NETTLES and WE FOUND IT!!! Not Once But TWICE! - Northdome / Sherril

[Zer0-G]

Well, at the last minute as usual, hooked up with NiceGuyTed and ValleyGirlHikes.

Oh, before I forget, I would really like to see those pics of the two fledgling hawks....

At Shaft Rd. I managed to convince T&V that hiking through 5 miles of nettles is not all that it's cracked up to be. So, we headed off to the backdoor route of Northdome and Sherril. AT he PA, seeing the MINI totally engulfed in waist high weeds was pretty funny. Off to the fishing hole and the start of the hike with the goal to fulfill my promise of a near Nettle free hike.

Now, I have to check the date...May 20th, 2010...yes, that's right. I have a snippet of a track log that I have saved, from that date, with the sole purpose of trying to find a custom made ultra light weight carbon fiber hiking pole that belonged to Arlo, which he lost on this very same hike done on the aforementioned date. With Ted and Valerie snooping the hills with me, I felt that this, the fourth time since the poles' disappearance, I might get lucky. The track log proved to be useful, at last and this time WE FOUND IT!!!! (that's number one) - In perfect shape save for a few little nibbles on the handle. I was very happy to say the least, and so was Arlo when he saw it at the breakfast table the following morning.

Onwards with the hike. This appraoch to ND is 99 percent Nettle free and a pure pleasure to hike. Lollygagging most of the way to the summit gave plenty of time to socialize and catch up on current events. More of the same over to Sherril with only a smattering of Nettles here and there.

The fun really begins here, navigating to the 'Mini in the weeds' down the ridge 'in the middle'. This ridge is pretty thick with limited scope of vision at times. It is challenging to inerpret the subtle changes in contours to place yourself on the map. Of which, this time, is a silly mapsource printout. I refused to GPS it. Since the pole was found, the darn thing was turned off to conserve my sanity. I find them useful sometimes, but I have grown towards a love hate relationship with them. And I certainly support anyone using any navigational device to go anywhere at any time so long as they have fun doing what they are doing.

Since it was about 1.5 years since I was last here on this ridge, a few things looked a little vague. So, with about 2/10's of a mile to go, I whipped out the gps just to check my location with respect to the 'Mini in the weeds'. I do this sometimes when I may be a little mentally fatigued from squinting at the map and feeling impatient. This time I was hot and bothered with a new hole dug into my forehead which I now have to find some practicle use for. (Buswhacking can be painful sometmes, presently my arms make me look like I am a cutter!!!) Well, we were right on course and about 3 minutes later, we popped out of the woods, with the red barn across the field in the distance and the Alfred E side views of the Mini glistening in the sun. WE FOUND IT!!!! (that's number two) Yeah, that felt good. I was planning this M&C for a long 12 hours since I knew Valerie would be on the hike. You'd have to ask her about the AMC Backpack to the Wildcats - me being on my soapbox and all that about M&C skills. BTW - there were a few snaggets of Nettles coming down this way, but nothing more than what could be easily beaten into submission.

Note to friend - Yes, I know Maps can be wrong and Compasses can be wacky, but I did it anyway because I was afraid I was going to lose my GPS or the batteries would die or I would drip sweat all over the screen leaving it unreadable. Or worse, I'd lose it in my pack!!!!!!

I have one more of Arlo's poles to find near Big Indian.

(NGT - I miscounted)

257/420

[mudhook]

Great report, ranks right up there with "the checks in the mail".:D
99% is only true for Ivory soap.:razz:

[niceguyted]

Yup, definitely ace navigating by Zer0-G on this trip. :tup: I'll see if I can't tackle Val tonight and get her to download those pics of the baby hawks from her camera - they were SO cute. I just wanted to pick them up and cuddle with them for the rest of the day. I'll post the pics as soon as I get my (digital) hands on them.

Thanks for putting the TR together, Ronnie. Good times and a great route. =) I'm was also quite impressed that you bagged Rusk afterward as well. :cool:

210/420 for me - halfway there. I swear, between mudhook and H&F taking turns busting my balls, the canister logbooks (and my cards in the cans) are starting to look like a facebook comment thread.

[Zer0-G]

Oh...damn....forgot to mention that, the company was great...:D
See what happens when you write a TR at work......:oops:

[Halia and Flammeus]

Hey - can you send me that route? It sounds like the right way to hike ND/S in a ballgown. And I happen to need those two for my solo finish. =)

[niceguyted]

Hey - can you send me that route? It sounds like the right way to hike ND/S in a ballgown. And I happen to need those two for my solo finish. =)

I'll send you the tracklog as soon as I download it - left the gps at home today. =/ On the way out, we passed and picked a few soon-to-be ripe raspberries about 20 yards from where my car was parked.

