by Gary Lee
The weather has turned more winter-like but we still have not had much snow. The mountain tops in the Plains, Little Moose and Kitty Cobble were white yesterday and the ground was white when I got up by the Falls Pond Trail.
I walked all the way to Wolf Creek and never heard one bird during the three-mile hike.
I did see some moose tracks and poop in the trail, but I only saw one other vehicle—parked by Otter Brook—on the entire trip.
There was a nice buck rub on some brush by the Icehouse Pond Trailhead.
The climate change conference is going on in Paris though many still don’t want to believe that there is such a thing.
Most of us just have to look outside and see what a difference there is in the weather from the time we were growing up to today.
Years ago, by this time most of the smaller lakes and some of the larger ones had frozen over.
My dad and I ice fished on Limekiln the day after deer season closed in 1981.
Nowadays you may not get on safe ice until after the new year. We had our shanty on Saratoga Lake during Christmas vacation and now you might not get on that lake until mid-January.
Just this fall my pond has frozen over and thawed out four times. It may go out again tomorrow if it rains.
The little six-point buck that was around the house bought the farm yesterday morning; he was just too tame.
He was chasing the doe around during the week—I hope he caught up with her before he died.
I heard that a couple other bigger bucks were taken back in the Plains but I didn’t see them. The lack of snow sure has cut back on the deer take up this way.
I walked around the Sagamore Lake Trail on Wednesday (11/25) and saw where a buck had scraped under a spruce tree and broke off a few branches with his antlers.
There was about an inch of snow so you could see what was going on there.
I jumped a couple grouse and saw where a big bear had come out into the trail. He walked over a mile down the trail before going over toward the outlet.
He was still in that triangle as I saw no sign of him crossing the trail. Maybe he went to sleep there.
There were a few more deer tracks as I went around but not one human track.
The whole family came for Thanksgiving and the house was buzzing again. It was hard to hold Karen down but after a while she tired out and sat down.
There were several cooks in the kitchen and everything came together okay.
I took a few pictures before and during the feast as this was the first time the whole family had been together in a long time.
The turkey and all the fixings were great and we had enough gravy to feed an army. It’s been turkey sandwiches since.
They left me with the leftover oyster dressing which I finished last night. I probably put on a couple pounds over the weekend so now I have to jog for few days to work them off.
There are lots of birds in other areas of the Adirondacks but not that many around here.
I had reports of 100 to 200 pine siskins in flocks up near Newcomb and 500 snow buntings in a clearing near there.
I did have about 20 siskins at the feeder on Saturday but didn’t catch any. I have caught a few American goldfinch, some blue jays and a lone white throated sparrow during the week.
I also had a bald eagle and a couple ravens around some of the meat scraps on the dam.
I saw a special bird down by the pond one day when I walked down to see the common merganser that was feeding there.
A snowy owl was perched watching the merganser and it flew off down over Chip’s pit.
That would be a new bird for me at Eight Acre Wood and in Hamilton County.
The bear that had been breaking into cars in town hasn’t been up this way so he must be getting enough to eat there.
I heard he got into six different cars one night and left some messes.
I got out and set a few traps for pine marten as I can now leave Karen for short periods. I checked for tracks on the snow and found a few roaming the nearby woodlands.
They should be feeding on the gut pile of that six-pointer, which they probably already found. All they have to do is cross the drag trail and follow it to that food cache.
Finding old camps… but that’s another story. See ya.