Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 299

Winter gave us a little break this week as I only had to blow snow one day. Earlier in the week I had a neighbor plow out the snow as my energy levels with this type A influenza didn’t let me blow out the whole driveway. Plow driver said he and a helper had shoveled over forty roofs and I gave him a couple more that needed doing. We haven’t had this much snow in years and some roofs will not take the weight. Many people between here and Utica have more snow than we do as the lake effect bands have been hitting them daily and going just south of us. 

People down in the valleys better be thinking about how all this snow is going to melt and not evaporate into the air, but flow down the streams and rivers that flow out of the park to the north, east, west, and south. It isn’t done snowing yet, still a month to go. We can only hope it melts slowly and doesn’t go out in one big woosh. 

I haven’t been getting out and about very much, lots of sleeping and watching the birds at the feeders. I did get down and fed and counted the ducks in the Inlet Channel every day and only missed them once. The dry hydrant pipe behind the Post Office is frozen now and the ducks fed on the ice over the pipe. The count I got last night was 125 Mallards, 6 Black Ducks and one Black-Mallard cross. I heard that they go over to Eagle Bay Park and they are fed in a yard there every day, so they are fat and happy. 

I told you last week about how the American Goldfinch numbers had increased at my feeder to over eighty. I kept checking for a Pine Siskin in that big flock but never saw any. One night I looked out just before dark and most of the birds had gone to bed, but I had one who somehow got into the feeder and couldn’t get out. I went out and it was really cold, looking through the glass side I could see it was a Pine Siskin, and I let it go. I did see it the next day feeding with the over 80 Goldfinches. Some other local feeders have also reported some Pine Siskins at their feeders, more up around Newcomb and Saranac Lake. 

My friend Stacy Robinson chases rare birds that are reported on E-bird, and last weekend she went to Constableville in Lewis County to see a Black-headed Grosbeak that was coming to a feeder there. People that had the feeders were letting the public view this bird and Stacy got a photo of the bird. There was also an Evening Grosbeak male feeding at this feeder. Locally Don Kelly has a single Male Evening Grosbeak using his feeders the last couple of weeks. I saw one at my feeders this fall for a couple of days and this may be the same bird. 

I got the biggest surprise yesterday as I was on the phone, I looked out and there was a fuzzy feather ball on the feeder. I got out the binoculars and it was a Northern Saw-Whet Owl just sitting there and some of the little birds were still getting seeds right next to it. I took a few photos of the little birds getting seeds right beside the owl. I knew it must be hungry, so I went to the freezer and got a couple of mice. I put them in the microwave and thawed them out for twenty seconds. I broomed my way out to the feeders and got within three feet of the owl. Took a photo as it was watching me. I turned my back, and it was gone making no flight noise, I didn’t see where it went. I left the mice on the platform feeder, but it didn’t come back and get them as they are still there this morning. These little owls will spend the winter feeding on little mice under feeders and catching little birds that hang out in trees during the nights around feeders. Usually, they go a little further south for the winter and come back in early March to nest. With this much snow cover they are having a tough time finding food for sure. It happened on one of my Project Feeder Watch Count days and I even got some good photos. 

Years ago, now we had a Northern Saw Whet Owl spend the winter around our feeder at the Forest Ranger Headquarters. We would see it dive down in the light outside of the living room window and catch some little critters under the feeders. They were some flying squirrels using the feeders at night and I’m sure he got a couple of them. I was also feeding the deer and one night we came home from a basketball game and the garage door was open and when I pulled the car in there was the little owl sitting on the grain bags watching for mice, that I’m sure were getting their supper there and so was he by catching them. I did get a photo of the owl before he flew out of the garage. 

I didn’t make it to any of the Inlet Frozen Fire and Lights Events over the weekend but talking with some folks who did they said they had a fun time and enjoyed all of them. I heard the pond hockey parking in Eagle Bay took up all the parking lots plus both sides of the highway both ways in and out of Eagle Bay. Lots of people were getting to enjoy winter in the Adirondacks and not riding snowmobiles. 

Maple syrup makers are going to have a shorter season this year, but that’s another story See ya. 

Photo above: Northern Saw-Whet Owl on the feeder