Yankee Hill Lock

As you know the boss often drives me down to the river to bird. Alas, the past few weeks there has been not much of anything there...maybe a goose or two or a couple of gulls, but nothing worthy of note.

Last night he suggested going down to Yankee Hill Lock instead. It is only a few miles further away but someone told him that there were often birds there.

It was far from disappointing. I love the lore of the Erie Canal. I remember learning about it in grade school and reading Molly's Hannibal and just loving the story. It took me years to get my own copy but I do own it now.

Thus visiting this old lock for the first time in many moons was a treat in itself. The birds were a bonus. Nothing new for the year, but a flight of ten male Common Mergansers flew right past us at eye level. They are truly beautiful and dramatic birds.

Then the geese started alarming and popping up off the water in a scramble. I was wondering why when the boss found a Bald Eagle harassing them. It in turn was being mobbed by a murder of crows.

We spent at least an hour walking along the old canal and down by the river, just enjoying what turned out to be a very pleasant prelude to this nasty rotten storm. Guess what was going through my head as we were walking back to the car......

The Erie was arisin'

And the Gin was a gettin' low.

On a personal note the boss's mother's grandfather was a canaller and once broke his leg jumping from the roof of the cabin to the deck of his canal boat. His wife cooked at various establishments along the canal as well.