Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 271

Hurricane Debby carried quite a wallop as it went through the Adirondacks dumping several inches of rain flooding roads and washing out some in other places and winds enough to take down some trees over power lines and roads. The area was soaked by rains earlier this month and the 4 to 7 inches of rain from Debby had no place to go but downstream. When it couldn’t do that, it spread out in the flat areas in places a few feet deep. Many vehicles got caught in these areas and many homes and businesses were flooded. I had four and a half inches of rain here at Eight Acre Wood and some in the Old Forge Area reported up to seven inches. 

The outlet of Windfall Pond went over the Big Moose Road as did Constable Creek over the Higby Road. The outlet of West Pond was half over the Rondaxe Road still on Saturday as beavers have nearly plugged the culvert there. 

The Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation got the last three days of banding done just in time. The first night 7/4 working out of Saranac Lake we traveled to Putnam Pond where we hadn’t tested a Loon for quite a while. It was foggy but we got on the Loons right away and caught a big male right away and took it over to the other boat for processing. We saw the big chick several times, but it wouldn’t hold for the light, and we never saw the other adult Loon. We traveled to Jabe Pond just south of Hague where we had banded two Loons a couple of years ago. We had also caught a female Loon there which was tangled in fishing line in 2016 and only gave her a silver band because we didn’t know if she was a resident or just one there fishing. It turned out she was the resident female, and she has had a successful nest there nearly every year since. This year she had two chicks in her family. There were all kinds of Loon calls as we were taking gear to the pond from the parking lot and then nothing as if there wasn’t a Loon on the pond. One team in a canoe found the two big chicks but they played keep away. We got on the female from our canoe which I was operating, Ken netting, and Gabby lighting. Ken missed his first attempt but netted her on the second try and he said coming in, well he meant just that and put the net right over my head loon and all. I got her and the net into the bottom of the canoe and covered her with a towel until we could get her on Ken’s lap. Sure, enough it was the female with the silver band from 2016. We took her in for processing and the other team gave up trying to catch the chicks which were big enough to band. The other female of the other pair on the pond we caught in 2021, and was banded as a Juvenile on Little Moose Lake in Old Forge in 2011. After coming down the mountain and hooking up the boats we made a pit stop at the Hague Town Beach for some neat sunrise pictures in the fog. Naturally, we saw a Loon there, a family of fourteen Common Mergansers, a Black Backed Gull, a Belted Kingfisher, and a Great Blue Heron. Some of the younger members of our team had to slide on the slide and get on the tee-ter-tot-ter(seesaw). Some photos oops for sure to be seen later. I slept at home base from there getting in at eight am.

Night two went to Upper St. Regis Lake boat launch where we met up with Jennie Sausville who watches these lakes. We traveled into Spitfire Lake where we soon found the pair with a boat light on each bird. We caught the female and the other boat the male. Just after we got the Loon in the boat another local boat pulled up alongside and said what are you doing. This is now about eleven and the rain had stopped, and we told them what we were doing, and they traveled on. We tied our boats together and processed both loons before release. We traveled down the outlet into Lower St. Regis, and we were on a Loon almost immediately, but that Loon played keep away for nearly two hours with us, seeing it a few times, but it never stayed up. The other team got on the adult and chick going down the outlet and they got tangled in the weeds and never did catch either loon. It was very foggy as we traveled back to the landing. I nearly did a belly flop while loading the boats but with a lot of cheering from the group I regained my feet and stayed upright. It was like an Olympic event, but I don’t know if they were cheering for the flop or me staying dry at five in the morning. 

Night number three was visitor night at Middle Pond off Floodwood Road and there were several visitors and some of the staff from the office. We only put out one canoe and they were on a Loon and big chick within sight of the landing. They caught the male who had been previously banded in 2008. They went right back out and caught the big chick, which was brought in, processed and banded also, the biggest chick we caught, surely a male with a leg size nearly as big as dad’s. The female played keep away and it was not caught. We traveled from there to Dry Channel Pond a little further down that road on private property. The loon was calling at the far end of the pond. As we put in there were moose tracks in the mud along the shoreline. It was really foggy as the temperature had dropped and a new team of Keith, Griffin and Karli went down the pond. We heard a lot of calling after the team caught the chick, but they couldn’t catch the adult female. They brought it in for processing and it was too little to band. The female could hear the chick calling and came right up to the dock near where we released the chick, and they got together. That ended the six nights of banding as it was too late to get on a third pond. 

Summer is winding down but there are still several events locally, almost one every night when you look at the calendar but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Sunrise in fog and 14 Common Mergansers Hague, Lake George