Here are the baby hawk photos:

http://i.imgur.com/2t0MQ.jpg (http://imgur.com/2t0MQ)

http://i.imgur.com/xbgfN.jpg (http://imgur.com/xbgfN)

http://i.imgur.com/qbtOF.jpg (http://imgur.com/qbtOF)

(There were two of them that surprised us by fluttering to the ground to stand still and stare at us (we reciprocated) just after we left the can on North Dome.)

One other thing of note on this hike was that Sherrill has a pretty serious herd path forming right now: it starts maybe a few hundred feet uphill from the col and continues all the way up to connect with the warren of looking-for-the-can herd paths at the summit. There were two big groups signed in at both the ND and Sherrill cans in the last couple of weeks (one was 12 people, the other was I don't remember). We decided to stay on the herd path in order to minimize the overall impact on the forest and help make it easier for aspirants to find the can. Not.

[Halia and Flammeus]

lol. Can't wait for winter, when we can once again create faux herd paths all over summits, leaving snowshoe trails all over the place and generally causing a ruckus. Not that any of us ever do that either. :D

[polskikrol]

lol. Can't wait for winter, when we can once again create faux herd paths all over summits, leaving snowshoe trails all over the place and generally causing a ruckus. Not that any of us ever do that either. :D

I remember doing that just this past winter :twisted:

[mudhook]

Very very very nice find and photos, would have liked to seen the little guys, What kind do you think? Still don't believe it was as NF as stated.:D

NNGT, this gives you one credit for something,not yet decided, ZG and HVG already have credits.

[Zer0-G]

Still don't believe it was as NF as stated.:D


Hey...NGT was it at least 95% NF or not....?
What we have here is a failure to believeacate! :D

Geeezzzzz...what's a guy to do !!!! :razz:

[niceguyted]

Very very very nice find and photos, would have liked to seen the little guys, What kind do you think? Still don't believe it was as NF as stated.:D

NNGT, this gives you one credit for something,not yet decided, ZG and HVG already have credits.

I'd like to exchange whatever credits I have for MORE BOOBS.

It was def almost 100% NF. If anything, 95% might be too low an estimate.

My guess would be that it's a standard red-tailed hawk, though an ornithologist I surely am not. :razz: I was thinking maybe a broad-winged hawk, but they only lay one egg at a time and we saw two little guys who were probably the same age.

If either of them take after me, they'll be pretty bad-a$$ like this guy:

http://i.imgur.com/6fPmc.jpg (http://imgur.com/6fPmc)

Someone threw a knife at him and he CAUGHT IT. He then proceeded to beat the guy to death with the handle of the knife (holding the blade in his beak).

[billandjudy]

Were they able to semi-fly? They look pretty young in the pics....Wonder if they got blown out of the nest?:?:

[Zer0-G]

Were they able to semi-fly? They look pretty young in the pics....Wonder if they got blown out of the nest?:?:

It's hard to say. I was in front and I remember something coming down from above as we approached or while passing. It could have been one of the little furries.

Would they have flown away if they could have while we were in the stare down with them?

[daLunartik]

Were they able to semi-fly? They look pretty young in the pics....Wonder if they got blown out of the nest?:?:

Would they have flown away if they could have while we were in the stare down with them?

Here's my Semi-Educated WAG. They are not completely Fledged, but appear to have enough Flight Wings to Flutter and Glide, not really Fly. One possible reason or factor into why they didn't fly or attempt to fly away was they are still so new at it, that trying was scarier than bunch of humans that they hadn't yet learned to be afraid of. If you'd have stuffed one of them into a pack and brought it home, it'd would probably bond with you nicely as a great Falconry Bird (which probably would have been illegal and hopefully would have resulted in it eating your eyes out).

[niceguyted]

Here's my Semi-Educated WAG. They are not completely Fledged, but appear to have enough Flight Wings to Flutter and Glide, not really Fly. One possible reason or factor into why they didn't fly or attempt to fly away was they are still so new at it, that trying was scarier than bunch of humans that they hadn't yet learned to be afraid of. If you'd have stuffed one of them into a pack and brought it home, it'd would probably bond with you nicely as a great Falconry Bird (which probably would have been illegal and hopefully would have resulted in it eating your eyes out).

That sounds pretty much spot-on from what we were able to observe. I think we really only noticed them because of the white puffs that fluttered across our path (top left to bottom right). Part of my mind gave some serious thought to doing the pack-stuffing thing, but I figured I'd better not increase the chances of the cat getting eaten in the house. Thought about maybe just petting them, too, but that didn't really seem like the cool thing to do - in the cosmic, leave-no-trace way. No need to get the stink of Newports all over someone so new to this world.

