By Gary Lee
Another earthquake of 7.3 magnitudes in Nepal, tornadoes and floods ripping across the Midwest and the first hurricane of the season hits the east coast…and all we got was frost, which is not unusual for this early in the season.
There is still snow at the stake on Mt. Mansfield, VT so until that melts, look out.
It was 28 degrees here. That may do in some of the wildflowers and some of the flowering bushes that have been in full bloom for over a week now.
My apple blooms weren’t out so they may be protected.
I hope you covered any flowers that you put out early.
I had a pair of rose breasted grosbeaks at the feeder on May 13 and over 50 purple finch, 20 goldfinch and 20 blue jays.
I had to put up the net and caught over 30 purple finch, six jays, one goldfinch and one new black capped chickadee. They kept hitting the net until 7:30 that night.
So many birds have been hitting the nets at the Crown Point Banding Station that they haven’t had a chance to put up the rest of the nets.
There have been more birds than pickers and banders, but even so, many birds have been caught.
One day they only had up five nets and had to take two of them down because the birds were coming in so fast.
I believe the total species is up to 34 now. I don’t know the total number of birds caught, but I know the yellow rumped warblers have been coming in big numbers.
One new bird that we haven’t caught in years was a blue-gray gnatcatcher.
One year some built a nest not far from the banding table and they were sitting on eggs when we closed up shop.
It was neat to watch them build their nest mostly of cob webs and lichens.
They were not much bigger than a hummer’s nest.
They were very good at having their pictures taken and keeping other bigger birds away from their nest site.
They built in a lower branch of a hawthorn tree and the nest looked much like a bump on the branch.
Another good bird that we don’t catch very often is a Brewster’s Warbler which is a cross of the gold-winged warbler and blue-winged warbler.
This bird takes some of the colors of each bird parent.
The warmer temperatures and thunderstorms that rolled through here sure brought out the leaves.
One day the woods were gray and the next day they were green or shades of green.
That morning we were going down the summit and the varying shades of green were very pretty in the sunlight.
The raven from the nest nearby flew right across the scene.
I had a baby painted turtle come out of its egg and it is now sitting on the little log on my pond.
These little guys don’t hatch the year they are laid. Unlike the snappers, they wait until the following spring to come out.
This little guy is not any bigger than a half dollar.
The estimated deer take for 2014 to 2015 included 130,068 antlerless deer and 108,604 adult bucks.
Statewide, this represents a very stable antlerless harvest—up by 1%—and only a minor decrease in buck take.
Regionally, hunters in the Northern Zone took 29,075, including 16,727 adult bucks.
In the Southern Zone hunters took 206,106 deer, including about 90,702 adult bucks.
Estimated harvest on Long Island was 3,149 deer, including 1,175 adult bucks.
The bow take was down slightly from previous years but this could have been due to too much wet weather in different areas during the bow seasons.
Crown Point Banding Station, 40 years and still going…but that’s another story. See ya.