I guess winter is here again as the thermometer read –25 this morning and it doesn’t have to get much colder than that. I called my brother Bob this morning and his wife Ruthann said he was already out on the bay ice fishing in his heated shack. I hope the shack was heated. Winter finally hit the north country with over a foot of snow and some very cold temperatures. When you get this much snow on lakes and ponds you may get slush under the snow covering. The weight of the snow pushes water up through cracks in the ice and this water lays unfrozen on top of the ice and hidden under the snow. This can be a trap for a snowmobile as they will get bogged down in 4 to 6 inches of slush under a foot of snow. So don’t just go running willy nilly all over a lake if you don’t know if there is slush under the snow. In places I’ve seen over a foot of water collect in pockets like little ponds on top of the ice and if you get in one of these you may stay there or at least your machine may. You may also get wet feet getting out and with these temperatures you won’t want to do that.
I never wrote about Christmas at Eight Acre Wood. The whole family made it over the river and through the woods to grandmas house this year. We had a great Christmas Eve dinner of Lasagna and played cards some after that waiting for Santa. The next morning the turkey was in the over even before the presents got unwrapped. We all knew when it was time for dinner as the smoke alarms all went off in the house, signaling Karen was about done cooking for the meal. The baked oysters went a little over the top giving us the heads up that it was about time for a feast and that it was. I can see why every other commercial on TV is for losing weight or special diets around this time of the year. So many treats just hanging around the house, chocolates, candies and cookies of all kinds, special breads, cakes, pies and Karen’s special fruitcake getting to be know as special around here. Either you like fruit cake or you don’t and luckily I do and Karen makes a mean one for sure. Well all the fixings are all finally gone and now it’s back to more salads and healthy foods of smaller portions. We got the whole group around the Christmas tree for a family picture since this might be the last time we all get together in one place at the same time for a while. I even got everyone in the picture for once.
It as nearly a green Christmas and definitely a green New Year’s but all that has changed to white and lets hope it stays that way until spring.
I went over to Lake Champlain on Saturday the 15th for the Region 7 Winter Waterfowl Count. That day was the coldest of the year so far with a strong south wind blowing up a snowstorm by noon. The main part of the lake was open water but the south end from Barber Point to Ticonderoga was buttoned up with ice except for the Crown Point Ferry crossing. Five volunteers (Bill Krueger, Dave Ruthowski, Dan Lee, Bill Labes, and Tom Barber) plus myself found 12 species of waterfowl and one unidentified duck totaling 3792 birds. Waterfowl seen during that day included Canada Goose-4, American Black Duck 49, Mallard-524, Redhead-1, Rind-necked Duck-1, Lesser Scaup- 14, Bufflehead-69, Common Goldeneye-2533, Barrow’s Goldeneye-1, Hooded Merganser-9, Common Merganser-579, Horned Grebe-7, Unidentified duck-1. Other birds seen by the group and reported were six Bald Eagles, ten Great Black-backed Gulls, 1,000 Ring-billed Gulls, 1 Bluebird, 1 Cardinal, several flocks of Juncos and Tree Sparrows feeding along the highway. One of the Bald Eagles we saw was flying low on the water flushing all the ducks in his path. He flew right by us at Port Kent not more than one hundred feet away, neat! I’m sure many ducks were hidden from us out in the ocean of three to four foot waves that had blow up by noon. Tom and I ended near Ausable Chasm where we took a few pictures of the nearly frozen waterfalls.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up but that ‘s another story. See ya.
