The John Brown Farm

From Saranac Lake (see the previous two posts), my sister and I drove the short distance south to Lake Placid. Just as we got this good view of Whiteface Mountain, we turned onto John Brown Road:

The John Brown home was not open (we'd known that before we went), but the grounds were open so we stopped and walked around:

Signs explained the site, John Brown's story and history of this former farm, now a monument:

I got the impression that John Brown was a severe, cold man, perhaps a religious fanatic, and not someone I might like, however much I agree with him about the evil of slavery. I took note of how seldom he came home to visit his wife and children:

John Brown was hanged after his trial for the raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and his body was returned to his wife at the farm in Lake Placid (actually North Elba), New York. The sign explains that 12 men are thought to be buried in the three graves here, including two of John Brown's sons:

The graves were encircled by a locked, wrought iron fence:

John Browns gravestone, which was originally his grandfather's, is protected by glass:


The tombstone was originally for John Brown's grandfather, but his name and the names of the two sons who died in the raid at Harper's Ferry were added:


The story of how the old Brown farm became a memorial, owned and operated by the state of New York:

The farm house was closed, so we didn't get to see inside that:

This huge stone memorial was outside the fence and behind the gravestones, but I couldn't read the inscription and couldn't find it online to tell me what it said. I could, however, see enough to tell me that it was a memorial to John Brown:

When the museum is open, the barn is also open and has displays inside. Knowing it was closed, we didn't walk down to it. Instead, we headed back toward Saranac Lake with another stop in mind (see tomorrow's post):

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: