New York Day 2!

I woke up our first morning in New York to the incredibly loud sound of upstate New York's dawn song. This sounded to be mostly a choir of Robins, but noting that it was only about 4:30 in the morning (and therefore 1:30 California time), I promptly went back to sleep.

We didn't actually get up until six before loading up the car to head to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Montezuma is one of the better known refuges in upstate New York, and promised good opportunities to see some eastern birds. On the drive over, we reviewed eastern warbler songs, especially Cerulean Warbler, a beautiful sky blue little bird that was a coveted target bird for Libby and me.

Birding started with a quick stop for an Osprey nest along the entrance road before pulling into the visitor center parking lot. Purple Martins zipped around their nest box structure, young Bald Eagles soared up above us, and Song Sparrows sang from neighboring bushes. We spent a good amount of time birding the wooded areas around the visitor's center because several on-line sources listed them as a good place for Cerulean Warblers. We enjoyed seeing many typical birds of the east as we walked, including many Eastern Wood Pewees, Least Flycatchers and Gray Catbirds. Yellow Warblers were common, as they appear to be almost everywhere in upstate New York, and I think I may have heard a Carolina Wren (which is listed as rare on the checklist - I wish we had investigated that song!). We also found a snake, and a pair of Yellow Warblers feeding an over-sized Cowbird chick. That's something I'd never seen before, and it was pathetic to watch these beautiful little yellow birds working feverishly to feed a bird twice their size. You can see a picture Bill took here. Thankfully, we also found a pair of Yellow Warblers feeding one of their own offspring, which was much nicer to see.

Still no Cerulean Warblers, though. After one circuit around the forest, we decided to work our way back up along the road toward the main pond. It was there we finally heard the Ceruleans singing from some large cottonwoods near where the forest ended. As we strained our necks and eyes to get a glimpse of them, and Bill talked to a fellow birder from Rochester, a crow swept into the trees, attracting an instant flock of angry songbirds. This proved to be mostly Warbling Vireos, but among the flock I was able to pick out a beautiful male Yellow-throated Vireo. With a little patience, we were able to relocate it or its mate so that Libby could get a look at it, too. That and a nearby Red-bellied Woodpecker were our first lifers of the day, and the Vireo was an especially nice one.

With our first lifers for the day in the bag, we headed back to the car via the bathrooms, and then embarked on the auto loop. Loops like this are a regular feature at National Wildlife Refuges that we've visited, and are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they allow you to explore a good deal of area fairly quickly, but on the other hand, it's often difficult for everyone to get a good look at something because of cars' structures. In this case, it was even harder to see birds because the main pool was drawn down. Still, we made a stop at a blind along the edge, and found our first Swamp Sparrows of the trip, only our second ever, a Spotted Sandpiper on top of the blind, and an Eastern Kingbird hawking insects in the weedy pool-bed edge. Another lifer, and a highlight for me because I especially love the Tyrannus flycatchers.

The wildlife drive isn't actually a loop, and its exit dropped us very near to Tschache Pool. We heard and saw an Alder Flycatcher (new for us!) from the nearby tower, while Black Terns fluttered far out in the middle of the pool over the water. It was drawing near to lunch time, now, but we still pressed on. Our next stop was Mays Point, which proved to be the absolute jackpot for Cerulean Warblers. They were loudly singing from several trees in the area, and Bill serendipitously found a silent female gathering nest material from some understory bushes near the boardwalk viewing platform. Unfortunately, we weren't all able to find it before it flew away.

Still, now we knew where they were, but it was late, and we were all hungry, so we had our picnic before trying again. Lunch was awesome, as Bill and Becca had brought a camp stove and hot dogs. They call them hots in upstate New York, though, and they come in red and white, which is kind of interesting. I naturally tried a white one, but couldn't notice a dramatic difference in flavor, perhaps a little sweeter, over the horseradish mustard I'd drenched it in. Awesome.

After lunch we headed back out to the boardwalk to try again for the Cerulean Warblers. In just a minute we were onto a bird slipping into a nearby bush. I didn't get a good look at it, but Libby was able to tell it was a Cerulean! Nice! Unfortunately, only Libby got to see the bird, and we had to yield to the pressures of time and head south to the Finger Lakes area for the remainder of the day.

We spent the afternoon and evening of a very long day touring the Finger Lakes by car. We covered a lot of country, crossing over to the northern edge of Seneca Lake from Montezuma, and then heading south to the northern tips of Keuka Lake, which forms a Y shape. In between those lakes we got to drive through Seneca Falls. Seneca Falls is the birthplace of the woman's rights movement in America, and we saw the preserved remains of the building in which it all began.

Also, all of the towns and all of the countryside in this area of New York is really beautiful. The towns are mostly small and quaint, with pretty main streets and old colonial style homes. In between the towns, woods and farmland march along together. Since it was June, all of the trees and plants were vibrantly green, and most of the farmland had young plants in rows along gently sloping hillsides.

We did take a few stops, though, here and there, to enjoy the area. We had some awesome ice cream at a little road-side stand, and took a little walk along a beautiful creek in another area.

Once, we took a wrong turn that went past a pretty green field. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of black and white flutter off a fence post. Bobolink! We stopped and got out of the car to enjoy these flashy relatives of New World Blackbirds. They were joined by Eastern Meadowlarks and Savannah Sparrows on the fence posts, too. This was definitely the most exciting new bird of the day, as it was easy for everyone to see and strikingly beautiful, too. We took our time appreciating them before moving on.

I think our next stop after that was for a pie near the southern tip of Canandaigua Lake. We got a great berry pie - the next day's breakfast! For a more authentic taste of upstate New York, we also got a grape tart, which we enjoyed a la mode the next evening (with more pie!).

Soon after, we reached Canandaigua Lake, where we made a brief stop to admire the scenery. In the late evening light, it was beautiful!

By this point, it was getting pretty late. We were making our way toward Cheshire, but when we stopped at a roadside overlook of Canandaigua Lake, I noticed a bird in the nearby bushes that looked a lot like a Field Sparrow. Since we'd never seen one before, we all got out of the car again to look for it. We were able to refind it on the far edge of a little field, but it was far enough away that people weren't really sure that our brief looks at its face were sufficient to identify it. Bill suggested I get the iPod and try taping it in. So, we did. The first bout of song from our speaker drew it magically out of the brush into the field before it dropped down into the grass. A second snippet of song had it up even closer, and we all had great looks at its blank face pattern. That was pretty amazing, but it felt a little like cheating. Playback is a really powerful tool, but it is more intrusive than our normal practice.

Jumping back in the car, we pulled into the cemetery as the sun dipped beneath the hills. This Cheshire grave plot almost certainly holds the remains of some of our very distant ancestors. It turns out that the Rowleys once lived in upstate New York, and the Daniel and Rebecca Rowley who are buried there are probably our great-great-uncles. Unfortunately, the grave stones are in very poor condition, and almost illegible. We tried to decipher a neighboring stone that may also be a Rowley grave, but were unable to.

Then, we headed back home in earnest, with only very short stops at the tip of Canandaigua Lake where we found our first-ever Black-capped Chickadees, and Libby's first-ever wild Beaver!

Pictures are here: New York Day 1.