Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – It’s tranquil on the Erie Canal this evening, but the National Weather Service warns of thunderstorms that could hit around 5 this morning with more thunderstorms on Wednesday night between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.

The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for western and central New York due to a chance of flooding from the storms.

“Showers and thunderstorms during the morning and midday will have the potential to produce very heavy slow moving downpours that could result in localized flooding,” the Weather Service stated. “A second round of thunderstorms Wednesday evening could contain the risk of strong to damaging wind gusts.”

Wednesday is forecast for a high of 85, followed by a high of 75 on Thursday and a high of 82 on Friday.

These photos show the canal in Albion looking west towards the Gaines Basin Road bridge. This photo was taken from a bridge on Albion-Eagle Harbor Road.

Photos by Tom Rivers

CASTILE – Letchworth State Park, which recently was named the best state park in the country in a readers’ choice poll by USA Today, was busy on Sunday night with crowds of people drawn to see hot-air balloons.

There were about 20 of the balloons floating over the park, which is considered “The Grand Canyon of the East.”

There are about 6,000 state parks in the United States. Letchworth in Wyoming County is one of the most scenic areas in the eastern part of the United States.

“The Genesee River runs through a gorge cutting through the park, passing over three magnificent waterfalls along the way,” USA Today states. “Hikers have access to 66 miles of trail, and rafting, kayaking, horseback riding, mountain biking and hot air ballooning are also on offer.”

For more information on Letchworth, click here.

Here are more photos from Sunday’s balloon launch:

Photo by Joe Martillotta

ALBION – Joe Martillotta was out mowing his lawn on North Main Street in Albion on Friday when he discovered a fawn nestled in the bushes.

Martillotta said he was tempted to pet the baby deer but he didn’t want its mother to reject it. The fawn eventually got up and took off running.

Martillotta said he will keep an eye out for the fawn and hopes to watch it mature throughout the year.

It’s more of a people problem than a cat problem.

By Douglas H. Domedion
Nature Correspondent

Most families own a pet and many consider them important family members. There are a variety of birds that people have for pets and some folks enjoy reptiles or fish or even rodents. However the most popular are cats and dogs.

There is quite a large variety of dogs to chose from depending on what you really want: a small one for a apartment, a hunter, a guard dog, a devoted companion etc. With this ownership comes a great deal of responsibility, because the animal depends on you for food, water, companionship, a place to sleep and play. There are health issues such as diseases, injuries and just general maintenance that must be addressed that can be quite expensive today.

We are also responsible for the actions of our dogs because they can cause harm to other animals or even humans, other people’s property and wildlife. No one enjoys a “gift” left in their yard by the neighbor’s dog or listening to constant barking. Most places have regulations about dog ownership such as licensing, rabies shots, annoying barking and free roaming.

Cats are very popular. They make great indoor pets because they require they less space, have their own inside bathroom and are more suited to being left alone inside while their masters are gone all day. My son has a cat for these reasons even though he would like a dog.

There is one problem with cats though or should I say with some of the folks who get cats. Cat owners have the same responsibilities as dog owners, especially the one about keeping them under control. Kittens are cute, but they grow up and oftentimes find themselves on the doorstep. Next thing you know they are abandoned by either dumping them off somewhere or just leaving them outside with no food or care.

Now free-ranging cats are necessary around the barnyard because there is a constant rodent problem. As long as there doesn’t get to be too many cats that they have to begin to look outside the farm area for food there isn’t a problem. However the folks who allow their cats to range outside other than on the farm are a problem.

A recent study has estimated BILLIONS of birds and small mammals are killed year in the U.S. by free-ranging cats. Sure they kill a lot of mice, shrews and moles, but they also nail a lot of the young of rabbits, squirrels and other small wildlife. Some will kill adult rats, but many won’t just because rats are a very tough characters.

Folks who let their cats roam are not only doing a real disservice to our wildlife, but also to their cat. First, a cat that is free-roaming has a much shorter life span because they are more susceptible to diseases. Second, coyotes and foxes make tasty snacks of them. Third, many are killed on roads because they just charge across a road and are not seen until it’s too late. Fourth, cats depositing feces in flower beds can cause serious infection problems for their neighbors. And last, eating mice that have poison in them from other people’s attempts to get rid of them will also kill the cat.

