Moose River Plains road to Cedar River Flow re-opens

Well, if you were in the right spot this week you got some needed rain. Some of the storms hit quite hard down in the valley with a tornado touching down in Kirkville.

Straightline winds of 90 miles per hour were clocked near New Hartford. That will rattle your socks for sure.

We got over an inch of rain here which brought on the Blueberries and helped the Blackberry crop.

Every Blueberry bush in the Plains, except for the ones I’ve stopped at, is covered with berries.

The Bears and Cedar Waxwings have been working them, and the Shadbush berries too.

The Waxwings should start nesting about now and with all the berries to fatten them up they should have lots of babies.

They don’t build much of a nest, just a few sticks laid on the bough of a evergreen. They have three or four eggs and in fourteen days babies appear.

When these babies get out and about they will be feeding along with the adults on the Mountain Ash trees which are also covered with fruit.

We lost one Loon chick on Limekiln Lake this week but the other one is still doing okay dodging kayaks, jet skis and tubers.

By the time you read this we will be done banding in this area. You may have seen our bright lights during the night hours.

We hope to hit about ten or twelve lakes in the area that have chicks. Many of these Loons have been banded previously.

It will be a good to check on them to see if their mercury levels have increased or stayed the same since we last had them in-hand.

I had a little practice in loon catching last Sunday as one landed in the highway over by Lake Durant.

Loons have been known to mistakenly land on pavement instead of a body of water.

This particular bird was in the ditch calling to the others loons on the lake, but it wasn’t going anywhere without some human assistance.

I netted him and checked to see if he was injured. Other than his feet being scraped a bit from landing on the pavement he was not hurt.

I wrapped him in a towel to transfer him back to the water by the dam. He nipped me once and called out several times along the way.

After I released him from the towel he sat in the water for a few seconds, but he was soon off to the races.

When he got about 100 feet out he gave me a flap of his wing and let out a wail—as if to say “thank you” as he went on his way.

The Moose River Area road through to Cedar River Flow was opened up Friday. The Indian Lake Highway Crew did one heck of a job on the 12 miles of road.

I hope it continues on to Otter Brook and over toward Squaw Lake.

The Rockdam Road remains closed, as it did last summer. I don’t know what the problems are. I haven’t biked it, but I know once you get over the first two hills it is flat for four miles. you

The trail to Rockdam forms a natural barrier across the Moose River. When I was working out there it was the most popular hike in the area. Let’s hope it opens soon also.

My pink Pond Lily in the pond has been blooming for three weeks now. Today it put out two blooms within a foot of each other which allowed me to get them both in one shot. The clouds’ reflection on the water just added to the shot. The water was at the very top of my hip boots when I got the shots.

I have been chasing little Orchids for the last couple of weeks as this is the time of year they are in bloom.

I found a new patch of Downy Rattlesnake Plantain up by Browns Tract Campsite while doing one of the Boreal Bird surveys.

There were over one hundred plants in bloom there. I also found a few Dwarf Rattlesnake Plantain down in Ferd’s Bog.

Over by Lost Ponds there have been several Slender Ladies’ Tresses growing along the trail and in an old campsite. This is more than I‘ve seen in the past. Also growing in that area is White Adder’s Mouth.

In previous years they were only found in the trail tread but now they have spread to many locations. They are some of the biggest plants I’ve ever seen.

It was a photographer’s dream, even with all the mosquitoes getting in front of the lens.

Most of the plants were past prime and turning yellow but a few were in great shape and actually looked like the plant in the identification book.

Charles Ufford located these plants and passed their location along to me.

Thanks Charles. He got some great shots of the plants too.

A few Loons in hand, but that’s another story. See ya.