Some birds finally sense winter’s arrival, head south

We’re still having an on-again, off-again kind of winter in this area. At least we have some snow to insulate the ground.

I traveled to Alder Creek and Oswego this week where there is still bare ground.

Normally by this time of year Oswego is calling in the National Guard to do snow removal.

Instead kids in tee shirts could be seen skateboarding along the riverfront.

Is this January in the north country? I think not.

At least we had some snow for snowmobilers to run on this past weekend. It made a few people happy as we were about the only ones who had any snow cover.

My reason for going to Oswego was to go fishing in the Oswego River from David Koester’s drift boat which is between the last dam and the open waters of Lake Ontario.

The weather was great on Saturday but the stiff cold wind that blew much of the day made it feel as if we were ice fishing.

David’s son Zackery was with us and we tried about everything to make the fish bite—plugs, jigs, worms and live bait.

We managed to catch two nice brown trout. We caught one on a jig with a worm  and the other one on a gold plug.

David and Zack did all the rowing in a strong current. We dropped anchor many times and fished by drifting our bait along with the current.

Several ducks, mostly long-tailed Ducks (formerly Old Squaw), flew around us while we were on the water.

There were some duck hunters out by the lake. Every once and while we would hear a volley of shots and a few more ducks would come flying our way.

We saw  a flock of Mallards, a couple Cormorants, and a Red-necked Grebe, which was fishing just below the put-in most of the day.

There were Gulls in the air all day and a couple flocks of Canada Geese flew overhead.

A single Goose flew over us a couple times, but I didn’t get the binoculars on it so its variety is unknown.

It was definitely different however and it would have been a good bird to identify if I had gotten a better look at it.

This week at my birdfeeder the population of birds increased after being pushed in by the cold and snow.

One day I had 22 Slate-colored Juncos, 40 Goldfinch and few Pine Siskins.

As I took my first look at the feeder one morning I saw the Red-bellied Woodpecker that I banded last year.

He has stayed around, so I guess I have him for the winter again.

Some of the Juncos must have gotten the message and left when we had those couple of warmer days.

They must have figured that winter was finally coming and they had better head south.

I have a Brown Tree Creeper that is spending the winter here also. He is the littlest bird out there but pretty feisty around the suet cake.

A Bald Eagle made a fly-through one day this week. Karen hollered, “Eagle, eagle!” as it went over the pond with its nice white head and tail.

He will be back before the Ravens and Crows pick the carcass clean on the pond.

The Old Forge Camera Club has a nice show hanging at the Old Forge Library.

There is a variety of work from many of the club members including birds, butterflies, wildflowers, winter scenes, fall scenes, waterfalls, Loons, people shots and many Moose shots.

The club had a reception last Thursday with many in attendance. Some work sold that night.

The show will be up until the first week in March so get in and take peek at some neat photos from some of the local shutterbugs.

The Camera Club meets at View at 7 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month. This month, member Kathy Nahor will lead a program on how to create a power point presentation.

All are welcome. Club members can help you learn how to operate the camera you got for Christmas, or help you in utilizing all the bells and whistles of your current camera.

This is what the Club is all about. We do field trips for photographing wildflowers (orchids), birds, Moose, waterfalls, sunrises, sunsets, full moons and much more.

So come join in the fun and learn how to take some great shots.

Then learn how to put the photos on the computer for a little tweeking.

Ice Fishing can be fun, but that’s another story. See ya.