Fall Migration is starting...

RLLigman

Well-known member
We scrubbed and washed (and re-washed) all of Karen's Winter turn-out blankets for her horse over the past ten days. After they were thoroughly dry I waterproofed them and we packed them back up in their storage tubs to transport back to her tack stall at Willow Farm in my vehicle, along with her English saddle and bridle. I drove the load over via a road that passes the back pastures which were recently mowed. Quite surprised to see two big pods of canadas stacked-up tight on a couple of high spots in the newly mowed fields this morning. I pulled over and "glassed" them thoroughly, no juveniles among the fifty-eight birds. Everybody very alert and nervous in the two tight-packed pods.
Looks like the migration of non-mating adults that spend the summer on the north side of Superior in southern Ontario is starting-up. Our early goose season is still two weeks away. Time to renew my granted permissions for hunting access.
Al, our hummingbird feeders are "buzzing"! Last night we had six to eight ruby throated hummers jockeying for feeding position when the rain ceased. Not too long before the out-the-door!
 
Definitely migrants, there are now three flocks of around a hundred and seventy birds in two of the four back pastures that have been mowed.
 
Saw lots of shorebirds on the move here while striper fishing last weekend. Stripers were around, but some of the smallest schoolie bass I've ever seen. I don't think any of the fish I took were over 15".
 
Hey Rick,
The hummers started their migration at our place back on July 14th when we had our first influx of Calliopes and Rufous. That joined with the black-chinned and broadtail species, have kept us very busy keeping the four feeders that we have hung up on the patio filled with nectar. We now have 15 desert willow trees growing and hummers love the flowers that they have. There is also one Japanese Mimosa along with quite a few perennials that they enjoy.

It has been a lot of fun watching them. I was trying to visualize your 6 to 8 ruby throated hummer vying for that feeder and trying to make it "just theirs"! Our rufous hummers are just like that in the desert southwest.
Al
 
Rick, this morning I jumped into the Mule with Sonora and we headed to a little patch of water that I have been watching for the past three weeks. When we got their my lab about went nuts when 7 bluewing/cinnamons took off. This is one month before our season will open for teal. They sure are early.
Al
 
That hummer parade is a something I would very much like to see, Al.! Same holds for the cinnamons. I am heading down to the Bays de Noc next week to fish and scout the coastal marshes, smallmouth are going crazy. Lake Superior salmon fishing has been very good for silvers, but onshore winds have broken-up that pattern over the last ten days.
 
Sounds like you are having a great summer, Rick. As for the hummers this has been a darn good year finally just because we have had more than our fair share of moisture which equals flowers!

As for the bluewing/cinnamons I seem to always use that phrase just because in the fall you don't have a clue if it is a bluewing OR a cinnamon. So to ID them I normally look at their eyes, with the bluewing being brown and the cinnamon being red. There is one other way but calipers now come in handy. The cinnamon's upper mandible is a touch wider than the bluewing. That minature look of a spoonie.

We do get to shoot at cinnamons in our duck season down here when the reverse migration kicks in. That is normally about the last three weeks in January. I about went nuts the first time I shot one. That is one beautiful specie.

Boy, when you talked about silver salmon I found myself reliving many days of the 8 years I lived in Alaska.
Al
 
Al,Lake Superior's silver salmon feed primarily on Mysis diluviana, Opossum shrimp, smelt and sticklebacks. There apparently is a very strong year-class of juvenile smelt inshore. The difference in our silvers and the fish you caught while living in Alaska is size-they average six pounds right now, not the twenty-pound plus Chinooks of Lake Michigan. On the Lake Michigan side my best fish of the year that tipped the scales in the low twenties has been repeatedly eclipsed by several fish in the low thirty pound range and one 41.48lb fish just caught last week. These are all wild origin fish, as evidenced by their intact adipose fin indicating they contain no Coded Wire Tag in their snouts. As you well know, a Chinook on light line is a strong fish for the first three runs or so.
All of them are excellent eating!
 
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