The Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area is a 5,100 acre upland tract, situated approximately eight miles west of Dansville, New York. Roughly two-thirds of the area lies in southern Livingston County, while the remaining third lies in northern Allegany County. The tract was purchased in the 1930’s under the Federal Resettlement Administration and is one of several such areas turned over to DEC for development as a wildlife management area.
The area is appropriately named after the Timber Rattlesnake, which may be occasionally found in the more remote sections of the “Hill”.
The area offers an interesting blend of upland habitats such as mature woodland, overgrown fields, conifer plantations, old growth apple orchards and open meadows.
The area is inhabited by a variety of game species and is open to public hunting. The white-tailed deer, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, grey squirrel, cottontail rabbit and woodcock are found on the area. An occasional snowshoe hare may be observed adjacent to thick creek bottom brush or conifer plantation habitats.
A number of small marsh units have been developed and provide limited hunting for waterfowl. Some of the area’s furbearing species such as mink, beaver and raccoon may be occasionally viewed at these marsh units.
The other day I was thinking what a silly thing those garbage bags people buy to keep trash cans clean and the garbage together until it gets smashed in the back of garbage truck or lit in the burning barrel. Few things can you say you are directly paying for to buy then as part of it’s use paying for it get rid of it.
Now I get the advantage of garbage bags — they keep the trash can relatively clean and the trash together when you throw it in the dumpster. Trash trucks find loading trash cans and dumpsters with bagged garbage easier. If you burn your own, then it helps keep you from accidentally melting your trash can dumping the trash in burn barrel. But it still seems kind of silly to be spending money on something you buy to throw away.
Years ago, people didn’t use trash bags nearly as much. Maybe because the plastics were more expensive, maybe because it was more of a new thing. People might bag their kitchen garbage, but it was rare for regular waste baskets around the house or office to have trash bags. Maybe before recycling was big, the paper would line the cans and keep them neater. But I still can’t believe people spend money to throw it away.
Honestly, when I think I own my own land, I’ll just use the plastic or paper bags I get from the store and use them to line my wastebaskets or feed bags for the kitchen garbage. I don’t produce that much trash, and honestly if I am going to burn the burnable trash, the smaller bags are easier and quicker to chuck in the fire I have out back and burn. With a serious commitment to reduce waste and compost, honestly I think using the small bags you get for free really is a better way to go.
It seems like winter is fading away locally but we could get some more snow next week. But it’s soon to be April and I don’t anticipate it lasting around long, especially outside of the mountains and up country.
Good morning! Happy Thursday. Clouds and 46 degrees for the morning walk here in Delmar, NY. 🌥 There is a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. Rsin maybe later or maybe not.
Oatmeal 🥣 for breakfast and now out for the morning walk 🚶 listening to that John Prine record. 💿 Dark morning with rain pushing in ☔ or maybe not. I still think there is a good chance I’ll get my steps 👣 in for the day. Warm enough this morning the joggers are out 🏃 and the birds are singing. 🐦 Looks like Saturday it might dip below freezing early but I’m not likely to need my heat until October or maybe November at this point.
Today will have showers likely, mainly between 2pm and 3pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 58 degrees at 5pm. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 12th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 3pm. South wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 47 degrees. The record high of 80 was set in 1938. 6.1 inches of snow fell back in 2020.❄
It was nice yesterday to have the windows open 🔲 while I was at work to let the fresh air in though I closed them before bed 🛏 as it cooled down. That said warmer days aren’t far away. Once it warms up a bit more I might stop wearing the muzzle so much but the other day after I got on the elevator a Republican hopped on and was coughing and sounded quite sick. 😷 I’m sure he probably wasn’t vaccinated and at this point my COVID-19 booster is probably wearing down. But I figure with the warmer weather the risk of colds and the COVID-19 drop way down plus my muzzles are getting worn out and I’m sure I’ll want them come the autumn.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:03 pm with sun having an altitude of 48.3° from the due south horizon (-22.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:34 pm with the sun in the west (266°). 📸
The sunset is in the west (272°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:11 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:38 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west (266°) at an altitude of 22° from the horizon, 236,707 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:12 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 54 degrees. The dew point will be 49 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 23 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.
Got down to the park 🏞 after a quick dinner finishing off the remaining brown rice 🍚 lentils and carrots 🥕 I had made up. It was early enough I was able add some extra steps by walking 🚶 a few laps of the nature trail before it was getting dark and time to go home. In bed at 8 which is good because I woke up during the night for a while. 🛏 I really need a night or two in the wilderness with a rip roaring fire 🔥 to restore my sleep.
Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly before 9pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 35 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 10th. Northwest wind 15 to 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became light drizzle by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 36 degrees. The record low of 0 occurred back in 1875.
I’ve been debugging the new style sheet with the blog, 📝 which the responsive design mode hasn’t been perfect on all displays. That said, I think I’ve mostly worked out the major bugs. One of the issues I’ve had with is caching of the styles which cause a mix of the old and new to display, but I figured out a way to force the browsers to refresh it every time I change stylesheet by including the version number in the fetch for the style sheet.
Saturdaystill looks rainy ☔. Saturday, rain showers and snow showers, possibly mixed with sleet, becoming all rain after 2pm. High near 41. Southeast wind 6 to 11 mph increasing to 12 to 17 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Going to make the Saturday walk fun. Wear the rain coat I guess. Better Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 49. ☀ Typical average high for the weekend is 49 degrees.
Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Arbor Day 🌳 when the sun will be setting at 7:52 pm with dusk at 8:20 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 51 and 39 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 65 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1962.
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