New York Day 5

Well, things have been pretty busy since our last post on the blog. We went backpacking, Libby got her wisdom teeth removed, and I worked a 50 hour week at work.

So, heading way back in time, let's talk about our last full day in New York visiting Bill and Becca way back in mid-June! This was the day we got to go to Niagara Falls, but before we did, we also checked out a wildlife refuge between Rochester and Buffalo called Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. Becca had to go to work that Wednesday, so we spent the day with Bill.

Iroquois is a neat area of woods, grasslands and wetlands that hosts a good variety of species. We got much closer looks at Black Terns than we'd had at Montezuma, and we also got really good looks at an eastern Marsh Wren. We spent quite a bit of time looking for a Prothonotary Warbler that was reported as consistent from a certain area, but we never saw it. I think I heard it once, but it was a bit too far from the road to be sure. I was really hoping to pick up this impressive species, but there's a lot of luck involved in birding.

After looking for the warbler, we took a couple of walks in the woods. One was a really delightful walk down a forest trail full of the sounds of Wood Thrushes, a couple of Veeries, a singing male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (our only one for the trip), and lots of American Redstarts. Tree Swallows were also very common throughout the refuge nesting in provided boxes.

We also went for a walk on the Swallow Hollow Trail, a neat loop that takes you through some mature riparian deciduous forest. Its verdant thickets held tantalizingly close calling Pileated Woodpeckers, a family of Brown Creepers, Yellow-billed Cuckoos that flew right over our heads, and we even got glimpses of singing Cerulean Warblers!

It was spitting and threatening to do more meteorologically by this time, so we got a bit of a hurry (and a bit lost) on our way toward Buffalo. We made a brief stop at a former landfill that was reported to host Henslow's Sparrows and Upland Sandpipers, but the incredibly thick clouds, strong winds and occasional drops of rain here made us think better of entering an empty and treeless field during the threat of lightening. By the time we'd returned to our car, it was raining quite strongly.

Next stop, though, was Niagara Falls, where a little more water can be seen falling than was coming out of the sky! Tons and tons of water pass over Niagara Falls by the minute. It's pretty impressive. We only checked it out from the American side, since we didn't have our passports or birth certificates, but it was still fun. The scale of the falls is its most impressive attribute. An entire enormous river of water dropping a hundred feet creates quite a spectacle.

By the time all of this was over, the day was winding down quickly. We were in a bit of a hurry to get home, but missed a turn-off toward Rochester as we crossed from Grand Island back into Buffalo. Unfortunately, this cost us time as we got off the freeway to re-trace our steps, but it also gained us a lifer! There, in the river, were a group of Common Terns. We made a quick stop to admire them, jumped back in the car, and headed on our way. I'd like to spend some time studying them alongside Forster's Terns some day - probably at Bolsa Chica, but we got decent looks all the same.

There are pictures of the day and the waterfalls on our Flickr account: New York Day 5.