There has been a lot of water over the dam since I last wrote. The shortest day of the year passed us by so there is more daylight each day until next December.

I’ve been chasing problem beavers that love to flood the trails. They had Trail 10 under a foot of water the length of a football field when I got there a week ago. 

I pulled the dam some on Goose Pond and it was nearly dry the next day.

The water from the pond was going down the trail and then back into the stream below the dam causing a big mess.

The rains came and some water was back in the trail but not as bad as it was.

A couple cold nights and that trail should be good for snowmobiles again…with some snow of course. That’s the big thing we lack right now.

Here it is nearly a third of the way through winter and we have bare ground.

The varying hare are wondering whether they should turn back to brown or stay white. When they show up like a marshmallow they are an easy catch for an owl at night.

There seems to be several owls, mostly barred, in this area. We saw two yesterday while traveling the Moose River Road during daylight hours.

We also saw an owl fly out of the cemetery at the end of the road in Port Leyden near dark last night which could have been a short eared owl.

Those cedar trees in the cemetery are perfect cover for both short and long eared owls in winter.

We were headed up the see the snowy owls that are in good numbers just north of Lowville on the Number Three Road, Willow Grove Road and Route 177 in the wind farm turbines.

We saw seven in a couple hours, three of which were nearly all-white males. With most of the snow gone in that area they stuck out like sore thumbs.

Most of the others were power pole sitting and looking and listening for food in the open fields.

We also saw one rough legged hawk sitting in a tree near the road.

I’ve only heard of one snowy in the area east of Middleville so far this year. Many folks have been looking. Only one has also been seen in the area in Vermont where all the owls were last year. These totals may go up if we ever have winter.

I’ve had a couple mature bald eagles on my pond for about a month now.

The other night when some of the family was here they posed side by side.

I set up the telescope and Jake took a picture with his cell phone through the scope which didn’t come out too bad.

The Old Forge Christmas Count on December 14 was about average with 25 species and 402 birds seen.

They were mostly found at feeders as it was hard to find a bird in the woods with no wild food out there.

There were several waterfowl in the open water of the channel going from First Lake to Old Forge Pond.

Last year’s totals included 27 species and 637 birds.

The biggest difference at feeders this year was that only two American goldfinch were seen versus last year’s total of 289.

I would like to thank all the feeder watchers who reported: Diane Bowes, Jason Pallotta, Jody Pross, Louise Watson, Debi Ritz, Peg Flora, Carol Rivet, Don Kelly, Amy Sauer, Tina Bradt, Culleen Doolittle, Rod Phinney, and Reed Proper.

Birds seen were: common goldeneye-2, mallard-10, hooded merganser-8, Canada goose-64, American crow-12, common raven-2, wild turkey-55, ruffed grouse-3, mourning dove-4, bald eagle-2, barred owl-1, pileated woodpecker-2.

Hairy woodpecker-26, downy woodpecker-15, white breasted nuthatch-16, red breasted nuthatch-13, black-capped chickadee-122, blue jay-5, northern cardinal-4, tufted titmouse-2, European starling-10, white-throated sparrow-1, American tree sparrow-7, slate colored junco-14, American goldfinch-2.

We missed black-backed woodpecker even though I went three different places looking for it.

In Third Lake Swamp I spished a couple times and the barred owl came in to see me, which is a good bird to get.

Another good bird was the leucistic downy woodpecker found at a Thendara feeder. It was all white and brown, no black, and had a pink bill.

The duck count and backyard bird counts are coming up…but that’s another story. See ya.