Most of the wild weather just missed us, but the seven inches of rain that fell in three hours over in Port Leyden was too much for lots of folks. That much rain in such a short period of time would be way too much for most places to handle as it makes rivers where there weren’t any to begin with.
The crazy weather continues all over the world not just here in the U.S., with floods in some places and drought in others.
We just escaped getting a frost the other morning when it was 34 degrees here. The blackflies had to put on their snowshoes.
I have to mention the flies, as they have been pretty bad in most of the places I’ve had to go. Just this morning (6/1) on Limekiln Lake there were more than I could handle, so I put on my bug jacket.
When on the down-wind side of the islands the flies were just laying in wait for some new blood to go by…and that was me. If I didn’t have a bug jacket I would have had to retreat.
One pair of loons had two eggs in their nest but it was abandoned and the eggs were cold.
I think the flies were the cause as they swarm the nesting adult.
I watched a couple loons the other day on a private lake. Every time they surfaced the flies would be all over them so they would dive under again.
They never did get away from the flies. They also went off their nest with two eggs but they went back later in the day.
I saw a loon sitting on a bog at another lake I checked today. For years I have looked at the bog and wondered why a loon didn’t nest there.
Well, this year it took my advice and there she sat right out in the middle of an open bay just like she was on a platform.
Before I saw her I found a big snapping turtle gathering some rays out on a big flat rock in the sun.
I went to Ferd’s Bog last week with a group from Sagamore. The gray jays were right there waiting for us but no one had a peanut butter sandwich for them.
They stuck around for several minutes waiting for someone to put out some food. Finally someone gave up their granola bar which the birds probably ate after we left.
We also got a pair of palm warbler, yellow-rumped warbler and common yellow throat, plus song sparrow and an olive-sided flycatcher who was doing his pip pip call.
It was early morning so he wasn’t into his quick three beers yet.
Buckbean flowers were out all around the end of the boardwalk—more than I’ve ever seen there. The little southern twayblade, which is only two to three inches tall, was just starting to bloom.
The pink lady slippers were only up about four inches so it’s going to be a week before they are showing their colors. On another outing I found several pink and white lady slippers in bloom.
The little yellows are out along my driveway. They, along with most wildflowers, are about two weeks late.
The wildflowers that live under the forest canopy usually are done blooming about the time the leaves come out.
This year they didn’t even get a chance to bloom as a warm rain and sunshine pushed out the tree leaves in less than a week.
Many of these little plants are still trying to catch up and blooming in the shade now.
I found a new plant—if you can believe that—as I was picking up litter along the South Shore Road. When I saw it I knew I had never seen it before and I had to look it up in Newcomb’s Field Guide.
It was wood anemone, a small plant not more than a few inches tall. lt has three to five leaflets in a whorl with three leaves on each and a small five-petal white flower not more than an inch across.
I’ll get some seeds from this when they are ready. I’m sure it will grow in my garden as it lives in the salt along the highway.
Speaking of flowers along the highway, the Herkimer County Highway Department has brought several flowers into our area—some good, some bad.
One of the first ones was Golden Alexanders, which came in gravel or fill that was put along the Big Moose Road. It only grew in a few places. I collected seeds from these and got a few growing at my places.
Now the shoulders along the first four miles of the road are mostly covered with this flower.
The bad one, wild parsnip, came from seeds in the gravel that was put on the shoulders of the highway.
The majority of this is up between Big Moose and the firehouse on both sides of the highway.
It’s just a green plant now but soon it will put up a yellow flower. The sap from this plant can cause first and second degree burns.
Caution is advised if you are cutting it with a weed whacker.
When cutting the plant down, wear gloves, eye protection and keep your skin covered.
Garlic mustard is still on the move, but that’s another story. See ya.