The Putnam Sportsman

They say "birds of a feather, flock together," so I'll start this column with a couple of stories for the birds, both relating to sporting stuff, sort of. Below an eave, over the patio here, where I sit in a lawn chair, occasionally taking a break to read the morning paper while having a cup of coffee, there's a "bait shop" bird house hanging. It was more of a decoration, I thought, never expecting a pair of wrens to decide to nest there. They ignored the little hanging sign on the shop that say's "open at 5am," as mama wren sat on her clutch of tiny eggs, and maybe papa wren gave her a break off and on, so she could get a bite to eat.

Not sure how long this has been going on, but while sitting in my chair a few days ago, I heard the familiar chirping of a wren that perched in the rhododendron bush a short distance away. Then the little wren flew to the bait shop, perched momentarily on a tiny wood bait box on the base, next to the door, then hopped in the open hole in the top section. I immediately heard the chirping of the baby birds for which she had brought a mouthful of food. With the patio door, then the screen door, opening and closing all day and into the night, every day, I was surprised they had chosen that location to raise their family. The weathered "bait shop" had been hanging for a few years, and this was a first—I think!

Here's the 2nd "sporting related" tale. Carmel High School teacher Bill Twardy, who led his Environmental Class in last week's Lake Gleneida shore planting tale, stopped by on a morning break today and drove me over to West Branch Reservoir on Rt. 301. We rounded a curve, saw what we were looking for, and Bill pulled into a driveway, parked, and walked across the busy road.

Across a small inlet, a dead tree rose up high on the far point, but we had walked close enough to clearly see a number of cormorants, many sitting on nests made of dead sticks attached to limbs, others standing on other limbs, appearing to be keeping a watch out for predator crows and such. I snapped a few pictures of the cormorant condo, and with a clear blue sky in the background, they should come out fine. Why "sporting related?" Anglers hate cormorants because they dive and eat a lot of fish every day, including stocked trout and walleyes.

Speaking of birds, Mama just handed me a letter dropped in the mail box—not by the mailman, though. Envelope said "Chief Put Put"-from "Two Feathers," with a hand-drawn fish wearing a headband with two feathers sticking up. Have no clue who dropped it off, but it contained a two-page "2009 NYC DEP Row Boat Auction" notice. Timely for this week's column as viewing for this year's "sealed bid auction" will take place at the DEP Operations Office at 54 Croton Falls Rd. (across from Mahopac Fire House), starting June 15 and continuing to June 20. The City

of New York will auction off 122 used rowboats, with boats being bid out in various lot sizes from 1 (40), 2 (20), 3 (10), and 1 (12). The Field Office will be open on the 6 days from 8am to 2:30pm, and bid packets will be available there. The bid proposals must be received at the Kingston DEP Office, no later than July 6, 2009, at 3pm local time. The sealed bids will be opened on July 8 at 9:30am local time and the projected date for awarding the bids is on or about July 13. For further info you can call the Field Office at (914) 232-1309. We can all thank "Two Feathers;" a day later it wouldn't have made this column!

The Annual 4-H Fishing Clinic held this past Saturday was a success in more ways than one. As opposed to a couple of past clinics, with rain and unseasonably cold weather, it was a bright, sunny day, cool enough at 9am when 4-H Youth Development Director, Dina Altavilla, and the Oasis boys, including me, arrived at the pavilion in the upper Veterans Memorial Park pavilion, where the fishing clinic program was scheduled. Dina was not only alone with no other 4-H personnel able to come, she was wheeling a baby stroller with her young son, Dominic, a boy born early this year. Mama and Pauline McBride had always checked off

the kids from the pre-registration list as they arrived, by age group provided by 4-H, but this year Mike and Pauline were in Tucson visiting their daughter, Rosie, and her family, and I left Mama home, still sleeping. Had I brought her along, Dina would have appreciated her babysitting expertise (Dina's Dad, Sal, arrived around 10:30 to take over babysitting duty, relieving Dina's stress). Mickey Farina and I helped Dina as best we could, getting all her stuff set up, and then we started checking parents and kids as they started arriving. We had a few walk-ins that had to wait until the program started around 11am, but with only a few no-shows, leaving a half dozen rods, reels and tackle bags left over from 100, we were able to take the patiently waiting walk-in parents and children .

In the meantime, after signing in and writing their own name on name tags and sticking them on their shirts or blouses, the kids lined up, and each received their free rod/reel and loaded tackle bag. Then the Oasis boys helped them assemble their gear and assisted those who needed help with casting. I had brought 9 colorful hula hoops for targets, placed in the field in back of the pavilion. Tony Montiero and Freddy Franckiewitz had arrived early with Jack Stewart, their vehicles all loaded with the 100 free fishing outfits, all donated for the program by various fishing tackle companies, via The Jack Stewart Jr. Memorial Fund. Both Tony and Fred also helped the kids out in the field, and later down at the Park Pond.

Around 11 all the folks were called in from the field and the program started, with Dina welcoming all, speaking about the program, and then introducing Jack, who talked to the kids about the various gear items in their tackle bags, and fishing locally in general. I followed, and Dina was pleased I kept my comments short, as kids were getting a little antsy, anxious to get down to the pond to test their new gear, maybe catch a few fish.

Maybe it was the time of day (noon to 3), the bright sun, or most of the fish in the Park Pond had fed early in the morning, but fishing was a little slow for the kids. But they did catch a bunch of panfish, one bullhead I know of, and a couple of largemouth bass that were promptly released (on the small side, anyway). I got a few pictures of kids with fish, and I'm taking the camera down to get developed as soon as I send this column off. I'm going to have to drive over to Cold Spring in the morning to the office and hopefully I can get a couple of pictures printed with this column.

I got home hungry and whipped, but Mama and daughter-in-law Karen took Kevin and Kyle, the Greenwood twins, over to the park later in the afternoon to play at the playground. Karen brought bread to feed the fish off the "Putnam Sportsman" fishing pier in the Park Pond. The fish were too scared to shop up-but a huge snapping turtle did. Mama said it was over 3 feet long, probably 50 pounds, maybe more. The kids were thrilled tossing pieces of bread into the water, watching the huge mouth of this huge monster of the Park Pond grab each morsel.