Eagles | The Beauty Around Us

Ohio Vacation Day 5 – Bedford Reservation (6/29/2021)

As I wrote in my previous blog post, we visited Chagrin Falls this morning.

We left Chagrin Falls shortly after 10:00 am and drove to Bedford Reservation. Bedford Reservation is part of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

This map, obtained from Google Maps, shows where Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Bedford Reservation, Chagrin Falls and our base location, Hudson, are all located in relation to each other.

We made two stops in Bedford Reservation. Our first stop was at Bridal Veil Falls. We parked in the Bridal Falls parking lot and walked across Gorge Parkway to a trailhead. A short walk down the boardwalk steps, over a bridge and along Deerlick Creek, leads to an overlook of Bridal Veil Falls.

Boardwalk trail to Bridal Veil Falls,
with bridge over Deerlick Creek.

I used the bridge to cross over Deerlick Creek.
Bob walked across the creek bed.
Bob is standing at the top of Bridal Veil Falls.

Don’t you just love the sound of a waterfall?

Our second stop was at Tinkers Creek Gorge Scenic Overlook.

Tinkers Creek Gorge Scenic Overlook (April 2017)

Tinkers Creek Gorge Scenic Overlook (June 29, 2021)
Tinkers Creek is way down there, somewhere.

Tinkers Creek Gorge Scenic Overlook (April 2017)
Tinkers Creek is visible in this picture.

This overlook would sure look beautiful in the fall, with nothing but trees and sky in view.

Tinkers Creek Gorge Overlook was our last stop, before heading back to our air conditioned rental Airbnb. Today had been very hot and humid.

Even with the heat and humidity, Bob rode another 5 miles (10 miles round trip) on the Bike and Hike Trail this afternoon. The temperature was in the low 90s, with the heat index reading 103 or 104 degrees.

And, yes, I took some more pictures at our Airbnb.

Three eagles (two adults and one juvenile) on tree stag
in wetlands at Airbnb

One picture of Kiwi isn’t enough …

Kiwi seems to be saying
“OK, Linda, you can stop talking pictures now”.

This blog post completes Day 5 of our vacation in Ohio. Stay tuned! I have two more days to share with you!

Ohio Vacation Day 2 (6/26/2021)

I got up for the day at 5:45 am, as Bob was leaving for a bicycle ride. Bob rode a portion of the Bike and Hike Trail. He reached the trail by bicycling neighborhood streets across from our rental Airbnb. He got on the trail near the Bridgewater Blvd-Nottingham Gate Blvd-Terex Road intersections. He rode as far south as Bow Wow Beach. Bob said he rode 10 miles total.

While Bob was bicycling, I sat for a short time on the deck enjoying the view and birdsong.

We ate breakfast, after Bob returned from his bicycle ride. Bob had scrambled eggs and orange juice. I had orange juice and instant oatmeal.

We added another 10.15 miles to Bob’s total bicycle miles. We drove to Cuyahoga Valley National Park and rode the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail (Please click on link!) from the Ira Trailhead to Peninsula and back.

After our bicycle ride, we stayed in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and drove to Kendall Lake.

There is a 1-mile trail around Kendall Lake. We hope to walk the trail another day.

Before returning to our rental Airbnb, we drove to Walmart and picked up a few more grocery items.

We stayed “home” for rest of the afternoon and evening and enjoyed the beauty of our rental Airbnb and its grounds. We walked down to the pond to check out the view of the pond from that vantage point.

Canadian Geese are frequent visitors to the wetlands at our Airbnb.

Our Airbnb hosts have an aviary.
nside the aviary are three parrots!

Later in the afternoon I captured photographs of songbirds and eagles. I photographed the songbirds and eagles from the comfort of our deck.

Two eagles in a tree snag in the wetlands

In addition to two adult eagles, we have seen two juvenile eagles as well. The eagles are way, way out in the pond. The pictures of the eagles were taken with a camera lens having an effective focal length of 1200mm. The pictures are heavily cropped.

Tonight’s dinner was stuffed green peppers with baked potatoes.

We enjoyed a colorful sunset, before going to bed.

