Looking through the short month of February I find that we had 21 days with snow and three days with rain and sleet so that doesn’t leave very many days with sunshine. Two of those clear days it was way below zero each morning and a blustery cold wind for most of the day. A couple of days there were temperature changes of more than thirty degrees in just a few hours, which came with very windy conditions. This week I know I’ve cleared the driveway each day and once twice. Believe it or not it’s still showing the gravel and the Turkeys can still get grit to break down the food in their crop. I watched them tonight as they picked some while going out the driveway on the way to their roost.
I thought about them swaying in the wind those couple of nights when the wind was blowing forty and fifty miles an hour. One night they were roosted right in back of the house and when I looked out the next morning they were all still sitting out on their branches, swaying in the wind. You would think they would get in closer to the tree trunk and not sway so much but they don’t. I guess they know that a Fisher or Bobcat can go up a tree and reach them if they were close to the trunk. My flock has gone from 32 down to 26 this morning so some have died during the winter, which is normal. If you saw them come flying in when the snow was very deep, weaving through the trees it’s a wonder any of them survived. As big as they are they can maneuver like a big hawk coming through the woods. I’ve tried to catch them on my camera while in flight but not so far.
I did go down to the fireworks in Inlet the other night and got some good shots. I also shot Matt’s Draft House as the cars and snowmobiles were leaving the area from the event, which came out pretty good. It’s a little tricky getting good night shots but fun to try. The Old Forge Camera Club meets at the Art Center the second Thursday of each month at 7PM. Different instructors have been at the meetings giving out tips on how to take better pictures and also how to download and change them on the computer. This month photographer John Timmis will be visiting and giving us tips on both, March 10th.
The precision snow plows in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade will have had plenty of practice this winter and the drivers maybe even to tired to get in the parade after all the plowing this winter. Most have run out of places to put the snow. I know my banks where I push it by hand are mountains around the yard and bird feeders. I can’t even see if there are birds in the Potter Traps or the two bottom parts of my nets unless I look out from upstairs. I just put up the net on Friday and started catching Common Redpolls, one Hairy Woodpecker and an Evening Grosbeak when a white out came through. The net was quickly full of caught snow so I took it down. I have banded over fifty Redpolls in the last week. It won’t be long and they will be headed north again.
A woman up in Tupper Lake wrote me that she had been feeding two Gray Fox, food scraps in her driveway for about a month. One night when she went out a Barred Owl came down and picked up some of the food and flew away. This went on for more than a month each night and the owl got so it would come down while she was still scattering the food. I had one last year that would pick up a mouse I would leave for it but not while I was there. It’s been around this year but I haven’t seen it in a couple weeks or so.
The Great Backyard Bird Count held last weekend and they will post the results soon. It’s amazing how many folks report their birds both in the backyard and also while on hikes during the period. My sister-in-law Ruthann did both as she saw over two hundred Robins while driving into town and they have lots of birds at their feeder. Redpolls didn’t show up at their feeder until the day after the count. Brother Bob saw over three hundred Robins while going out to ice fish one morning at a different location. When they reported these big counts of Robins on line they got questioned whether they saw that many.
I only did my backyard feeders where I had 46 Common Redpolls, 26 Turkeys, 25 Black Capped Chickadees, 15 Evening Grosbeaks, 5 Hairy Woodpeckers, 3 Downy Woodpeckers, 5 White-breasted Nuthatches, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 3 Blue Jays, 2 American Crows, 2 Common Ravens, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 Tufted Titmouse, and 1 Northern Shrike.
Poor mans fertilizer, the white stuff but that’s another story. See ya.
