Despite sub-zero Temps, be cautious when heading out on ice.
A little winter has crept into our backyard. Not much snow, but the temperature sure went way down below zero with –22 degrees on January 15 and –20 degrees the next day.
When Karen has the window open to collect some of the cold inside the bedroom at night, that’s more than a three dog night. It’s a one-cat Inky night, who snuggles up between us.
This weather sure pushed the many birds to the feeder that had been foraging out in the woods. I think many believed they were going to have an open winter, but that didn’t happen.
Al Birchenough with our catch
Now they have to get some spare food from the feeders.
New visitors to the feeder this week were several Pine Siskins, Goldfinch (numbers doubled) and Purple Finch. Just this morning a few Tree Sparrows arrived. When I was out in the woods in the fall I didn’t see any of them, but they must have been out there somewhere.
I thought the visiting Red-bellied Woodpecker was the one I had here last year, but it isn’t so as it not wearing a band. Most don’t leave here without a bracelet on their leg.
I have seen a couple of band wearing Goldfinch at the feeder but I haven’t put up a net yet, so I don’t know if they were some of my birds or if they were banded somewhere else.The only birds that we know of that can take off a band are the big beaked birds like Cardinals and Grosbeaks.
They actually pick apart the aluminum until they get it off.
We lost the banded male Loon from Nicks Lake. It died at Bisby Lodge and the caretaker found it on his front lawn. The bird had been there just before the lake froze up and we thought it had gotten out.
The bird will be sent to the lab for testing to see what was wrong with it and maybe discover why it didn’t go south.
A couple Loons that I picked up dead during the late summer, one from Limekiln Lake and one at Forked Lake, have been run through the lab.
The one from Limekiln had evidence of a fishing hook and line in its stomach, along with a few other body injuries. It also had some mercury and other metals in its system, but its direct cause of death couldn’t be determined.
The Loon from Forked Lake, I believe, was the one I took out of the highway south of Blue Mountain Lake about two weeks earlier and released in Lake Durant.
This bird had some scrapes on its feet and sternum injuries that may have occurred when it came down on a highway.
However, it also had one of the highest, if not the highest, mercury levels in its system of any ever tested in New York.
A combination of all these factors may have been the cause of death of these birds. With more and more Loons on our waters there is going to be fighting among pairs with young, and intruders or males trying to take over a territory from a male already there.
We had over ten Loons reported with fishing line entanglements this summer. All but one of them was caught and released on Fourth Lake.
I got out on Limekiln last Wednesday at daylight with Al Birchenough to catch a few nice Splake. I put in the first tip-up and before I got the second one in Al told me I had a flag already.
He went over and pulled up a nice 16-inch Splake. We took the hook out of the fish and started to let the minnow down the hole when another fish grabbed it. I pulled out a 15-inch fish, put the minnow back down the hole, and caught another about the same size before I could set the flag.
“You must have a hot hole there,” Al said.
We had eight before noon and couple nice female Perch. We caught our limit before we picked up and let a couple more small ones go.
There was only four inches of ice with a little slush in the snow on top. You really have to be careful with all this on-again, off-again cold weather where ice conditions are concerned.
I know a couple of ice fishermen went out on an inch of ice in the southern tier, fell though and drowned before they could be rescued.
Even with below zero temperatures you still need to check the ice before going out. Also, you may find it to be safe in one place, but not so safe a hundred feet way. So keep checking. A dip into cold water might be your last.
A cold duck count day, but that’s another story. See ya.
