Published: 29 July 2015
The north shore of Clary Lake in the vicinity of Duncan Road has been severely impacted by the ongoing water level crisis. Now, with the lake level 63″ below the top of the dam, the water has receded over 100′ from where it would normally be this time of year. How long will this be allowed to continue?
Look what I found when I flipped my dock over the other day. That’s a finished 2×6 she’s sitting on which makes her oh… a little better than 3″ across. This picture really doesn’t do it justice. I can honestly say it’s the biggest spider I’ve ever seen.
Usually Mary and Ernie have their 16′ boat in the water, and they can usually be seen most pleasant evenings taking a slow and leisurely sunset cruise around the lake but this year there wasn’t enough water at the State boat ramp for them to launch their boat. For that matter there isn’t enough water on their shoreline for them to put in their dock either, so to conduct today’s loon count they asked me to take them around in my 14′ boat. During the loon count I managed to find a new rock on the north side of the lake off the point at the end of Duncan Road, in an area that I thought was plenty deep enough, and free of hazards. I was wrong. There are 2 buoys off the point marking shallow water ledges, and I had given them what I thought was a sufficiently wide berth. Fortunately I was not going too fast and my motor was not locked down so no serious damage was done, but my propeller got bent. I will have to pull it and file and reshape it before heading out again.
Jack Holland sent me a picture the other day of a full-grown Black Crappie that was caught by 9 year old Eric Richmond in Clary Lake last week. According to his mother Rachael Richmond, they were fishing near the State boat launch and caught the 2 fish in the photo at the same time (the other one is a white perch held by Eric’s sister). They let both fish go.
Jack tells me that he believes his neighbor has caught 2 crappies in the past couple of years so it sounds like there’s a new species of fish in Clary Lake. The Black Crappie aka Calico Bass (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) is a non-native species in Clary Lake meaning it was introduced either intentionally by someone who wanted to supplement the lake fishery or accidentally by an ice fisherman by releasing bait. Both actions are in violation of State law. From the Maine IF&W website:
Adult Size: Sexual maturity is reached between 2 and 4 years of age, at which time crappies may be 6 to 10 inches long. Typical crappie fisheries produce fish between 6 and 11 inches long, although crappies exceeding 14 inches and 3 pounds have been caught in Maine. I think it’s safe to assume there is a breeding population in Clary Lake now.
Black Crappie. Click on the image to go to the IF&W site
Identification: Closely resembling bass and sunfish species, which have 10-12 dorsal fin spines, crappies possess 6-8 dorsal fin spines. Body form is very deep and narrow (laterally compressed). Coloration is silvery-olive to golden brown, with an irregular mosaic of dark black blotches.
Crappies are a popular fish with a lot of people and are supposedly quite good eating. If you catch a crappie in Clary Lake, please let us know. Biologists with the IF&W would like to know too.
A strange visitor
The other day my neighbor Steven Giampetruzzi uploaded a couple of pictures to the website documenting his recent close encounter with a rather large specimen of northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon). From the picture it looks to be at least 3′ long and quite healthy looking, don’t you think?
I know some people are freaked out by snakes, but you shouldn’t let water snakes bother you because they’re harmless, non-venemous, and they eat leeches among other things. I’d always been told there were water snakes in Clary Lake, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I actually saw one for the the first time. One afternoon I was sitting on my dock relaxing when I spotted what I thought was turtle swimming slowly 
toward me. As it got closer I could see it was a snake’s head, sticking out of the water like a submarine’s periscope. It got to within about a yard of the dock where I was sitting when it spotted me, and submerged. It was almost as big as the one in this picture. It turned out it was living under my dock and I I continued to see it and a smaller snake in the area off and on for the rest of the summer.
In any case, thanks Steve for uploading those awesome pictures! And a reminder to the rest of you, feel free to upload your own pictures to the site using the Picture Upload Page or just email them to me and I’ll post them.
The immature Bald Eagle that showed up to feed on the turkey carcass yesterday afternoon came by again this morning. I got this video of it feeding.
UPDATE: A little later in the morning, an adult Bald Eagle showed up to feed on the turkey carcass. There was actually a second adult that never came down to the ice. Eventually, they flew off with what was left of the turkey carcass.
I got a call the other day from a neighbor telling me that he’d hit a wild turkey right in front of my house. I went out and retrieved the carcass and decided to put it out on the ice in front of the Clary Webcam so we could all enjoy watching wild animals tear it apart. My son’s dog already discovered it last night and started the process of pulling feathers out. I imagine the Ravens will make short work of it assuming a fox or coyote doesn’t come along and haul it off in the night. Maybe an eagle will show up.
You’re welcome 🙂
UPDATED 31 March 2015:
Visitors today to the turkey carcass included my son’s dog Emma (again), several ravens, and an immature Bald Eagle.
Back on August 14th I posted about a loon that had crash-landed on Route 215. Taylor Holland found it and arranged for it to be delivered to Avian Haven up in Freedom. I emailed Diane at Avian Haven yesterday to follow up on the loon, and today I received the following email. Sadly, whatever had been ailing the bird turned out to be fatal:
Hey, George. Funny you should ask – you were on my list to contact today. I’m sad to say that the loon died Tuesday night. Throughout his stay here I kept hoping there would be some optimistic update I could send, and I postponed getting in touch when there was little if anything positive to report.
I’d consulted with two wildlife veterinarians in other states who specialize in loons; on the basis of x-rays I sent, there was agreement that your bird likely had an untreatable fungal infestation of the respiratory system. You might recall that the initial blood work suggested an overall debilitated state; those parameters improved slightly for a while with supportive care and readily-available food. Continue reading
I got an email update from Diane at Avian Haven today reporting that the loon they’re taking care of is showing signs of improvement and an added surprise- she was able to track down some information about the loon that turned up dead over by the shore by Hodsdon Lane last year in July (picture at left). I had mentioned to her that we’d found a dead loon and that it had been sent to Tufts University but we hadn’t heard back anything. At the time my State Wildlife Biologist friend Keel Kemper told me that Loon-on-Loon fighting was a common cause of loon mortality. It would appear that was the case with the bird from last summer.
George — I am happy to report that your loon lived the night and is showing slight improvement today. She had refused fish yesterday afternoon, but ate quite readily this morning. She is also spending more time in the water and less time on the haul-out. She is still quite lethargic, preferring to drift quietly rather than swim around (much less dive), but we are seeing some signs for the better, and are hopeful that they will continue.