under the parent’s wing or even back riding the cold rain could have killed them. She did find them and collected them so that the case will be solved.
I was out early this morning doing a boreal bird survey on the upper end of Beaver Brook on the trail to Shallow Lake or should I say to nowhere. The new bridge is in over Beaver Brook, but you would be buried in the bog if you stepped off the other end of that bridge. The beaver has been so flooded that most of that landscape is floating on water. I only got about fifty feet from the bridge and quit trying to go any further or lose a boot in the bog. Normally I go out on the bog from the east, but a person would need shoe shoes or water wings to walk across that today. I did get some great birds right at the bridge as I spent some time there as long as I was there. Some Gray Jays came trooping through north of me, never visible but talking as they came through the trees. They could have had young with them, but they never showed themselves. Normally Gray Jays will come for a visit when you are in their area, and they hear you but not today. I heard an Olive-sided Flycatcher calling their pi, pi, pi call from a tree top before I saw them. They were feeding offspring upstream as I watched them carrying food there several times. Only once did I hear them use their quick three beers call. I did see several white fringed orchids in the woods as I was mucking the other side of the bridge. Normally there are a lot of them out on the open bog mat. I was pick sticking both in and out on the trail and you had to watch out for little American toads as they were under foot a lot of the time. They had a good hatch this year for sure.
This year’s Loon Census is Saturday 7/20, and some local lakes are still needing a person to take a look that morning from 8am to 9am and see if there are loons on that lake, but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Baby American Toad
