The force paddle

I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July celebrating our independence.  I enjoyed a nice relaxing day in the New York (upstate) heat and polished the night off with some flashy fireworks and homemade apple crisp. And yes I did make it.  Thanks to my mothers recipe.  Too bad the 4th didn't fall on a friday though because I had to be to work the next day.  But it wasn't bad at all going back to work, besides the lack of sleep.  I spent pretty much the entire week on or near the water so that was nice.  Great burn marks and slick looking farmers tans.  Got to see some cool wildlife as ususal.  It amazes me that I can see an animal almost everyday and it just never gets old.  It is still like the first time I have seen the thing.  Well I hope you are all sitting down because this post is going to be a wild ride.  So sit tight and enjoy the words.  Actually it is going to be like every other post, but still enjoy. 

Day 1: Fishing

As I told you in last weeks post, which I only posted yesterday, I had to clean off some fishing poles that had about 3 inches of dust on them.  They have been sitting in a storage closet for nearly 8 years untouched collecting dead skin cells, both dead and live dust mites, and pollen (taken from www.cleanair4life.com).  The last thing I needed to do was test their durability in the water. These fishing poles are going to be used for the refuges' youth summer program so I need to make sure they are at tiptop shape for these kids.  Needless to say I spent part of the day fishing and rigging up fishing poles. 

I will be honest I didn't even expect to catch anything out in the canal.  I ended up catching four fish, one of which was about a two pound largemouth bass.  I was so surprised.  So I rigged up two poles and cast both out in the water.  I wasn't really paying much attention, but I got bored so I started to reel the line in when all of a sudden my bobber just sinks.  The line tightened up and the tip of the pole folded over almost parallel to my body.  I just knew a fish was on there, but I didn't know this big ole bass was at the end of the line.  And let me just say to all you hardcore fishers out there.  A two to three pound bass may not be big to you, but this was the biggest bass I have ever caught.  No judging please. Ok back to the story.  So I reeled this sucker in and had him right up to the deck I was fishing from.  I didn't have a net to grab him with so I thought it would be a good idea to pull him up onto the deck holding the line.  Yeah that was a bad idea.  I should have just grabbed him in the water, but I wasn't thinking straight.  Needless to say, he wiggled when I lifted him out of the water and the line snapped dropping him back into the water hook and all.  I was so pissed.  But I learned two things on that.  One, next time reach in water and grab fish. Two, the fishing line is not durable. Its needs changing.   

Day 2: July 4th, no school, I mean work....Weeeeooooooo!!!
Please see intro to get a little overview on what I did for the 4th.  I can't dish everything I did though.  You will have to just find out in person. 

Day 3: Back to work
My main plan for today was to take the canoe out and paddle the waters so I can get familiar with the area I am setting my "Crusin' the Canal" program up at.  Well I spent the first half of the day on the computer finishing up the final touches to this program and sending out flyers to the public.  I was done with that around lunch so I decided to pack up the canoe and eat my lunch out on the canal.  It was such a peaceful lunch, besides having those pesky belted kingfishers flying over calling as loud as they could in my ear.  I am kidding, I didn't mind it at all.  I also brought out some test kits that I will be using for this event to test the water quality on the canal. I wanted to make sure everything was working and see how they actually worked. 

So there I was just paddling along when all of a sudden I hear this American bald eagle sound off from behind me.  I knew he was close, but I didn't know where he was.  I looked in the trees, I searched the skys, and saw nothing.  Well wouldn't you know it, he is perched up in this tree directly over me not but 30 yards away from me.  That really got my blood flowing and shot goosebumps straight down my body.  This thing posed for me for about five minutes before it flew off.  I was able to paddle around it and make all kinds of movement and it didn't even fly off.  I was just so amazed at the sight of this beautiful creature.  And like I was talking about earlier, I have seen so many eagles here and this thing still made me feel good inside.

 After all that fun and excitement, I decided to paddle back towards the shore to pack the canoe back up. I figured since I still had some time left in the day I would complete a black tern survey that I promised one of the Biologists I would complete sometime this week.  This survey consisted of me canoeing around one of the pools in Montezuma and wait to get mobbed by these black terns.  That is if they are nesting out there.  I think I talked about this in one of my earlier posts, but here it is again just as a reminder of what it consists of.  I paddled around through thick cattails, piled up duckweed, and shallow waters with the wind blowing in my face half that trip.  I was so tired out come the end of that paddle.  Not to mention I ran out of water before I started the paddle.  I made it through safe and sound though.  I did not get mobbed once though out there by these black terns so I am thinking they are not nesting out in the area.  I have spotted them in the past in this pool, but they must have just been out there foraging for food.  So after that I called it a day.  I stored the canoe back up for the night and drove home to get ready for the next day to come. 


Day 4: Canoeing again

So as the title reads for this section, I went out canoeing again.  This time I took my boss lady with me to give her the scoop on what I will be doing for my canoeing program I am setting up.  It was such a great day to paddle.  The waters were calm, the sun was shining, and the herons were flying all over.  Not too much going on today, but still great to be out on the waters.  We paddled about two miles on the canal before we decided to call it quits.  The rest of the day was spent working in the visitor center talking to and educating visitors that come in.  It is nice to see people from all over the world coming into this place to check things out. 





Day 5: Tommorrow
I haven't worked this day yet, but I am going to tell you about how the day will be.  I want to post this early because I know I am going to forget about this thing over the weekend.  I will then be rushing to make a post for this week and also having to create another one for the next week.  But here is how the day is going to go.  I am working in the visitor center all day.  It will be a nice day so we will get alot of people in there.  Majority of the people I will talk to are going to say they have never been there before and I will give them the hotspots to go.  I will also bull crap with them telling stories and I will tell them about birds and things to look out for while out there.  They will be satisfied so they will walk around the visitor center awkwardly looking at all the displays.  We will then say our goodbyes and I will tell them to "stay cool in this heat" and they will say "I'll try" and give a little chuckle. They will then disappear into the day.  Until I see them pass by the windows looking out to the parking lot.  But I won't wave at him because that would just be plain weird.  That will be the day.  But the thing is, I have fun with it. I get some great stories from the older folk and I get to watch an osprey with babies on live TV all day.

Hope you enjoyed this.  It is real late at night, well actually early morning now so I am pretty tired writing this post.  I started this earlier in the day, but got caught up in other stuff.  So excuse any errors.  Here is the species list for you:

American bald eagle, spotted sandpiper, semipalmated plover, mallard, wood duck, green heron, GBH, great egret, osprey, white tailed deer, mule deer, raccoon, woodchuck, red fox, belted kingfisher, trumpeter swan, caspian tern, cananda geese, gulls, black tern, killdeer, cedar wax wing, veery, common water snake, American robin, crow...