Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 286
The Cyclone Bomb hit the west coast from California to Canada with more than fifteen inches of rain in places and in the higher elevations over four feet of snow in the mountains. Some ski areas opened the earliest ever in Nevada. That storm is moving eastward and will be here for Thanksgiving and looking at the temperatures we will be getting some snow out of this. The snow we got last week along with the rain sure helped with the fires in southern New York and New Jersey. They got more snow than we did up this way.
The pond was frozen but thawed out during the week and I fed the trout just last night which might be the last time for this year as it froze over again last night with the temperature at 18 this morning. Walking in the woods yesterday on the frozen snow was like walking on eggshells but not as slippery as it was the day before when it wasn’t frozen. I was bragging that I hadn’t fallen all summer while going into ponds watching Loons, and don’t I go across the dam into the woods and do a face plant. After checking that nothing broke, I went a little further and did it all over again. Luckily, there are lots of leaves this fall to fall into, and I didn’t hit any rocks under the leaves. Just got a few black and blue marks to show for the effort.
I read on the DEC trail report that the bridge over Constable Creek had been replaced after being out for two years and what a bridge they built. Much higher than the old one and if that one washes out look out downstream. It has got to be close to if not one hundred feet long. I counted the plank treads yesterday and there were 105 with an inch spacing. Diane Bowes talked with the crew working on the bridge and asked how they got these big stringers into the site, and they said they were drawn in with horses.
This crew also got the bridge going into Windfall Pond pulled back into place and not on a slant like it had been for a couple of years. This crew did plank the bridge going into Shallow Lake over Beaver Brook but once across that bridge it is now a bog that is deeper than hip boots in many places. I would call this the bridge to nowhere as it is two hundred feet to high ground on the other side. It needs some beaver dam removal downstream to make this passable. If you look at the trail reports, you will see where beaver flooding has caused trail closure in some places and very difficult crossings in many other places.
Speaking of beavers, I got some good pictures of the Beaver Full Moon right out my second-floor window and I didn’t have to stand out in the cold and wait for it to come up.
With the winds yesterday there were more geese moving south. The flock that has been on the golf course for the last week left early yesterday using the tail wind to their advantage as they were moving right along. Many small birds have moved south with winds during the night. I haven’t had a Blue Jay in a week. The turkeys must be up in the trees budding along with the Ruffed Grouse. Both do eat small leafy vegetation like winter green and partridge berry leaves which stay green all winter. There have been a few passing birds eating the fruit on the crab apple trees along the highway in Inlet and the berries on the domestic bittersweet vine on the arbor by Tony Harpers. That vine is listed as invasive. Birds eat these berries as they do the Japanese Barberry, and the seeds pass through their system. Where they pass these seeds along in their travels so go the seeds for these plants.
The bucks are chasing the does and some are getting hit by cars in the area. Much of their food is roadside as they are edge eaters so be careful while driving, especially at night. Going to Utica this week I saw where four deer had been hit over night. I got the makings for Karen’s fruitcake, for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, which Erin and I are putting together.
Keep those bird feeders full as you never know what might drop in, but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Full Beaver Moon
