Cayuga Lake Loop

Did you guess Elaine?

We set off this morning for an adventure going all the way around Cayuga Lake. Cayuga is one of the two largest Finger Lakes, 40 miles long and 2 miles wide. It's the lake I grew up on. It's "my" lake, even more than Lake Michigan. In this picture, the lake is down in the deep valley between the hill I'm on and the far one.

We drove up the side of the lake opposite where we grew up. When we were kids, this was like the other side of the planet. We just never went there! This is at the north end of the lake looking south.

We did so much stuff! All I can do is hit a sampler today. Maybe I'll share more in the future. We stopped and read almost every historical marker. We ate lunch at a park (picture above) by the railroad station of the Lake Cayuga Railway. I took pictures of many old buildings. One thing you sure don't find in Michigan is houses built in the 1700s and early 1800s.

However, the bulk of our time was at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. When we were kids, this was a refuge, but there was no public access. Now there is a drive you are allowed to take, with a few observation decks and a visitor center. Elaine is the super birdwatcher. I'm only mediocre. She's more interested in the birds; I do the plants. We got some of each. I'll only share the very best of the afternoon.

This was a new life list bird for me. It's a common gallinule. Gallinula galeata. Not a great picture. There were three of them, being very secretive. So I'm happy I even got this.

Elaine got to add a sandhill crane to her life list.

The best of the day was this black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, was not new to either of us, but I'd sure never seen one this close. And we have no clue why it was so active during full daylight.

Switching to plants, by far the showiest is the swamp rose mallow, Hibiscus moscheutos. Many of them have a darker red center, but not all. These did not. The flowers are 4-5 inches across.

Of the rest of the plants I pictured, I guess I'll share this one. This is a knapweed. If you are familiar with the totally obnoxious invasive spotted knapweed, you will recognize the shape of the flower. Now, however, we are in ID trouble. There are hundereds of Centaurea. It's easy to eliminate the yellow and blue and red ones, and the ones not in North America at all. This flower is about 2 or 2.5 inches across (much bigger than the spotted knapweed), and the leaves are very different. A lot of the ID of Centaurea has to do with the shape and texture of the bracts below the flower.

Checking for kinds found in New York, I think this is a hybrid of brown and black knapweed, called meadow knapweed. It grows in some counties in New York, including where we were today. This is my best guess. It doesn't even have an official taxonomic name. I've found it before in New York, and have had this same trouble identifying it. Now for the bad news. Even though it's much prettier than spotted knapweed, it's also alien.

Coming home on the west side of the lake, we stopped with Elaine's brother for a visit, drove through a short but interesting storm, and went out to dinner.

Long day! What will Joan do tomorrow?

See Abby Sends Me Off