Last Days of Sisterly Visit - Montezuma and Lake Ontario

Monday morning we headed down to Penn Yan to visit the various Mennonite quilt shops in the area to see if we could find any bargains.  I also wanted to go to my favorite Bernina shop to pick up an attachment I had neglected to buy at the show (thought I had it already but I didn't).  We did score some awesome batiks at a much lower price than you would normally find!  No day would be complete without finding some birds though so we headed from Penn Yan to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge just north and east of Seneca Falls NY.  We knew it was the wrong time for any major migrations but hoped to see a few things.  I should note that the temps were now in the 90s as well so we took the wildlife drive and stopped several places along the way and did see a new bird for me (not my sister) and several that we still haven't identified as we didn't get good pictures.   However, as you come to the Visitor's Center, there is a large Marten house and there were quite a few Purple Martens flying around!

There were absolutely beautiful marsh mallows all along the shores of the rather dry marsh.  I especially liked this shot with the deep blue sky in the background!


I was switching back and forth between two cameras this time and think this was taken with my little new camera.

The bird here pictured with the black cap and bright colored bill is a Caspian Tern which I hadn't seen before.  We saw quite a few of these and they are large beautiful white birds.  They resemble egrets when flying as their wing span is so broad.  They dive for their food which we saw later on.

 This is a view down to the marshes from a tall platform.  Beautiful colors and vista.  Unfortunately, I had forgotten the binoculars.  When we got home, we could see that there were a number of ducks swimming around in here, none of which we could identify.  A trip back may be in order for me (on a cooler day!).

Here is the Caspian Tern diving for food.

Before Gail left, I took her up to the  outlet which I frequent in the winter when the lake and bay are frozen. In the summer, I have only rarely seen any ducks of interest.  My sister correctly identified these ducks which were across from us as Gadwalls. She identified them as they are dippers unlike the mallards.  Now I know I have seen these before but thought they were female mallards.  The only other time I have seen them and correctly named them was out in Seattle when visiting my daughter and SIL.  The one on the left is dipping (butt up).

Gail had really wanted to see the Mute Swans which are an invasive species and of which we have an abundance!!!  She got her fill of mute swans, Canada geese and mallards at this spot on the bay side of the outlet.  This lady was feeding the swans which were more than a bit aggressive. You can see their impressive size in this picture!