[Zer0-G]

Believe me, I am not a birdologist :razz:, but would the mommy still be involved with these two at this time of their young lives?

At one moment I was looking around up over my shoulder for the mommy hoping that I was not going to have my eyeballs ripped out by the overprotective spawner of these spawnees.

[daLunartik]

Thought about maybe just petting them, too, but that didn't really seem like the cool thing to do - in the cosmic, leave-no-trace way. No need to get the stink of Newports all over someone so new to this world.

Smart move - you probably would have lost a finger.:twisted:

Believe me, I am not a birdologist :razz:, but would the mommy still be involved with these two at this time of their young lives?

At one moment I was looking around up over my shoulder for the mommy hoping that I was not going to have my eyeballs ripped out by the overprotective spawner of these spawnees.

Mom and Dad are still feeding and caring for these little ones, though at this stage they don't really need constant care. Most likely they were off hunting for food to bring back - or waiting for Ted to go over and start petting them :D

[Zer0-G]

Most likely they were off hunting for food to bring back - or waiting for Ted to go over and start petting them :D

mmmmmmm.....finger food....Ted tends to be of a generous nature...that would have been fun to see....:twisted:

[mudhook]

And still no "Are you sure you weren't on Hawkit?" jabs.

[hoosier]

Are you sure you guys weren't on Hawkit

[RTSpoons]

great pictures....as for the GPS and the finding the poles....I once took my not so friendly American Bulldog for a hike in the Dacks. On this particular day someone was lost so the parking lot at Ellk Lake was full of Ranger trucks with rangers out looking for this lost soul. As I was off trail, whacking to Sunrise Mt., the dog was off leash. At one point I stopped to check the GPS, layed the leash down, nylon red, in the yellow and red autumn leaves, and walked off without it. May be a half mile later I discovered my mistake. I needed that leash in case we came across someone so I went back looking for it. With help of the GPS, I was able to find the leash, great device.

[Zer0-G]

The funny thing about that is, this is the third time I went back to find the pole. Twice with the GPS and once without. The method I used to record the tracklogs didn't help at all. I used the every .001 of a mile I drop a dot in the log. So, there was a lot of leeway. If I used the default method which is a combination of distance and time, I would have found it much more easily. Arlo dropped his pole when we took a break. So we spent some time at that spot. If I used the default method, I would have known exactly where we stopped as there would have been that tell tale cluster of dots.

[daLunartik]

http://i.imgur.com/qbtOF.jpg (http://imgur.com/qbtOF)

Looking at this photo, I'm guessing they were either Northern Goshawks or most likely Broad-winged Hawks. Here's my reasoning. These appear to be pretty large birds despite not being fully fledged, which eliminates a number of species. The whitish chest with reddish brown speckles/striping just starting to show in the plumage could be the beginnings of young Red Tail's full red chest plumage. A Red Shouldered Hawk is also a possibility, but it strikes me more like the broken red/white striping of either a Goshawk or a Broad-wing. Looking at the Wing, Back and Tail feathers that we can see in this shot, where the outer feathers have grown in over the white down feathers, they are all clearly dark and grayish black - distinctly not Brown in any of the other shots as well. That coloration leads me away from the Red Tailed and Shouldered Hawks, who should be showing a dark brown even at this stage in their fledgling.

Now take a look at the tail, most notably the dark tail with a whiteish band mid-way down. Both a Goshawk and a Red Shouldered Hawk have multiple white or light stripes on their dark brown tail, while a Broad-Winged's tail has one large light band mid-way down the dark, slate gray tail.

Thus, my ID WAG is baby Broad Winged Hawks. Which is also a possible explanation as to why you weren't hassled by Mom and Dad - as I was reading up on the birds I listed above, I learned that Goshawks are known to attack humans (http://www.google.com/search?q=northern+goshawk+attack) in defense of their nest. :D


Oh Yeah, I'm not an Ornithologist nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn last night, be sure to check yer EULA below......:razz:

[Zer0-G]

I learned that Goshawks are known to attack humans (http://www.google.com/search?q=northern+goshawk+attack) in defense of their nest. :D


Mr. MR , I think you are wrong .....:D....do you see the 'Don't F*&^ with me!!!!' look in that chick's eyes!!! That's a Goshawk for sure. Trying to scare me with that look and looking like it is about to get all up in my human face and attack me! It's in its genetics dude! I felt threatened by that beast and it took every ounce of my energy to move my sorry butt out of harms way cuz I was frozen with fear!!!

And I am not a professional birdologist just like you claim not to be a professional 'fancy word for birdologist'.

Then again I am going to include a disclaimer from a good friend as well...'I might just be kidding' :razz:

:D:tup:

[hoosier]

Maybe it's one of these


http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/46628/2007256130102181733S500x500Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2007256130102181733BEFvLz)