Vacation Bird Sightings

I've always enjoyed seeing herons especially as they keep their silent sentinel along side a creek, river or pond.  This last vacation trip we saw lots of blue herons and for the first time heard their squawk as we ventured too close.  We were really startled one evening when we took an after dinner walk down to the marina which was part of the property where we stayed.  We could just make out the heron at the edge of the water in the gathering dusk but we spooked it and it let us know.

Heron along the shore of St. Lawrence River.  We took a river cruise from Clayton, NY to see the islands in the Thousand Islands.

An afternoon canoe trip on the pond at Fair Haven Beach State Park flushed a lot of herons.

These Canadian geese were pretending to be decoys.

A highlight of the Sterling Nature Center was this heron rookery.

Osprey nest on St. Lawrence.

Gannets on the St. Lawrence.  I stand corrected.  These are cormorants.  Thanks to the comment from Larry who led me to check my bird book.  We were misinformed by the tour guide on our boat trip on the St. Lawrence.

Heron food?

We saw this snake swim toward us in the marsh at the Sterling Nature Center.  Then it disappeared behind the log.  When it reappeared we couldn't figure out what we were seeing at first then realized it had a fish in its mouth (top of the photo).

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Return from Vacation!

We returned from a week away having vacationed in Fair Haven, New York on Lake Ontario.

Here are the tomatoes that ripened while we were gone.  I can't pick the green beans because the leaves are wet.  The garden is at the point where it needs a total overhaul.  That will have to wait until later this week or next.



We stopped in Watkins Glen on the trip north and visited the state park there.

We rented a house at the Anchor Resort and Marina on Little Sodus Bay in Fair Haven, New York.

 

The house had a wonderful front porch among its many pluses.

 We visited many of the nearby parks including this one where the water and wind had carved these chimneys.

 We took a side trip up to Clayton, NY on the St. Lawrence River and toured the Thousand Islands on a boat trip.

 We saw lots of wildlife including this frog.

 We swam in Lake Ontario at Fair Haven Beach State Park and canoed in the pond and creek that fed the pond.

More photos to come at my shutterfly site.

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Wordless Wednesday

Harvest Monday - Hazelnuts

Several years ago I was sent some hazelnut trees from the Arbor Day Foundation.  I planted them initially in my perennial bed but moved them last year to one side of the wood shop.  
I never thought I would see hazelnuts.  They never seemed to be more than a green shrub.  This year one of them had blooms and now I have had a hazelnut harvest.  I hope the squirrels don't discover them.

We've tasted them and they taste fine.  Sarah says we need to roast them because that's how they sell them in China.  I'll let her try that.

Here's the second harvest on Friday.

And from the vegetable department: tomatoes,

 green Cherokee purple to see how they ripen inside,

and peppers with two Market Miracle tomatoes that keeps producing!

See other harvests at host: Daphne's Dandelions.