We finally had very nice week weather-wise. It was just a tad cold a couple mornings with temperatures in the high thirties.
I heard the moose at Helldiver Pond was hiding in the fog a couple mornings and that he walked right across the parking lot one afternoon.
I stopped in one morning but he wasn’t there. I did see a nice bear run across a nearby road on my way back from the Cedar River Flow on Friday.
My adventure this week was to travel to Loon Lake, over by Chestertown, to try and catch a loon that had become entangled in fishing line.
A crew had tried to catch the loon a couple days earlier but had no luck.
Nina Schoch, Ellie George and I were on the water at twilight when I saw the bird with my binoculars.
It dove and came up not far from the boat and called to us once.
That was the last we saw of that bird.
We searched the entire lake until midnight. We saw a flock of Geese, a flock of mallard ducks and one herring gull, but no loon.
I think he was diving each time our light crossed his path because we never saw him.
I played the tape several times but never got any response from it. We will probably try for him again when he gets weaker.
He seems to be able to eat and dive okay but he might have trouble flying as the line is quite tight around his head and he might not be able to put his head straight out to fly.
I’m sure we will take another shot at him when the moon phase gets on its darker side.
I had never been out on Loon Lake. The lake did not seem to be too deep and there were weeds nearly everywhere.
Nina downloaded the chip from the female loon on Rat Pond that I caught last week.
This bird had traveled to the coast to the same area reported on the loon’s satellite transmitter showed that it had traveled to the same area of the coast that it had traveled a few years ago.
We may try for her mate when the moon gets darker to see if he goes to that same area during the winter too.
There are a couple other pairs of loons wearing GEO locaters that now have chicks that didn’t when we were banding. We may try for these during the dark period of the moon also.
They are located at Massa-wepie Lake above Tupper Lake, Honnedaga Lake down by South Lake and Boy Scout Clear Pond north of Paul Smith’s.
If anyone knows where the successful loon nest was on White Lake, please let me know. I would like to collect the eggshells from that nest.
I went out tonight to photograph the super moon when it came up over Raquette Lake by Brown’s Tract Stream.
I tried to get Karen to go, so I could get a picture of her holding the super moon in her hands.
She declined, so I set up my camera on a 10-second delay a few times to see if I could get a shot of myself holding it.
One of them didn’t come out too bad.
Then another guy came along, Skip from Eagle Bay, to shoot the moon. While we were on the bridge, I got him to hold the moon in his hand before it got out of reach.
It didn’t come out too bad, but then it began to refract in Brown’s Tract Stream.
By that time the mosquitoes were under attack and I quit.
Diane Bowes will give a power point program at View on Tuesday, August 26 at 7 p.m.
She will be showing pictures of her birding adventure to Bhutan, a small country just north of India.
There is no charge but a donation to the Eco Gallery would be appreciated.
There is an early Canada goose season in this area. Check out the DEC map for other areas of the state where the season will run from September 1 through the 25th.
The limit is 15 birds a day with a limit of seven shots in your gun—non-lead shot is required.
A duck stamp and HIP number is also required and both can be found on line.
The HIP number can also be found by calling 1-888-427-5447.
I hear from so many people that the geese are causing a problem. Hunting is one way to control the numbers and put some meat on the table.
I know they are nesting on most of the local lakes and their numbers have been increasing each year.
This will give local hunters something to hunt between Labor Day and the beginning of early bear season.
All summer I’ve been asked what are the flowers at Point Park and at the Nutty Putty mini golf course in Old Forge.
They are cleomes, and are deer resistant.
The leaves are changing, but that’s another story. See ya.