Adirondack Wildlife Refuge - Part 3

I was nearing the end of my tour of the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge when I snapped a picture of this Barn Owl:

And this immature Bald Eagle. I later learned that this bird had been rescued on the Akwesasne Reservation after someone shot it in the wing and it was brought here for rehabilitation. Part of its wing is now missing so it will never be able to be released. I was told that the Mohawks often visit and sometimes chant to the animals, which seems to have a miraculous calming effect on some of them, especially this eagle:

A Red-Tailed Hawk:

I began walking back toward the path to my car:

And looked for animals which I might have missed or had been unable to get a good picture of:

That's when I saw this sad looking animal. Several tourists insisted it was a Coyote but I thought it had to be a Gray Fox. I found out later that I was right, and that the circling it was doing was a neurological problem and the reason he was here:

A Short-Eared Owl:

I began returning to my car on a different trail but then decided instead to take the shorter one on which I'd come:

But I got to see the back side of the student yurt along the way:

I was headed back to my car on my original trail through forest when I met an employee headed the other way and began asking him questions. He took me back to the pens I had just seen and told me the stories which I've used in these three blog posts:

He also told me about two Snowy Owls which I had missed when on my own. This was the female:

And this was the male - with his rat dinner. He cannot be put with the female because he killed the last one. One worker made it sound as if he did so intentionally but another worker said he just flies so erratically that he had accidentally killed the last female he was with:

I returned to my car on the same path on which I'd entered the refuge, passing the wolves again along my way. It had been a marvelous experience, and all the more so because of the friendly, helpful employee I'd met who went out of his way to give me a personal tour:

Adirondack Wildlife Refuge - Part 2

I was touring the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge and had reached the cage with Barred Owl, a common owl around here. It has a distinctive call which I frequently hear early in the morning when I let the dogs out:

They had a number of Bald Eagles, all with permanent injuries which prevented them from being released back into the wild. They have, however, had successful releases including one which now lives on Whiteface Mountain and returns to bother the captive eagles sometimes:

A Goshawk:

This Porcupine was a favorite of the staff and a friendly clown. He had been rescued when his mother was killed by a car. He was released and lived in the wild for about a year but returned, missing the easy life at the refuge:

Great Horned Owls:

Sedwick, the Great Blue Heron:

Broad-Winged Hawk:

I came to a clearing in the forest with a number of cabins and a small pond. I had been told earlier that the coyotes were being kept from view so they would not get used to people and could be released soon. From what I could see, I figured they were behind those tarps:

There was a house or office building from which a woman emerged, carrying a small animal:

It was a female Saw-Whet Owl, seven or eight years old. She had been rescued from her nest as a baby after crows had pecked out her eyes and will live out her life at the refuge:

 The woman pointed to the crow on a nearby cage, explaining that it was very tame but loved to torment the owls, including the Screech Owl in the cage:

While a small boy interacted with the crow, I snapped a picture of the Screech Owl:

And then the crow flew over to a sign, where it landed and no doubt contemplated what other trouble it could cause. But there was still more to see, and I'll Post Part 3 tomorrow:

Adirondack Wildlife Refuge - Part 1

I decided to drive down to see the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge in Wilmington, New York at the foot of Whiteface Mountain. It was about a 65 mile drive along winding, scenic roads, and I parked beneath the pines and walked down a path to where people were looking into a big pen:

The pen housed three wolves - two gray colored:

  And one smaller, red female:

A young man and woman entered and interacted with the wolves, who behaved admirably with the humans but got pretty darn crabby with each other:

The small red female seemed to be at the bottom of the pecking order but she liked people and, I was later told, seemed to like dogs when the tourists brought them:

I walked from there down a longer trail through the forest (definitely not handicapped accessible), passing a yurt where college student volunteers live during the summer:

They had Ravens:

And Sylvia, the Bald Eagle who has lived here for years. They showed photos of the changes in her plumage color as she matured:

There was a red fox sleeping in his director's chair. He got up and came to the front of his enclosure later, interacting with the tourists, but I forgot to take another photo then:

A Turkey Vulture:

And Nikki, the fox. Nikki had a shedding problem of some kind, but then all of these animals have a problem of some kind which prevents them from being released into the wild once again. In Nikki's case, he was a melanistic (dark phase) Red Fox, probably from a fur breeding colony, who had been abused and used to train dogs to hunt foxes. He was rescued and now lives here:

I wandered among the cages, taking photos wherever I thought there was a chance of them coming out:

The sign on this cage said it contained Kestrels, but it did not. Instead it had three ducks. But there was a lot more to see and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Chapter 3, Azure Mountain Revisited

I'd hiked up to the summit of Azure Mountain with my sister, my niece and five dogs. We were exploring the summit and Fergus gave me a bit of a start when he walked right to the edge. I hollered for him to come back to me:

My sister had a bit of fun with the glacial erratic:

My niece and her beloved Papillon, Madeline, enjoyed the views:

And then we began walking back toward the fire tower:

Happy dogs, happy people, beautiful scenery. Life is good:

We tied the dogs to the base of the fire tower and climbed to the top. My niece checked out the map:

And my sister read the log entries. We saw a Bald Eagle soaring off in the distance but it didn't come any closer to us:

The view from the top offered even grander views:

And we could see off in directions which the trail could not give us:

We began our descent to the ground, where our five dogs waited anxiously:

But at that point, the hike was only at the mid-point. We had a lot of downhill trekking to do and would have to be careful about twisted ankles and knees:

But the downhill hike went smoothly and we arrived safely at our parked car. Yet the morning was still young and I knew of other spectacular hikes along Blue Mountain Road I wanted to show them. I'll post tomorrow about our next hike: