Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 296
The snow continues to fall on our landscape and in my driveway. I measured two feet on the dam after Friday night's four inches. Friday was the only day this week that I did not blow out the driveway, thank God for snowblowers. The -20 was the coldest that I have recorded this winter but some of the days that just got into single digits with the wind blowing were a lot colder. A few new birds that finally came to the feeder that have been feeding on yellow birch seeds were American Goldfinch. On those cold mornings there were no birds around any of the feeders, so I knew there was a predator lurking not far away. I finally got to see it: a Sharp-shinned Hawk who has been making a shot trough every morning now. I have not seen it catch anything, but I am sure it has. I saw some feathers on the snow one morning so I ‘m sure he hit something.
My sister in Clifton Park has three different hawks lurking around her feeding area: a Sharp-shinned, Coopers and Northern Goshawk. She said her Mourning Dove population has only a couple left. The doves are fast on the fly but seem to freeze on the ground before they take off and that is where the hawks hit them. She had a few Eastern Bluebirds coming to her mealworm feeders, but she has not seen them in a week now. See did see the hawks catch a couple Northern Cardinals this winter. You could say she has a good hawk feeder but then everybody must eat.
My amaryllis have just about finished blooming, one had five blooms and the other had only two. So, I had four out of six plants that I saved from last year that had blooms. One other has just started to show some green so it may put out a flower. I have a rubber tree started from a sprout off the top of my big plant. This is the third one that I have tried and finally got one to take root. I did not do anything different, and I even have three leaves that I cut off that are all going to make new plants. My six-foot-tall original plant has two new sprouts at the top which would make new plants. It was too tall when we brought it in for the winter from the back deck, so it had a trim back.
A couple of corrections from last week’s writing on the Waterfowl Count. The count went north to Chazy Landing, which is above Cumberland Head, one rarity was American Wigeon not Northern Wigeon and one photo of duck flocks was taken from the Crown Point State Historic Site not at Willsboro Bay, my mistakes. Both compilers told me that not all the ducks counted ate fish as many of them feed on crustaceans and aquatic bugs not fish. They do feed on the zebra mussels, but I am sure if a small fish comes along, they will not pass it up. Many think that Mallards only eat vegetation and snails, but I have seen them gobbling up smelt eggs from the smelt runs in the Fulton Chain and even eating adult smelt that were laying the eggs.
The x-country skiing has been great all week as I have seen many going by on the trail behind the house. Then Friday when the temperature went up and wet snow started falling it got sticky in a hurry. If you did not have a scraper and a candle or wax, you were just walking on your skis. I saw one fella going sliding by and about a half hour later he came out carrying his skis that were not sliding. I took a couple tumbles out there that day, not being on my skis in two years sure made a difference as I need to learn my turning all over again. I think a new pair of high ankle boots will help. Going off to break out an unbroken trail in two feet of snow is not easy and it will take you much longer than skiing on a broken track. Take that into consideration if you do so and it will take you much longer and you will be using much more energy. Get out before dark and if not make sure you have a head lamp, it is not fun skiing in the dark. I was once beaver trapping using skies and going all the way to Horn Lake from the Stink Lake Gate. I went in the early morning on a crust with a little snow on top. Got there in no time and I caught a couple beaver that I skinned out there. The temperature went up and the crust would not hold me up as I was coming out. I stopped at Balsam Lake and made a fire as the temperature went down and froze the crust back up. I was late getting out that night and glad I had a light for that last mile ski to my snowmobile.
Groundhog Day has passed, and Ellie George has again this year photographed Paradox Pete, her local groundhog who saw his shadow that day. Her predictions from her local Groundhog have been correct for seven years so I guess we will have another six weeks of winter, so keep that snowblower in repair.
Watch out for slush under the snow on most of the lakes but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Paradox Pete seeing his shadow by Ellie George
