By Gary Lee
Sorry to hear that you folks up north had to hunt for your Easter eggs in a snow storm that carried through the next day. The way this spring is going I think you are going to pay big-time for maple syrup.
I saw where it was -14 in northern Maine this morning (4/7) and probably not much warmer around Old Forge.
Our trip south went well but we didn’t run out of snow until we got part way through Pennsylvania.
Going over the mountains there the snow was still stuck on all the scrub pines which we had never seen before.
We missed all the bad storms that came across the country by just a day and so far it has not rained on our vacation.
Speaking of rain, less than a week ago parts of Kentucky got more than they needed.
When six inches of rain falls a few hours on a city like Louisville there is bound to be flooding and loss of life—which there was.
Then you look out west and California is begging for some snow and rain, which they may get this week.
No snow pack in their mountains means no water in their reservoirs.
Just the day before we left I had a bunch of birds around the feeders with some new birds that had come north after a couple of sunny days.
I banded over thirty redpolls, three hoary redpolls, a song sparrow, a junco, a black capped chickadee and a red-winged blackbird.
There were four bald eagles working on my carcasses and one day a golden eagle stopped in for a snack.
From my trail camera I have seen a barred owl feeding every night…sometimes it’s out during the daylight hours. Fourteen to sixteen ravens have been working that area also.
Speaking of ravens, the nest on the ledge at the top of the summit fell off the ledge but they have built in a new spot along the ledge closer to Old Forge.
You can see some white wash on the rock ledge and the nest is just west of that. I’m sure they are sitting on eggs by now.
The pair of bald eagles over by Ticonderoga is sitting on eggs already as it takes these bigger birds a while to get the young out and about from the nest.
On the way south we stopped at the Myakka River State Park not far from Sarasota.
There were lots of good birds when we stopped there last year so we decided to stop there again.
We stayed not far from there the night before and I saw lots of nice birds.
A great blue heron was sitting on a nest right next to the hotel parking lot.
There were several gators in the small lake in back of the hotel and lots of water birds around the shoreline. I saw my first warblers there: a palm and prairie.
There were warnings posted around—similar to bear warnings at our campsites— regarding black vultures.
The signs read: I eat rubber! Windshield wipers, window seals and vinyl roofs. Yum-yum, eat-um-up!
It warned that you may hear loud “booms” mornings and evenings as the rangers use an air cannon to disperse the birds.
We saw lots of black vultures in one place but none ate our wipers.
There were lots of shore birds around the lake shore which could be seen from a platform at the east end of the lake.
I met a guy there from Kansas who was photographing some of the birds.
Not far from the parking lot there were two young barred owls just out of the nest and an adult sitting there watching her young.
A red shouldered hawk was trying to nest close by and it was very upset every time the owl made calls to the young ones.
We made a quick stop at the Oscar Scherer State Park to get a possible look at Florida scrub jays.
It was in the heat of the day and except for a couple blue jays that flew by we didn’t see any scrub jays on our short walk.
We finally got our feet in the Sanibel Beach sand on Easter Sunday along with thousands of others.
The beach was what I would call full from one end to the other and not much place for birds.
There were a few terns and brown pelicans diving for fish right off the beach.
The first time Karen walked into the ocean there was a big pod of small sting rays swimming by, which got her attention.
More reports from Sanibel Island, but that’s another story. See ya.