Fox and toad updates coming next.

 

It was as an idyllic a morning as you could ever find on the Delaware River System. Early morning sun and not a hint of at breeze. Water temp 64 degrees. Not a boat or fisherman in sight. An adult bald eagle flew up and down the river before landing in a tall pine overlooking the water to watch the show. Four different deer came for a drink and stood looking at me, apparently unconcerned. A beaver watched me wade about 150 feet towards a fish that had risen several times before he slapped his tail not ten feet from where the fish was rising. The cornutas that were on the water where I fished yesterday morning were no where to be seen today, but the fish were hungry and there were enough caddis and spinners on the water to generate some rises. If I was able to put a fly over where a fish rose, he ate. Lost six rainbows, never uttered a single curse, and ended up having a great day all condensed into a three hour morning.

The evening "fishing" left something to be desired. Departed the fishing camp about 6:15 in bright glaring sunshine. Water temps said WB only. There were two wade fishermen in the Lordville riff, four trailers at Buckingham and too many cars and trailers to count at Stockport (which was the farthest downstream that water temps said it was ok to fish). Drove up to Hale Eddy, (remember I've been away for 10 days), to try to determine what is going on and where on the WB.  There were a few bugs, caddis flying upstream, mayflies floating downstream and some juvenile trout rising. Lots of fishermen at gamelands, three  boats anchored up below the 191  bridge in Hancock and half a dozen rising trout 100 feet below the takeout at Shehawken. It was 8:30 when I made my first cast, (9:00 when I reeled it in. The fish never stopped rising, got two "Get it the hell out of here" refusals and the fish kept right on eating - good for them. At the present time, under the present conditions, the WB fish are much too tough for me.

The birds - Happy to say the blue birds successfully fledged their first croop of young. I cleaned out the box on my return and they are now starting another brood. The hummingbird - This goes back over 25 years when we had a tiny little hummingbird feeder in the kitchen window. It quite often ran out of food. One morning I was standing in the upstairs window on the opposite side of out house looking down at the pond when a hummingbird appeared right in front of me. He darted away and was back again a couple of times. It wasn't until I went downstairs for breakfast that I saw the empty feeder. A week later when the scenario happened again I went down and filled the feeder. This morning at 6:00 am, I'm watching a deer out of an east facing window, (the hummingbird feeder is on the south side of the house) and here is this male hummingbird staring at me and darting back and forth between where I was standing and the feeder. I wasn't born yesterday (God knows), I slipped on my loafers and went out and tipped the feeder to let out the air bubble that was keeping Mr. Hummingbird from his breakfast.  

 

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