Adirondacks’ record-setting brooktrout hauled from Silver Lake

 

I think enough rain has fallen to keep the dust down and even prevent some forest fires. Luckily we didn’t get the wind that was predicted with those storms but today (6/2) southern Vermont up into Maine got the brunt of it. 

There are many power outages over that way tonight.

Tornadoes were reported from South Carolina to Maine at the tail end of this big storm that did so much damage in the Midwest.

Last night it rumbled through here about dark and there were several close hits with lightning as the booms were right along with the flashes. We didn’t see Inky until the middle of the night.

The bugs weren’t too bad during the week but the last couple of days they have been a tad annoying. They helped me put in the garden by holding on to the hoe when I wasn’t using it.

I believe it’s the first time I have even seen deer flies in May. Down in Ferd’s Bog the other day they were thicker than the black flies. When they bite they take a chunk of your hide off.

The yellow swallowtail butterflies are out in good numbers also and it won’t be long before the noseums will be burning you at night. Karen says they are already out as they like her better than me.

I found a few morel mushrooms in back of the library parking lot early in the week. When I was there on Saturday Paul Rivet had picked them and asked me about them.

He knew they were morels but didn’t know if they were the ones you could eat or not. I wasn’t sure, as it had been a long time since I had seen them.

I looked them up and sure enough they were the eating kind. We used to get them many years ago growing in the spot where we had our tent pitched in the backyard of our home in West Milton, Saratoga County.

Four of my yellow lady slippers have popped out again this year and so far the deer have left them alone. I have put wire around most of my other greenery as the deer like to nibble some of my shrubs.

The pink lady slippers that were out in Ferd’s Bog on Thursday were nibbled off by a deer or a rabbit, as there were only stems and no flowers there today. I showed them to the Rhodes Scholar—birding group I was with this week and they were not quite uncurled.

The southern twayblades were all over the bog mat along the trail. You have to look very close to see these little flowers, as they are only two to three inches tall.

There is a hike there on Saturday, June 8 at 7 a.m. open to the public, meet at the corner of Uncas Road.

In the bog a male black backed woodpecker gave us a couple short calls then showed himself and flew across the bog.

He landed where we all could see him and then disappeared into the woods not to be seen again.

This was a life bird (bird never seen before) for many in the group.

It was hard to tell if this topped the sighting of an American bittern that we had earlier in the day in the swamp by Raquette Lake.

I had heard the bittern a couple nights before but when we arrived there Thursday morning at 7 a.m. the bird was silent.

We walked across the bridge toward Raquette village viewing a few good birds, yellow warbler, red-winged blackbird, alder flycatcher, kingbird, great blue heron, mallard and wood duck, barn and tree swallows and then the bittern gave his water pump call not far away.

One person in the group said he saw it not twenty feet away. Everyone got on the bird with their binocs. It called several more times which was certainly a treat.

A few pictures were taken and then he became nervous that we were so close and he flushed off.

Some in the group said they would have to do something great that day to top it.

A brooktrout that was caught last week broke the record set a year ago by two ounces here in the Adirondacks.

The trout was six-plus pounds and 22 and-a-half inches long. It was caught in Silver Lake, down south west of Wells in Hamilton County, by Rick Beauchamp of Mayfield, Fulton County.

That lake was acid water just a few years ago and wouldn’t support any fish. It cleared up on its own and was stocked with some windfall heritage strain brooktrout. This lake along with area lakes Brooktrout, Deep and Little Indian have come back on their own, which is great news for fishermen and the environment.

Silver Lake is a five- to seven-mile hike depending on how you go, so not many fishermen will take this long hike—even for a trophy fish.

Fawns are dropping in yards in town, but that’s another story. See ya.