Take advantage of great cross-country ski and snowshoe trails

 

We have had another week of winter with a little new snow each day and some brrrr-cold mornings. It was minus-15 degrees this morning. Maybe it will be our last frigidly cold morning.

The days are getting longer and the sun is getting higher in the sky each day. It must be getting close to sap collecting time again. Most of those who got any sap last spring started about this time. Those who waited missed the best of the run.

The cross-country skiing has been great. You can go anywhere with a little powder on top of hard packed snow. The same goes for snowshoeing.

This is the time of year you can cover lots of ground and walk over most of the underbrush that has been packed down by the snow.

It always amazes me how all these little bushes and trees recover once the snow melts. They stand right back up and start growing again.

I got out on Limekiln Lake to ice fish on Thursday with my friend Al Birchenough. When you go out with Al you can always expect the unexpected—and it was no different that day.

I drilled the holes the night before so it didn’t take very long to set up that morning. There are only eight inches of ice so it didn’t take long to put in twenty holes.

We were right out in the middle of the lake on a beautiful day and the fish were biting. I got a nice 17-inch splake before I had all my tip-ups in.

While putting down a new minnow I had another hit but lost that one. When I was putting down another minnow it hit again and I got a nice 19-inch fish.

Al said they were all biting over his way so I drilled some more holes. We moved a couple tip-ups and they both caught a fish.

Al caught two, about a foot-long each. One took out a lot of line and got around his next tip-up. When he pulled in the first one he tripped the other tip-up which added to the excitement.

Then he had a flag on one of the new ones we moved. He hooked the fish and had it coming in. Just as he said he had a big one, the line went slack. He pulled in the line and it broke about four feet from the leader.

There must have been a fray in the line and with a fish like that it parted. The big one got away again so we were rigging with another swivel, leader, hook and sinker.

One of my tip-ups flagged and it took awhile before I got to it. The line was completely gone from the reel and the fish was pulling on the tip-up. I hauled line for quite a while and could feel a nice fish on the other end.

It went around the hole several times and rolled in the line so I couldn’t pull it straight out. He came out tail first once and went back down the hole.

I finally got the fish straightened out and on the ice. It was a beauty—22-inches and about four pounds. Al caught another nice one, about 18-inches. With four apiece, we called it a day

This week my trail camera has caught some wildlife moving around after dark. A coyote has been coming to the carcasses on the pond. When the coyote isn’t there, a barred owl stops by for a meal.

The owl has been here every night so I added it to my Great Backyard Bird Count. It was the only new bird at my feeder for the count.

Other birds that came by during the count were: 20 black capped chickadees, 40 redpolls, 4 hairy woodpeckers, 3 downy woodpeckers, 4 white-breasted nuthatches, 2 red-breasted nuthatches, 3 blue jays, 2 ravens, 1 common crow, 1 brown tree creeper and one pileated woodpecker.

While at my son Jason’s home in Webster last weekend I saw several nice birds at his feeder. I got some good photos of six male Cardinals framed by snowy hanging branches.

A pretty red-bellied woodpecker also came by to pose for a few shots.

My brother Bob called to tell me that both his Carolina Wrens showed up early Friday morning so they got included in his count for the third straight year.

Skiing at McCauley is fun for a lot of people, but that’s another story. See ya.