Wandering Aimlessly
Robins, Sumac and Gold
by Phil Burkhouse
Last week’s wanderings were concentrated in the down county area where we did a little horn hunting and continued to enjoy the waterfowl migration. On Thursday Mary and I heard honking from high in the sky and were thrilled to see a large V of tundra swans winging their way northward. Many people often mistake migratory V’s of swans for geese, but their honk is different, they have longer necks, and when checked carefully with a binocular, they are totally white. The next time you see a migratory V, check to see if they have long, extended necks and for color; your V could be swans.
One cold morning last week I roamed a hillside for an hour and saw several elk but found no sheds. As I descended from the woods, the terrain flattened, and I entered old fields that had once been cultivated. The fields have been reclaimed with sweet fern, autumn olive, briars, and small saplings: perfect tick habitat. I had not been using any permethrin on my clothes to treat for ticks because I had not encountered any ticks on my travels—until last week.
As I hiked through the brush I glanced down at my pants and discovered I had picked up several hitchhikers. For the next half hour I repeatedly removed ticks from my clothing, and when I got home I treated my hiking clothes with a trigger spray permethrin made by Sawyer. I purchased it at Walmart, but you can buy it online, and it does a very good job killing ticks.