Keep your camera handy: Moose reportedly making local rounds

The rain continues to fall, but it looks like a couple of good days are coming our way. I sure hope so as I will soon be at the Crown Point Bird Banding Station at Lake Champlain which is presently at record high levels.

I will be padding in a canoe checking the nets on the lake.

Route 9N, the road that runs along the lake south of Port Henry, has been closed for over a week now as there is over two feet of water on the road.

It was still raining over that way today (5/6) so I’m sure I’ll have to find a different way to get there tomorrow.

I caught a few birds early in the day today.

I saw a couple of Yellow Rumped Warblers, Flicker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Woodcock heard Winter Wren and Blue-headed Vireo.

Just before 7 a.m., Karen said she thought she saw a Hummingbird go by. We put the feeders up yesterday and sure enough, right at 7 a.m. it landed on the feeder long enough for us to see it.

I called Marcia Roblee and asked if she had seen one yet. Normally she gets one before I do, but she said she hadn’t put her feeders up yet because it had been so cold and wet.

She said the Hummingbirds usually come on her son’s birthday, which was yesterday. I’m sure she had her feeders up within the hour.

I remember a few years back when we had over a foot of snow on Mother’s Day, the birds flocked to the feeders.

There were Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Evening Gros-beaks plus lots of little birds.

I had to thaw out the Hummer feeder several times to keep the couple that were there going.

Speaking of snow, I saw some today as I pedaled my bike to Red River in the Moose River Recreation Area.

It started as ice pellets when I got by Governor Brook, but when I reached a high point behind Seventh Lake Mountain it had turned to snow.

I found a big cake of ice about four feet by four feet that had fallen from the ledge by Governor Brook. That was the only piece that I found, but it was enough to keep your trout or beer cold.

There were Moose tracks in the road from the Sump Snowmobile Trail to the Red River that continued down the Rockdam Road.

I did not get any pictures however. Now that we know they are around it’s a good idea to keep our cameras handy.

I heard that a cow with last year’s calf was seen on the Thendara Golf Course last week. They were probably trying to find a dry spot.

Despite all the rain we have had, the road has held up pretty well. It was a little slow going in spots as it felt like I was pedaling through cement.

Along the way I saw one Ruffed Grouse, one Yellow Rumped Warbler, one Hermit Thrush and a couple of Chickadees.

When we were down south at Sanibel we went into Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge every evening to watch the Roseate Spoonbills come in to feed just before dark.

During our three-week stay they only failed us once when they did a fly-over instead of a landing.

The first night we went, 35 pretty pink birds flew in right on cue. Their numbers increased each night, but unfortunately some nights they came early and I missed their fly-in and landing.

One night they put on quite a show when a strong wind blew in. The birds nearly turned upside down as they came in for a landing. Sometimes the sun was behind them which made for tough photography.

But other nights those pink birds were on the other side of the road and the sun hit them just perfectly.

We weren’t the only ones who came every night hoping to get a better shot.

One couple was from Baltimore and the other was from the state of Washington. Another guy was from Ballston Lake which was just south of where we grew up.

Cameras clicked away and we took multiple shots of the Spoonbills flying over and around us near the observation tower.

One night we saw 101 of them, and the next night there were 116. That night I caught one scratching its chin with its foot as it flew onto land.

Karen would ask me, “How many more Spoonbill shots do you need?”

The noseums controlled the crowd even when the wind was blowing. Their bite smarts and burns for a little while but goes away quite quickly.

When I would get back in the car I would share a few with Karen, who was reading her book and watching the Spoonbills bug-free from inside the car.

Results of the Great Backyard Bird Count held in February are in, but that’s another story. See ya.