Adventuring Again

We are on the road again! You haven’t heard from us for almost a year. As we were dealing with some health issues last summer – we stayed close to home. We did some short adventures to several of the New England capitals – Montpelier, Hartford, Providence, Concord, and (a little out of New England) Albany. Maybe someday I’ll write a post comparing and contrasting the capitol buildings. But for now, we’ll stick with what we are up to this spring.

We left Framingham on Friday, May 1 – after I realized I was being my mother and vacuuming before we went away – never understood that until I had my own place. We sang our traditional “On the Road Again” along with Willie Nelson while we were still in Framingham.

Our first stop was the campground at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY. Figured we make our casino deposit early in the trip. Since the last time we were here (in 2022) they have really expanded. They added lots of restaurants – one of which was the Tin Rooster. They had some very good BBQ. We played for an acceptable amount of time on our stake and then headed back to the RV. (They have a shuttle that will take you from the campsite to the casino and back. Very convenient.) After we got back we started our running game of Rummikub – after one night I was up, but we have a long way to go.

If you are driving I90 near Seneca Falls, NY you may spot this huge eagle statue. It is at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. If you have time, stop in. This was our third time there. They have a great wildlife drive through the refuge, but we didn’t have time to do that this trip.

Instead we took a quick walk to where the trail was closed due to an active eagle’s nest. We spotted the nest but didn’t see any action in it. We did see one eagle sitting near the nest and another one soaring.

We also spotted a Downy woodpecker, many red-winged blackbirds, and some house sparrows.

We got a tip that there was robin’s nest with a newly hatched robin in it. The surprise was its location – on the steps of the observation tower. We saw the robin fly off, and got a look at the nest.

Then it was back to the RV to complete the journey to our camp just outside Erie, PA.

It was Saturday night, so that means the Madara Zoom call. this week we were joined by my two sisters and one of my brothers. After watching the Kentucky Derby together (big congrats to Cherie DeVaux – first female trainer to win!) we went on to our normal chit chat. Part of which this week was that we were making our fajita dinner in the (new for this trip) Ninja Crispi Air Fryer. We do not camp, we travel in a very well appointed hotel room. For those who haven’t seen our RV, here are a couple of photos to demonstrate. First is the kitchen, with a microwave, induction burner, propane burner and nearly a full size refrigerator, as well as the TV. That’s because across from this is the living room/dining room/office space. This is where we spend most of the waking hours that we are in the RV. Next to that is a couch/murphy bed combination, and finally the bathroom at the rear. It’s quite comfortable for the two of us!

On Sunday we drove on to our campground in Ohio, but on the way we stopped to pick up a car at the Cleveland airport, as we were going to settle in for 3 nights at the Maumee Bay Campground. It is on the shore Lake Erie, and near Magee Marsh, which is known as the Warbler Capital of the World, due to all the warblers that stop here during spring migration. (Trish’s sister Elizabeth told us as we were going through the area at this time of the year, we should stop here.) We are here the week before the “Biggest Week in American Birding”, which is probably good as the crowds would be much bigger than we had this week.

Once we got set-up we took a walk on the boardwalk at Maumee Bay – we saw lots of red winged blackbirds. And Trish and I had the same thought when we saw this tree – “Is that one of those ceramic faces ?”- no it was actually a fungus.

Then we spotted an eagle soaring overhead.

Some views of Lake Eire and a gull flying overhead.

Back at the RV Trish spotted a deer out of the kitchen window – then there were four and after they walked away another one came through.

Sunday was sunny with a forecast temp of 75 – much warmer than anything we had seen so far, so it was off to Magee Marsh. The first bird we saw was a Baltimore Oriole, only because someone told us where to look – that was the story of both days we were birding. The other photo is an Eastern Warbling Vireo (not a warbler either.)

There is an eagle’s nest there, and we caught one of the parents sitting on the edge and one of the eaglets poking its head up.

Here we are at the end of the boardwalk..

As we were driving out to get some lunch, there were two Sandhill Cranes feeding near the road.

After our lunch, we drove through the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, and then went back and walked a different trail at Magee Marsh. We saw the Great Egret come in for a landing.

And finally a warbler that we found on our own – a Palm Warbler.

There were Trumpeter Swans and a Pied-Billed Grebe.

A ground hog and more views of Lake Erie.

An Eastern Kingbird

A Least Flycatcher and a Northern Yellow Warbler.

And a Yellow-rumped Warbler. We did better off the boardwalk than we did on it on Monday.

On Tuesday we went back to the Magee Marsh Boardwalk. It was a very different day in terms of weather – the temperature was only in the low 60’s and it was overcast, with rain forecasted for the afternoon. There were fewer people, but because of the weather, I think they more knowledgable, so they helped us find more birds. And several folks said there were more warblers than the day before. Here is a sampling of what we saw, starting with another Baltimore Oriole and a Grey Catbird.

Northern Yellow Warbler, Green Heron, Blue-winged Warbler and Black-throated Blue Warbler

Yes, there is a warbler in there, but didn’t get a good look – much of your day is like this. And there was a Red-headed Woodpecker.

Magnolia Warbler and (just to show they have “normal” birds too) American Robin. I only caught the backside of this warbler, but I learned that the white patch in that location means its a female Black-throated Blue Warbler

Someone said this was a Prothonotary Warbler and another Yellow-rumped Warbler

Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Scarlet Tanager

As we were leaving the boardwalk, it started to rain, so after eating our packed lunch, we drove through the Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, which was on our way home. I took the wide shot to show how many Trumpeter Swans were there. I was about to take a photo of the swan on the left, when its mate came from the right, and swam over and bumped its mate – we both laughed at that.