The King Fire is still burning out of control in northern California with fire crews from all over the country there to help fight it.
It ran fifteen miles in just one day and is now over 150,000 acres in size. Over 5,000 people in the path of the fire have moved out of their homes, though the fire has stayed mostly in the forest.
This is just one of fifteen major fires burning in Northern California.
The Boles Fire burned 150 homes, businesses, the school and library in the town of Weed alone. The fire was determined an arson and a suspect has been charged.
We got another dose of rain over night, which wet down the fallen leaves. The colors are coming on strong with the swamps and shorelines showing some bright colors.
Many of the red maples in my yard that normally turn bright red are, so far, just a dull yellow.
Moose reports are coming in from many places around Old Forge. It’s mating season and the bulls are on the move looking for a cow to hook up with.
Mirnie Kashiwa e-mailed me last night that she had three moose—a female and two smaller ones—in her backyard yesterday.
Unfortunately she didn’t get a picture. She said she has had deer, bear, raccoons, skunks, possum and squirrels in her yard before but never a moose, and then there were three.
I saw tracks in a few places back in the Moose River Area this week but none passed my camera when it was turned on.
The camera went a week in the off position.
There were tracks, but no pictures. Some dummy has to turn it on.
Be a little more cautious when driving the highways. A moose on the hood of your car is much bigger than a deer. It may end up in your lap, which wouldn’t be a good thing.
This week I saw several more monarch butterflies on the move westward. The upcoming weather should get a few more airborne.
I never did find a caterpillar, though some folks in the area did.
The ladies tresses and fringed gentians are in bloom in the clearing between Inlet and Eagle Bay, behind the dry hydrant.
There are a lot of small plants. The hard winter may have killed the bigger ones that were right in the snowmobile trail.
They open up on sunny days and close up at night. They seem to be frost resistant and will bloom right up until snowfall, which might not be that far away.
Enjoy the nice weather…don’t get the skis out yet.
The birds are on the move. This week I caught several nice warblers and saw many more that didn’t get into the net.
Just yesterday (9/21) I caught a blue jay that I banded in September of 2010. It was the first time I had seen it since then.
I had a male and female rose-breasted grosbeak on the feeder yesterday but didn’t catch them.
I did catch a few other blue jays and another juvenile downy woodpecker.
That makes ten so far—two Wilson’s warblers and two Nashville warblers.
I saw a black-throated green warbler in the trees, but he didn’t come down to net level as he went through.
I did get some more black-capped chickadees and American goldfinch.
I went over to Ferd’s Bog the other day with some folks and the gray jay ate bread right out of our hands.
Not much else going on there except for a lot of pitcher plant flower heads sticking up above the bog mat.
We did see a downy woodpecker and a yellow bellied sapsucker. We heard a red-breasted nuthatch and lots of Canada geese flying overhead in the fog.
The spider webs were jeweled necklaces in the sunrise as the moving fog clung on the webs.
The robins cleaned off the two mountain ash tree of berries in Arrowhead Park this week. They didn’t leave even one for the cedar waxwings when they come through.
There are some trees along the shoreline of the lakes that still have berries, but many of the other critters will be working those, including the bears.
I saw where the bear had pulled down some apple tree branches and stripped them of their fruit.
The Great Moose Festival in Indian Lake…but that’s another story. See ya.