In many places feral cat (a cat that has returned to the wild or descendants of) colonies have become a serious problem. A program called Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return (TNVR) is being considered by many places now to solve this problem, but will it? It sounds good, but I’m not so sure. Maybe professional people like wildlife biologists, veterinarians and professional animal control people need to be consulted first. Maybe we should use common sense! After spending time and money trapping, neutering and vaccinating these cats we are going to release them back to where they were a problem? Rabies shots need to be updated as do other vaccinations. A new young feral cat can have a litter of kittens before it is trapped, and if it has rabies, it will be passed on to the kittens and we wouldn’t know it. And when rabies has popped up, how do we know who that cat bit or know if the rabies virus even exists in the colony before it’s too late? Many theories sound great, but turn out to not work so well in reality.

Yes feral cats are a big problem, but the real problem lies with many cat owners who are not held responsible for their cats they originally had for pets. Why not have cat licenses (more expensive for non-neutered) and requirements for vaccination and fines for free-ranging animals? You know, like with dogs! Or maybe we should just allow all pets to roam free uncontrolled and with no health requirements and let nature takes it course as many like to advocate. We manage our wildlife – why don’t we manage our out-of-control cat population?

Photos by Doug Boyer

CARLTON – Doug Boyer sent in these photos he took of ospreys and also a bald eagle at Lake Alice. The top photo was taken on Thursday of an osprey with its catch.

This osprey was photographed about two weeks ago.

Boyer took this photo about a month ago of a bald eagle in a nest that Boyer built.

“Smoking Joe” was a quite a pet!

By Douglas H. Domedion
Nature Correspondent

As a young boy I had several pet crows over the years. This of course is illegal now. Although they eventually returned back to the wild (I allowed them to roam free) they were very interesting to study and have as pets.

I always named a young crow “Joe” because they could learn to say “Hello Joe” quite easily if they hear it repeated enough. This would happen without splitting their tongues as old myths claim you had to do to get them to imitate the human voice.

A pet crow is always getting into trouble stealing some item from people and then hiding it. One of my crows loved to take coins or a pair of sunglasses and hide them behind the wheel of the car. When I worked at the golf course someone nearby had a pet crow and it would fly over to the greens and steal golf balls.

One of my pet crows would either ride on the handlebars of my bike or fly above me when I went over to my girlfriend’s house. He would sit on the roof for about a half an hour and then start a ruckus, calling to let me know it was time to go home.

Another would occasionally follow Dad and me when we went pheasant hunting and we always had to be alert of where he was as not to accidentally shoot him. Gunfire didn’t bother him and he would perch on the barrel of my .22 and not fly off when I shot. That one was a character as he would hold a lit cigarette in his beak until it burned down enough that the smoke bothered him. I brought a miniature smoking pipe one time and when I offered it to him he would grab it and sit there holding it in his beak like he was smoking!

All these pet crows made good watchdogs and nothing entered the area around our house that they didn’t see and would alert you with loud calling. This of course alerted the dog that would then join in with her barking.

Crows in large numbers can be a serious threat to crops or nesting birds such as ducks. They especially like corn that is just sprouting. They also can be a problem with their droppings and noise when they gather in huge roosts at night, as was the case in the town of Auburn a few years back.

However, overall crows can be beneficial because of the great amount of destructive insects, such as grasshoppers and cutworms, that they eat. They will eat about anything including road kill, garbage, fruit, mice, small birds and even dead fish washed up on shore.

They were hunted heavily in the past because of the damage they caused but this never seemed to effect their numbers. I believe that DDT caused them a lot of problems in the past as it did with other birds such as our Bald Eagle. No one ever worried about the crow though like they did about the eagles. When I think back on it now, many of the nests we checked for baby crows as kids had broken eggs just like the problem the eagles were having. Of course little was known about the negative effects of chemicals on our wildlife at that time.

