The weather went wild up and down the east coast this weekend with freezing temperatures in northern Florida, snow in South and North Carolina and nearly two feet of snow in Maine.
They even opened a ski resort in North Carolina.
The most we got out of it was a strong north wind and just a dusting of snow with overnight lows in the 20s.
Parts of California got much needed rain which caused mud slides. And the lava keeps flowing on the big island of Hawaii, taking houses in its path.
The north winds moved many birds south right into the snow which was probably a surprise to them.
I caught saw whet owls three nights this week…then I caught leaves a couple other nights when the wind blew.
Juncos were here in big numbers one day as I put bands on about 50 of them along with several white throated sparrows.
The downy woodpeckers keep coming from somewhere as I get a couple new ones each week.
I had a male cardinal show up Thursday but didn’t catch him. He was gone the next morning.
I still didn’t get any moose pictures on my trail camera, just several coyotes wearing different coats.
However I did get a picture of a piebald deer picture which was neat. It was mostly white on the front shoulders and on one hind quarter.
Kerry Rogers got a picture of a bull moose down by his camp in Miller Park near Morehouse. I keep seeing tracks around but they’re not in view of the camera.
So they are around, just not in the right place at the right time.
I went up north to Mountain Pond by Paul Smiths College on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week where the hatchery workers were taking Windfall strain brooktrout eggs.
Running the operation was Pat Emerson from the South Otselic Fish Hatchery. Also from South Otselic were Bruce Ryan and Mike Speziale.
Others working on the project were John Gray from the Rome Hatchery, Brett D’Arco from the Warrensburg Hatchery and Dustin Dominesey, a fisheries tech from Ray Brook.
The last two were just measuring and weighing each trout after their eggs or sperm were taken.
The objective was to take 25,000 eggs from this pond and Black Pond (just down the road) in five days.
They did well in Mountain Pond that first day as each female gave them about 800 eggs. They put eggs from five females and sperm from five males in a jug that would number about 4,000 eggs.
They had four jugs so they took about 16,000 eggs that day alone so they were well on their way to their goal.
Also netted were three washtubs of bullheads, golden shiners and some chubs, which were going to be eagle food.
I took out some of the bigger bullheads for a few snacks at home. This was the first time in years that I had cleaned bullheads, but it didn’t take long to get the knack of it again.
I had some for supper last night and they were great…I do love bullheads.
They took ten trout to be tested for pollutants at the Rome Lab.
Pat Emerson, who was running the fish take, has a camp on Upper Browns Tract Pond.
He said the eggs would be raised to fish at his hatchery as the Rome Hatchery still has a disease and will not be raising fish there this year.
He is very near retirement but someone will certainly fill his shoes as they were all learning the process and some had done this project before.
The biggest thing for me this week was that I got a new truck. This is the first new vehicle I ever had.
Karen has had three new vehicles: two trucks for her wood business and a RAV4 after she was done with wood. I got a silver four-wheel drive Toyota Tacoma. Just yesterday I got some mud on the tires.
Regular deer and bear season is open so be aware when you are out and about. It certainly isn’t as big a thing as it was 30 years ago.
Cars would line up at the Limekiln Gate waiting to get in three-wide in the highway and a quarter-mile down the road.
The big thing now seems to be the early bear season when most of the campsites are full in the Plains.
Not many bear are taken though as you can’t see anything for all the foliage that is still on the trees.
Most of the regular season deer hunters are waiting for some tracking snow on the ground.
These hunters can get on a big track and follow it for miles and never see another hunter.
Watching the landlocked salmon egg take…but that’s another story. See ya.