Sinking Ponds, East Aurora, New York

The Sinking Ponds Sanctuary in East Aurora, New York is an area my husband knew about, but had not visited in years.  When I found out about it I thought it would be interesting to see.  There are tails of quicksand there, and it is swampy.  It is a beautiful area as well.  Here is a teasel plant that was near the parking lot.

Deer reside almost everywhere.

This has to be the ugliest duck I have ever seen.  It is a Muscovy Duck. There was a whole flock of them. The native birds are found only is south Texas, domestic birds may be seen in parks across North America.  The feral variety widely introduced to parks and ponds, especially in Florida. The Feral Muscovy is big bodied, and blotched with white to almost all white.  Bare skin on face is usually red.  There were probably a dozen of these birds that came to shore.  They did not seem afraid of any of the people that were there. In fact one even hopped on to a picnic table where a couple was sitting.  Personally, I thought they were scary.

This line of Canadian Geese also came across the pond to the shore.

A little information about the Sinking Ponds.  Each time we go back to East Aurora, I now take time to visit them.  I have seen a couple of amazing and new birds for me.

Knapweed

Belted Kingfisher  Large blue gray bird with white belly.  Broad blue gray breast band and a ragged crest that can be raised or lowered at will. Large head with long black, thick bill.  This was a nice surprise.

A view across the pond.

Dragonfly sitting and sunning himself.

Turtle sunning on a sunken log.

Purple Loosestrife

Look what caught my eye on the way out of the sanctuary. A Green Heron sitting in a tree.

I had thought it was an American Bittern, but this guy is bigger.

He was preening himself.

Then turned his back on me.

He likes to hung for fish, but there were none in this tree that day!

Behind my brother-in-laws house someone has planted a whole field of wild flowers, mostly black-eyed Susan.

Some fleabane

Wild lupine.

Thistle

Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susan

This grasshopper was just sitting there for me.

Indian Blanket

A different variety of Black-eyed Susan.

That field was just so pretty. I love to take pictures of flowers, can you tell?