JUST AS IT HAPPENED – July 1975
Few years back, I made some weather predictions which were all wrong, so I have been careful since. One thing I can say is that we have had some very fine weather this season, and I will go out on a limb and forecast 1975 will be just about the warmest summer we have had for quite a while.
Anyone lose a pigeon? One dropped in on Howard LaBrash on Saturday. It was fed, and seemed quite at home. No doubt a homing bird, as it has a clip with the number 360 on one leg, and a band on the other, but so far it has not been close enough for them to read what is on it. Perhaps it got lost on a flight, and no doubt will be claimed, as it has been reported. But it is evidently used to people, as it is very tame, and after it eats goes down to the river’s edge and has a bath.
Birds’ nests are not unusual, especially at this time of the year. Robins are the most common, and some are on their second nesting. Two weeks ago near the cottages on Rain Lake, the people there discovered a new nest, quite close to the camp. When I saw it there were four small eggs, and times the mother bird did not mind people being close. The nest, made mostly of shredded birch bark, is only a couple of feet off the ground. The bird is a Maryland Yellow-throated Warbler, and I do not recall ever seeing one of those nests before. Hope the pictures turn out. So many birds and not too often can I make certain the type of bird. This spring there were quite a few Orioles around, but have not seen a nest.
Party of summer visitors spent a night last week in the woods near the Yankee Dam. No special reason, just a night in the woods. Report all was well except for the hungry mosquitoes, everyone enjoyed the experience, especially the calls of the birds. Then walking down the road, they met a wolf. This is the first one reported, though some of the campers have heard them howling and tracks have been seen. Since the deer are about the scarcest they have been for well over forty years. Wolves too are down in numbers but if they act like they did last summer, there will be few beaver left come fall.
Years ago no one worried about leaving things in the woods. Then with so many roads, locks on cabins in the woods became necessary, but these did not always work, and many thefts have resulted. Think I heard a bout the worst one over the weekend. Seems like a party who has a camp in McCraney decided they should cut some wood for the winter, as they spend some time there. This they did, and the wood was cut and piled along the road, not too far from their camp. By this time the two boys in the party decided it was time for a swim, so the three sojourned to where there was good water for such activities. They were gone perhaps an hour, but when they returned someone had taken every stick of wood, over a cord. Not such a terrible loss, but it is hard to understand why people should think anything they can take is for free.
Had a quick trip to Rain Lake last week to repair a couple of canoes that had been on a long trip. There I met three boys from town who were on a camping trip, or rather were tented at the camp site at Rain Lake. The boys I know quite well, and one asked me if I would be coming in the following day, as they needed some supplies. So I promised to see that what they needed would come in next morning, but suggested they write out what they needed, as my memory is not so good. So I was handed a note, which I put in my shirt pocket, I did not look at it until I was home, and had a good chuckle to see their list. Just two bags of marshmallows and two tins of corn to pop. But the best was the line at the bottom of the page: “Get the money from Mom.”
These boys combined business with their holiday. They gathered wood for some of the other campers, and then decided to dive for old bottles and they got many, some that had perhaps been in the water for seventy years, these discarded when the mill was there. Was told they had quite a collection, but interest parties purchased them all. You know, having a bit of Scottish Ancestry helps.