Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 283

Here it is election day, and the temperature here hit up in the sixties and seventies in the Rochester area which might break records for this date in November. The wind tonight is blowing from the south at fifteen miles an hour and the temperature is still in the low sixties. I pulled my owl nets as they were just blowing in the wind and not many little birds would be up flying very long in winds like that. A couple of days ago I caught a Saw Whet Owl on my first check about seven thirty, but a local Barred Owl had found it in the net before me and killed it. The Barred Owl was stuck for a little bit but got out and flew up in the Beech tree overhead. I collected the dead owl and took a couple of photos of the Barred Owl who was watching me the whole time. It finally did fly away. I checked every fifteen minutes after that happened and my next check I had, and another little owl and the Barred Owl was right near it and flew into the net trying to get away. It bounced off onto the ground, looked around and walked under the net and flew away. I called Sue and David Beck who came up to see me band and process the little owl. Sue loves owls and I have tried for two years to get one when she could see it. They left and I caught another owl when I picked up the nets at ten. That made thirty-one Saw Whet Owls banded, and one recapture from Michigan. I also learned today that one of my Saw Whets, which I banded on 10/23/24, was recaptured in Pennsylvania. 

One night Ann and Tom Payne stopped by while I was putting up my nets and they stayed for a couple checks, but we caught nothing. They left and the very next check I had two owls. I processed them and then a half hour later I caught two more. Then when I picked up the nets, I caught a fifth one. Last year I caught four on November fourth and five on November fifth, the last night I had the nets up. 

Debbie Haynes related a Saw Whet Owl story to me today with a picture that their daughter took out in a bush near their feeders in Oswego. They heard the birds making a fuss outside and found the little owl hiding in a bush being bombed by the other little birds. 

Last week I took a trip up to ride part of the rail trail from Lake Clear down to Floodwood Road. Before riding I went out to the beach on Lake Clear to see if there were any Loons still hanging out there. The wind was blowing right out of the south and white caps were washing up on the shoreline. I saw no Loons out in the waves. Biking south on the rail trail I was facing a head wind but, in the woods, it wasn’t that bad. There were several others out and about as temperatures were in the high fifties after being twenty that morning. I took a lunch break and stopped at Green Pond which is just west of the tracks. I saw a pair of Loons there and made a few calls and one came over to check me out. I saw a couple Ravens, one Herring Gull, a couple White Breasted Nuthatches and a small flock of Black Capped Chickadees. I had passed the DEC Salmon Hatchery and Maintenance Shop which are right off the tracks before the road to Little Clear Pond. There was a parking area on the east side of the tracks, but I didn’t get the name of the side road that went to it. I passed Rat Pond on the east side and then Little Rainbow Pond on the west side. There were some old beaver ponds along the tracks. Then you come to Hoel Pond on the east side with a short carry over to Turtle Pond on the west side. Then it is a pedal to Floodwood Road with Long Pond off to the west along the way. I was passed by many bikers along the way and back all out enjoying the beautiful day. No head wind on the way back north. 

My Christmas cactus that the raccoon knocked off the porch rail and broke off many stems from the plant has recovered and it has twenty-seven blooms today. I saved all the pieces and some of them even have blooms on them. 

Yesterday I had a flock of twenty-one Common Grackles drop in for a snack and seven of them went into the potter traps and they are all wearing bands as they travel south. 

The little bit of snow we got last week may have sparked out the Winter Moths but that’s another story. See ya. 

Photo above: Amy Sauer with Saw Whet Owl