It seemed that for a long time you just didn’t see many crows in the fields. In more recent times, with the wiser use of our chemicals, they seem to be on the upswing again.

An interesting thing about crows is that they tend to remain in a family groups. In fact, sometimes the younger family members that are not paired up may help build a nest or feed the young.

They build nests of sticks and line them with soft things like grass or feathers. They will use hardwood trees for a nesting site but prefer evergreen trees. The eggs, usually four, are greenish with brown spots. After hatching, the young leave the nest in about three weeks but travel as a family for a considerable time.

Crows are known for their “caw, caw, caw” calls but they also make a great many other noises which sometimes do not even seem to be of bird origin. Their loud and aggressive calling is often heard when they gang up and decide to harass a hawk or owl. The chase will build in intensity and all the crows in the area will join in. They will repeatedly chase, dive-bomb and harass any hawk or owl that enters their area in hopes of driving them off.

Crows are interesting birds and very intelligent. You may want to take the time to notice their lifestyles sometime. Heck, you may learn something from them, but don’t start smoking!

My contact information is 585-798-4022 or woodduck2020@yahoo.com.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Ashley Ward, left, served as a leader of Orleans County Fishing Derby, an event run by the Albion Rotary Club, for three decades. Bill Downey is the event’s new volunteer director. Ward will remain a key advisor for the derby.

ALBION – In 1982, three local Rotary clubs decided to help lure more fishermen to the area with an annual derby, with prizes awarded for anglers who catch the biggest Chinook salmon, brown trout, rainbow trout, and lake trout.

In 30-plus years the derby has grown to about 700 annual entrants who receive nearly $10,000 annually in cash and other prizes, including the $4,000 grand prize for biggest fish.

The Albion Rotary Club has been running the derby since 1984. The event generates about $4,000 in profits and that money is directed to community projects. (Some of that money paid for the big welcome sign at Point Breeze.)

Ashley Ward has been helping to run the derby for three decades. He and his late wife Bonnie owned a bed and breakfast in Carlton from 1980 to 1999. They saw how the influx of fishermen gave the economy a boost with anglers going to restaurants, bait and tackle shops, gas stations, and local lodging establishments.

A fishing derby draws more of those fishermen, Ward said, and gets them to stay longer.

“That’s one reason why we’ve kept at it,” Ward said. “It brings a lot of people here.”

This year’s derby will run from Aug. 1 to Aug. 16. It includes weigh stations in Orleans, Niagara and Monroe counties.

Debbie Murphy of Pennsylvania keeps up an Orleans County Fishing Derby tradition by kissing the winning fish in the derby. Murphy won the $4,000 grand prize with the heaviest fish, a 27-pound, 7-ounce Chinook salmon, during the 2014 Orleans County Fishing Derby.

The derby has made some changes for this year. Ward remains a key advisor for the derby, but he has passed the chairman duties to Bill Downey, who has volunteered with the derby for 12 years.

The derby committee has been selling ads and lining up sponsors for the annual 16-day contest. The committee has changed from a printed journal to a website with a list of rules, advertisers and other derby information. Click here to see the Orleans County Fishing Derby.

Downey believes the website format will be more useful to the fishermen in the contest. They can check the website for daily updates on the fishing leaderboard and get other relevant information with a touch of their smartphone.

The derby committee created a smaller rack card with the derby date and other registration information. That card was taken to eight fishing shows and also will be mailed to anglers who make inquiries with the Orleans County Tourism Department about local fishing resources.

Mike Waterhouse is the county’s sportsfishing coordinator. He said he appreciates the work of the Rotary Club in organizing the annual derby. He said the derbies draw anglers who seek the prize money and the thrill of landing a big fish. He knows many fishermen will stay in the community longer, trying to catch a winning fish.

“They like the prizes and the competition,” Waterhouse said about the derby competitors. “There are people who want to fish in derbies.”

Ward said bringing in more fishermen gives the local economy a boost. That has been his biggest motivation in volunteering with the derby for so many years.

“I realize how important it is because it ties in with our tourism,” he said.

Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – This boater heads east on the Erie Canal in Albion on Monday afternoon. The boater then passed under the Main Street lift bridge. The canal opened for its 191st season on Friday.

The temperatures will drop on Wednesday with a high of 57 and low of 38. On Thursday, it will be a high of 62 and a low of 45, according to the National Weather Service.

Photos by Tom Rivers

BARRE – This barn on Angevine Road is pictured during a severe thunderstorm on Monday night. I was out near this barn for reports of a house fire. On the way to Angevine Road from Albion, there were numerous flashes of lightning.

This is my first try at a lightning photo. The storm had weakened at this point. I learned from this outing and look forward to trying it again.

The fire was in the basement of the house at 4722 Angevine Rd. The homeowner used a fire extinguisher to take care of the fire. Barre firefighters, and other local departments, responded to the scene.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Mount Albion Cemetery is always a glorious place, but it is particularly stunning right now with the blossoms out by the arch at the front entrance.

These photos were taken Saturday morning at the cemetery along Route 31. There are other trees in blossom mode in the cemetery. This is a good time of the year to stop by and look around.

Photos by Tom Rivers

A Canada goose was out this morning just after sunrise in the widewaters section of the Erie Canal along Presbyterian Road, just east of Knowlesville.

The canal opened its navigational season at 7 a.m. The historic waterway has been open to boaters every year since 1825.

This photo, taken at about 6:30 a.m., is looking west from the bridge on Presbyterian Road.

The lift bridge is pictured in Eagle Harbor. Orleans County has seven lift bridges, the most of any county on the 363-mile-long canal.

Here’s another goose in the widewaters section. There is a lot of wildlife along the canal.

This photo was taken on Thursday evening and shows the lineup of tugboats and other canal equipment between the Main Street and Ingersoll Street lift bridges in Albion.

Photos by Tom Rivers
POINT BREEZE – There were a lot of people at Point Breeze this evening as the sun was setting. People were fishing, kayaking, throwing rocks in the water and enjoying a stroll along the pier.

Willow Groth, 8, of Albion has a pile of rocks she was tossing in Lake Ontario.

These kayakers paddle into the Oak Orchard River.

The Oak Orchard Lighthouse is one of the landmarks at Point Breeze.

The lighthouse was built in 2010 and was designed as a replica of one that toppled in a storm in 1916.

A full moon was also out, opposite of the setting sun. This photo was taken at the shoreline in front of the lighthouse, looking east.

Here is another one of the shoreline with the full moon.

Photo by Tom Rivers – A fisherman is pictured last October in the Oak Orchard River.

CARLTON – The Orleans County Legislature has secured public fishing access for the next five years along about 4,000 feet of the Oak Orchard River, including at some of the most desirable fishing spots.

The Legislature last week voted to renew a lease with Roy Salmon and his son Scott Salmon for 15.8 acres of their property. The Salmons will be paid $12,000 annually or $60,000 over five years.

The agreement runs from Aug. 22, 2015 to Aug. 21, 2020.

The county first entered into an agreement with the Salmons in August 2007. That first agreement was $7,500 annually over three years.

The county in 2007 pushed to reach a deal with the Salmons for public access after the family put about 50 posted signs along their property.

Fishing is the county’s top tourism attraction, generating about $12 million in economic activity in Orleans.

The Oak Orchard is a popular draw, especially in the fall during the annual salmon and trout runs with many anglers coming from around the state and country to fish in the river.

In addition to public fishing access, the agreement allows the Salmon property to keep its vegetative cover to protect water quality and riparian habitat, and to also be available for fishery and habitat management, research and educational programs.

The county has signs on the Salmon property, urging anglers to respect the land, by taking out trash and fish carcasses.

Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – The historic Erie Canal has been filling up with water in recent days. The still water created a mirroring effect this evening at dusk.

The top two photos were all taken in the backyard of Community Action on State Street, looking west towards the Ingersoll Street lift bridge.

The NYS Canal Corporation has scheduled the start of the navigation season on the canal for 7 a.m. on May 8.

The canal opened in 1825 and this year will be the 191st season.

This photo shows the Butts Road canal bridge reflected in the water.