Easter Vacation 2021 Day 5 – Back at Chincoteague

In my previous blog post I wrote about our morning visit to Oriole, MD on Day 5 (April 5th) of our Easter vacation.

We were back at our AirBnb, Tranquil Shores, by 12:15 pm. We ate lunch and spent a few hours relaxing.

Around 3:00 pm we drove to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. We drove on the Wildlife Loop and took Beach Road to the Toms Cove Visitor Center, where we turned around.

The highlight of our visit to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
was seeing an eagle sitting on its nest.
The eagle’s nest is seen from the wildlife loop.

We returned to Tranquil Shores. I prepared tuna casserole for dinner. For dessert we went to Island Creamery for ice cream — Chocolate and peanut butter cup for me; Java Jolt for Bob.

Easter Vacation 2021

Today, April 1st, is the first day of our Easter vacation. We will be on vacation through the 9th of April.

We departed our home in Warren PA at 6:00 am en route Chincoteague VA. Bob programmed the GPS to avoid highways.

We planned to bring our bicycles with us to Chincoteague but decided not to do so, given the weather forecast for the day. Bob commented a couple times, while driving, that he is happy that we aren’t transporting the bicycles, given today’s snow and rainy conditions.

Mother Nature is playing a trick on us today, on April Fool’s Day. We encountered light snow flurries, as we left Warren, and heavier snow flurries past Ridgway. The ground and house roofs past Ridgway showed a dusting of snow.

We stopped for breakfast in Clearfield at Dutch Pantry, our favorite breakfast stop when traveling East.

We stopped at Fisherman’s Park at Conowingo Dam, where we saw one eagle, a few great blue herons, and many vultures.

I photographed the eagle, which was sitting in a tree across the river.

From Fisherman’s Park we drove over the Conowingo Dam. It was a short distance to our hotel.

Bob captured video, during today’s drive.

We checked into the Best Western Chesapeake Bay North Inn in North East, MD around 2:00 pm. We stayed here in November last year, while en route Chincoteague. The hotel is our home for the night. We will drive from here to Chincoteague, VA tomorrow.

Tonight’s dinner was take out at Hunan Wok, located across the road from our hotel. Bob ordered Shrimp Lo Mein; I ordered Sweet n Sour Chicken. Both meals were served with Roast Pork Fried Rice and Egg Roll. Meals were reasonably priced and tasted good. We ordered by phone, and Bob drove across the road to pick up our take-out dinners. We ate in the comfort of our hotel room.

We watched a couple episodes of Law &Order: Special Victims Unit on Hulu. We have a LONG way to go until we catch up to the current season, Season 21, as we are currently watching episodes from Season 8.

I went to bed, after watching Hulu. Bob stayed up for a while working on the GoPro video of the drive here.

Maine Vacation: Utica NY to Warren PA

We checked out of the Red Roof Inn in Utica NY, and we were on the road by 7:00 am. Neither of us slept well last night, but our lack of sleep was no fault of the hotel or other guests. We were just restless (to get home, I believe).

We ate breakfast at the Port Byron Diner in Port Byron, NY. Bob ordered an omelet with potatoes; I ordered chocolate chip pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon. Breakfast was filling and delicious.

After breakfast we drove to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, where we drove around the Wildlife Loop. We saw an eagle today and a few other birds. There wasn’t much activity. We prefer coming to this wildlife refuge in the Spring. I talked with a man who was photographing the eagle. The eagle had not left his roost in 1 1/2 hours! We spent about 30 minutes waiting for the eagle to fly.

Eagle on its roost

I thought for sure that the eagle was going to fly.

What a stubborn eagle!

Leaving Montezuma, we drove to UBREAKIFIX in Buffalo. Bob had arranged to have his Google Pixel 2 phone repaired. The thumbprint sensor quit working. He was quoted a price of $80-100 a couple weeks ago and told the work would take a couple hours. Today he was told the cost of the repair would be $150 and would take 3 hours to fix. Bob opted not to have his phone fixed.

On our way home from Buffalo we made two stops. Our first stop was at Tim Hortons in Fredonia, NY. We ordered coffee/tea, two cookies (for Bob) and an apple fritter (for me). Our second stop was a fuel stop at Mobil in Fredonia, NY.

