While in my hometown of Saugerties, New York, this past weekend there was one activity that I had no choice but to do early Saturday morning. You see, my younger brother, Jonathan, found a guy selling a very nice canoe a couple of months ago and he bought it for an absurdly low price. Ever since, he has been after me to go canoeing. Because I live in New York City and Jonathan lives upstate this has been rather hard to arrange, but once I was upstate we finally managed to get it figured out. It is a perfect activity; birding by canoe is nice and so is fishing, so we both had stuff to do, and even if no birds were showing and no fish were biting we could still have a good ol’ time being outside paddling around in a canoe.
Being out and about while the rest of the world is still sleeping is always nice, and being out and about on land owned by long-time family friends is even nicer. That our chosen canoeing spot was a creek backed up by beavers (appropriately named the Beaverkill) in what used to be cow pasture that my dad grew up exploring gave the whole excursion one more level of enjoyment. Jonathan made short work of getting the canoe off of the car and we were ready to get out on the water. And what nice water it was!
Hearing Cedar Waxwings go overhead and watching a Spotted Sandpiper do two fly-bys were the bird highlights while we were in the canoe, and the lone fish highlight was when Jonathan reeled in the Largemouth Bass below. The bass was quickly on its way, and it must have warned the other fish in the Beaverkill because no other fish allowed itself to get hooked.
We couldn’t get too far up the Beaverkill because fallen trees blocked our way (the price one pays for paddling in beaver territory) but it was a nice paddle nonetheless. Once we were back out of the boat I did a little walk around and came up with some more birds, including Red-tailed Hawk, Green Heron, and the Common Yellowthroat and Orchard Oriole below.
It was a great way to spend an early morning and we were back in time for a hearty breakfast of pancakes and bacon. I love living in New York City but I must admit that the upstate life has some advantages too.
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Pancake and bacon – it can’t get any more US-American than that.
🙂
This post reminds me of my exchange year in Ontario. My host parents lived by the river and I’d frequently go on a short canoe trip (with beavers and stuff) early in the morning at sunrise before getting on the school bus.
Good times – and a wonderful post.
Are you quite sure the goldfinch is a goldfinch?
@Jochen: Nope. That’s an Orchard Oriole. I should really start looking at these photos before labeling them, huh?
Oh, I don’t know: the fun is taking the picture, not looking at it, right?
😉
I love the title of this post. It’s possible that some readers don’t know that there is such a thing as a “Poor Man’s Pelagic,” usually a ferry ride across a large bay!
Perhaps coincidentally, I did some (accidental) birding by kayak in New Hampshire this past weekend. Initially I was looking for dragonflies and damselflies but settled (not really) for some excellent shots of Greater Yellowlegs. The brief story and a really good shot of what you can do when you move stealthily by kayak can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwolfert/4876876357/
Oh, what gorgeous photos! They reminded me of a weekend fishing trip I went on with my Dad many years ago. There’s nothing like the early morning quiet completely surrounded by the beauty of nature (and bird calls). Excellent!