By Gary Lee
Despite all the snow and cloud cover in PA, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning (2/2), so I guess it’s six more weeks of winter.
Up until today we had ducked all the storms that came from the west which swept south of us and hit the coastline.
I have about 10 inches in my yard and it’s still coming down.
The birds are flocking to the feeders. I now have about 50 redpolls…maybe more as they don’t stay still long enough to get a complete count.
After the snow stops I’ll throw some grit off the garage floor for them for their roughage. That will keep them off the highway.
I didn’t sweep the snow off the deer carcass before the bald eagle stopped here for lunch so he couldn’t find it in the snow.
As soon as I did, he was back and chowing down. He knew it was there in the snow somewhere and landed quite clumsily several times in snow up to his wing pits.
He tried to walk around but didn’t have his snow shoes on and sunk right in.
He’s chowing down now along with the little birds as they know it’s going to be a zippy cold night.
We’ve had several nights under –20; it doesn’t have to get any colder than that.
It was –22 the morning of the Mike Norris Fishing Tournament on Raquette Lake (1/31) and it didn’t get much warmer during the day due to the wind chill.
I was lucky enough to share Tom Beckingham’s ice shanty that was heated with an old Franklin wood stove.
As cold as it was the door was partly open most of the day.
Fishing with us was a friend of Tom’s, Don Hickman, who came up from North Carolina to enjoy our winter weather. That must be a climate change for the body.
He was out chasing flags many times and pulled a couple fish out that had to be returned.
We caught a few smelt in the shanty that produced fish when placed on a tip-up so we know what they eat.
We caught two short laketrout, three smallmouth bass—one over three pounds—and then we got the record breaker, a perch that weighed over a pound.
Tom caught one almost as big so I’m having them for supper tonight along with their eggs.
About 90 ice fishermen, women and several young folks braved the cold and most caught some fish.
It was nice to see the smiles on these younger contestants when they won a prize. I think they may be hooked for life.
Several nice door prizes were given out to some of the lucky contestants whose entry numbers were drawn.
Don’s wife June was lucky and won the 50/50 raffle on the last draw of the day.
This weekend is also big in Raquette Lake as it is ice cutting weekend which normally brings people in from all over the area.
The ice should be as thick as it was last year; it’s neat to watch the ice harvest.
The event goes on most of Saturday (2/7) and some of Sunday (2/8), if they don’t get it all the day before.
Bring your camera or cell phone as there are many photo opps.
Last weekend Karen and I went on a quest for a snowy owl that had been reported at the Oneida County Airport in Rome.
A couple were seen there last year but I never got down that way to see them.
We traveled over the hill through North Western down past Lake Delta where there were several ice fishermen after walleyes and pike.
We went right to the end of the runway where the bird was reportedly seen on E-bird.
I glanced the area and saw nothing so we went all the way around the airport.
We hit every dead end that went up toward the airport and saw nothing but crows and starlings. We toured the industrial complex and main terminal but still didn’t see anything.
We went back to where we started and there was mister owl sitting on the runway lights, right where he was supposed to be.
I got on the tailgate of the truck to take shots over the fence and the bird flew over to the end of the runway, landing in the grass.
Another photographer came along and I showed him the bird. He said last year the bird would land on the telephone poles right beside the highway and you could get some good shots.
He said it must be a different owl.
It was the first time I had ever seen a snowy owl in Oneida County.
Second safest hunting season in New York…but that’s another story. See ya.