New York Vacation - Day 7

Well, our last day in New York had finally arrived. We went over to the refuge, blue sky above, and we were hopeful we might see some interesting birds.

Looking out over these grasslands, I heard a lot of birds, but didn't see any.

As we drove along the road, we came upon this heron. He had no intention of moving!  We slipped past him as slowly as possible. (The bird wasn't leaving a whole lot of room for us!) Nothing would move this bird out of the way - not even a car. We were in its territory and the rules belonged to the bird.

There were birds in the canal. This Moorhen was undisturbed by our presence.

A Moorhen and a Wood Duck sharing a space. If only humans could get along as well.

A Great Blue Heron stood silent, watching and waiting for just the right moment to splash its head down into the water and come up with some little treat for breakfast.

As we drove around to the other side of the pond, this Great Egret was probably doing the same as its heron cousin. At any moment there would be a head dive! *SPLASH!*

A really bad picture, but it serves as a record for having seen it. Bald Eagles are usually fairly easy to see in this place, but on this trip, they were elusive.

A little Coot swam past us

Rose Mallow

A butterfly in the flowers. I would have liked to have been closer, but at this point of the drive, visitors were not permitted to get out of their vehicles.

An Eastern Kingbird was perched on some branches

Lots of flowers were in bloom below him

Another Moorhen. The reflections were beautiful, thanks to that blue sky above

A nearby Grebe was swimming around 

We went back to find the Ospreys we had seen the day before and this one was already on a post eating a fish

One look at me before it continued eating.  

It was time to go. We didn't see a wide variety of birds on this trip, but still, we saw more than we might have if we had just stayed home. 

 See you next time! 

New York Vacation - Day 5/6

Hi everyone. I'm so slow at catching up these days. Life is keeping me busy.  I hope you all are doing well and enjoying some nice fall weather.

Moving on with the vacation series: The next couple of days were "lite" days. We would head off to see what we might discover, take in the scenery, look for birds, and then simply relax. Of course, before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at a winery. Lee bought some wine and fudge. I don't enjoy drinking, so I just got the fudge (which was delicious!)

This field of flowers was so beautiful. Everyday we passed by it and birds were often perched on the stalks. 

Not much was there on this day, so we headed over to the Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area. 

We were immediately greeted by this beautiful immature Peregine Falcon. I wondered what he was looking at. Was that a sidelong glance at me?  😏

The pond was covered with green and this duck was standing on someone's now empty nest.

A Red-Winged Blackbird was gathering fluff from Cattails.

Do you see them all? Great Blue Herons standing on these nests! I didn't know that they sometimes nest like this. There were mounds as far as the eye could see.  I guess if there are no trees around, perhaps this is what they do (?) I talked with someone who lives there and he confirmed that they nested there every year. 

This bird flashed me! Tsk!  😏

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Day 6

We weren't seeing a lot of birds on these two days, so we kept the days short and relaxed. We spotted this Belted Kingfisher at the Howland Island Wildlife Management Area. If I'm remembering correctly, I believe we saw three of them there, flitting about, moving up and down the river - this one perched in the tree for awhile. 

We spotted this beautiful Osprey with a fish

Toward the end of the day, this Cormorant stood with outstretched wings. 

Only one more day left in New York and then we would be heading home.

See you next time! 

New York Vacation - Day 4

For a week that was supposed to bring rain everyday, we certainly had some good weather. We experienced a few sprinkles here and there, but overall, it was fine. Maybe not the bluest of skies, but we were happy just to be there breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the countryside. 

This heron stood quietly by the creek, unbothered that we were there. Is "unbothered" a word? Spellcheck doesn't think so, but spellcheck doesn't think spellcheck is word either.  Oh, I don't care. He was unbothered and spellcheck is dumb anyway. :)  (I just checked... Merriam Webster lists both, so that's that.)

There was a good-sized population of Moorhens in the canal. 

Here is one that seemed to be sunning itself on the bank of the canal.

The ever-present Rose Mallow. I couldn't resist taking pictures of them because of the way they turned their heads to face the sun throughout the day.

Suddenly, we hit a roadblock!  So much traffic! 

Crouched in the weeds, as if to hide from me. I didn't see you, dear egret. Promise.

There were two lovely giants there. These Trumpeter Swans are huge compared to the Mute Swans we see here in Connecticut.

I would love to know what kind of bird this is. I couldn't find anything that looked like it in my bird ID field guides. 

Yellowlegs danced in the shallow ponds

This Double-Crested Cormorant stood perched on a stump 

Another egret was fishing.

It was a short day for us. We were both tired of being the car, so we headed back to the hotel, offloaded our photos, and watched a little TV.  That ended our fourth day.

Until next time. See you soon. 

(Scheduled Post)

New York Vacation - Day 3

Hello out there,
Can you believe it's already autumn? I hope everyone is doing well.  Thank you for stopping by and visiting. It's been a little while since I've posted anything. I keep getting caught up in daily life, and before I know it, it's the end of the day and I'm too tired to care about anything that isn't sleep.  Things are going well here. We've made a few day trips - over to Hammonasset in Madison and down to Milford and Stratford. We're not seeing a lot of wildlife (some night herons and miscellaneous ducks mostly), but we did have a sighting of a Roseate Spoonbill in Connecticut! It is said to be a first for Connecticut. They're not supposed to be here. We spotted it at a place called Raven Pond in Stratford. Here is my photographic record that it was there and I was privileged to see it.

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Okay, enough of that. Let's see more of our August vacation in Upstate New York. 

The fall flowers were on full display creating a spectacular feast for the eyes

I really love the warm colors of autumn, but in the back of mind, I know what's coming in a few short weeks! Brrrr

One of  Mother Nature's own flower arrangements

In the treetops, the Osprey would occasionally begin its repetitive "chirp, chirp, chirp." It's funny that these rather large birds have such tiny voices.

This Great Blue Heron was standing on the side of road. We drove past it slowly, so as not to startle it. Still visible in the rear view mirror, it was clear that the bird wasn't going anywhere.

In the top of a tree, this Egret was watching something in the sky

A Goldfinch was perched nearby

These Rose Mallows were everywhere. 

A Great Egret was perched on a stump and looking for a reason to pitch its head into the water. "Fish, where are you?"

This Cormorant would occasionally stretch its wings in an impressive display. I didn't manage to get a shot of it though.

And finally, to finish this post, this Tern was looking around ...

And these guys were getting restless as the day was coming to an end.

Thanks for looking. I'll be visiting some blogs this weekend and catching up a bit. 

Until next time.  😊