We returned home around 3:00 pm. Bob drove 2,070 miles total, while we were on vacation.

This blog post concludes Day 10 of our 10-day Maine vacation (June 28-July 7, 2019). We are already talking about returning to Maine some day, perhaps in the fall. We really enjoyed our stay in Maine!

East Syracuse NY to Mt. Morris NY

We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the East Syracuse, NY area.

We checked out of the Best Western East Syracuse, after breakfast, on Monday July 3, and were on our way home shortly before 8:00 am.

On our way to East Syracuse on Saturday, we stopped at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped at the wildlife refuge once again on our way back home. I am so glad that we visited Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I put my new camera lens to good use, as we drove around Wildlife Drive.

New camera lens, you ask? I just realized that I hadn’t shared on my blog that I purchased a new camera lens. I waited for well over 1-1/2 years to purchase this camera lens. At first the camera lens wasn’t in stock. Then I didn’t have the money available to purchase the lens. Finally, everything came together to make the purchase. I purchased an Olympus m.Zuiko ED 300mm f4.0 IS Pro lens, specifically for wildlife photography. Coupled with a 1.4x teleconverter, I have an effective focal length of 840mm! My new lens arrived on Friday, June 30, the day before we left on our weekend getaway. I need to use the lens more to increase my proficiency in its use, but I am very pleased with the images that I captured at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

Osprey in Flight, with Seaweed Attached to its Claw

The highlight of our visit to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge was the sighting of two American Bald Eagles. One eagle flew off to parts unknown, but one eagle landed in a tree not far from where we were on Wildlife Drive.

Bob took this photograph of me, while photographing the eagle.

And to think I didn’t want a moon roof, when we were car shopping. I didn’t want to spend the extra money. The car on the lot that we liked came with a moon roof. I am glad that we got a moon roof, because it enabled me to capture a couple good photographs of the eagle!

My new camera lens is a keeper! These two eagle images are the best pictures I have ever taken of an eagle!

We sat and watched a group of Canada Geese farther along on Wildlife Drive.

The quiet didn’t last for long!

This duck had one of the Wildlife Drive ponds all to herself.

We stopped once again to admire the newly installed eagle sculpture.

The eagle sculpture was built in honor of the 40th anniversary of New York State’s bald eagle reintroduction program, which largely happened at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

The eagle sculpture is visible from Interstate 90.

Leaving Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, we drove to Mt. Morris, NY. We ate lunch at Brian’s USA Diner. We selected this restaurant for lunch, based on its positive reviews. Yes, as stated by reviewers, the service was quick and friendly. Bob ordered a Reuben sandwich with Onion Rings. I ordered pulled chicken in a hoagie bun with potato salad. The restaurant reviews indicated that the portions were large. I agree. My pulled chicken hoagie sandwich was huge! My potato salad was heaped high in a small bowl. At first, Bob’s Reuben sandwich looked average size. He said, though, that there was lots of meat in his sandwich, so much meat that he could barely taste the dressing. Reviewers raved about the taste of the food. The food tasted okay, nothing really to boast about. Nothing to complain about either.

After lunch, we drove to nearby Letchworth State Park. I will share details and photographs of Letchworth State Park in the next (and final) blog post I write about our East Syracuse NY weekend getaway.

An Eagle Called “Liberty”

This morning I finished sorting through, editing and uploading photographs from Deborah and Brian’s wedding. Now it is time for me to catch up on my blog writing. I have much to share with you. This is the first of at least seven catch-up blog posts!

On Sunday, June 25, needing a break from reviewing the wedding photographs, Bob and I went for a drive. We ended up at the Audubon Community Nature Center, located in Jamestown NY, where we went for a short walk. At the end of our walk we visited with Liberty, the resident eagle, for a few minutes.

Liberty, just before she flew to a nearby perch in a tree.

Liberty was found in the state of Washington, with an infected cut on her left wing. Liberty cannot be released because the muscle damage in her wing prevents her from flying well enough to hunt in the wild. Liberty can fly short distances inside her habitat. Liberty has lived at the Audubon Community Nature Center since June 2002. A group of volunteers take good care of Liberty.