You can’t miss the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge when you travel east from Rochester on the New York State Thruway. You’ll spot a woods with nothing but beautiful dead trees. They’ve drowned in the carefully managed wetlands. We’ve whizzed by it countless times and never stopped to check it out until the other day.
It is a bird lovers’ paradise. We don’t know what’s what but we spotted a bald eagle before we got out of the car and we saw a couple of bright yellow Warblers. We watched herons fly across the ponds inches above the water and scoop up fish. A portion of the Erie Canal runs through here and a ranger told us they’ve been trying to keep the carp from the canal out of the wetlands because they eat up all the small stuff in the water and stir up the water so that sun can’t penetrate to the bottom, killing the vegetation. Wildflowers are everywhere but most of the park is just slightly underwater so you stay on the path and marvel at the delicate ecosystem.
There’s a few more photos from this place over here.
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