Cliff Swallow

I was with my daughter, Rachael, at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah last Saturday and we saw hundreds, perhaps thousands, of migrating swallows. I've had a hard time getting photos of swallows because they fly so swiftly and erratically and never seem to stay still. So I was thrilled to see the swallows congregating together in groups (interestingly called a flight or gulp of swallows) and standing on reeds in a way that made them easy to photograph. We saw four different species of swallow, two I'd seen before: barn swallows and tree swallows; and two new species to me: cliff swallows and bank swallows. I was particularly drawn to the cliff swallows because they are so beautiful. 

Cliff swallows originally nested on mountain cliffs, usually along the coast of western North America.  But they are adaptable and as modern infrastructure such as bridges and buildings were built, they adjusted and used the infrastructure for nests and expanded their populations further east. They winter in South America, particularly southern Brazil, Uruguay and parts of Argentina. They migrate northward and breed in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. 

Blue is where they winter; yellow is migration; and orange is where they breed and spend the summer. 

The cliff swallow is a dark brown on the back and wings, has a white forehead, rusty cheeks, a white throat, white underparts and a pale cinnamon rump. In good light the crown and mantle feathers are a metallic dark blue. Northern populations are larger than Mexican populations and the Mexican populations have a chocolate brown forehead patch instead of white. Males and females have identical plumage. 

These are the really beautiful adults. 

Juveniles have similar coloring, but with paler tones, they lack the metallic plumage and their foreheads and throats appear speckled white. 

Speckling of white on the face and neck of this juvenile. 

Other paler toned juveniles.

Peekamoose Restaurant - Big Indian, NY

One of my favorite meals on our recent trip to New York took place in the heart of the Catskill Mountains in a hamlet with the politically incorrect name Big Indian which is part of a town called Shandaken. The restaurant is named Peekamoose, perhaps after Peekamoose Mountain, which is in the Catskills and may be an anglicization of an Alonquin word meaning "broken off smooth."  

Peekamoose Restaurant is touted as a farm to table restaurant with lots of vegetarian offerings and it fills up fast. I made reservations a week before for dinner and was only able to get 5:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m., nothing in between. The restaurant texted us the day before to verify we were still coming - they obviously had people who wanted to take our place if we couldn't make it. According to their website, the owners have developed strong relationships with local farmers and vendors with a menu that changes daily based on what is available in season. 

The building appears to have been added upon a number of times. 

We entered from the bottom back and sat close to the patio at the back. 

I opted for several small plates and the others were drawn to main course items. 

A big chunk of bread with very soft whipped butter and chives. We asked and got more bread and double the butter. It was marvelous. 

Housemade gnudi with fresh tomato puree, toasted pignoli and parmesan cheese. Gnudi is a gnocchi like dumpling made with ricotta cheese instead of potato and semolina. It is less dense and chewy than gnocchi. Pignoli is another name for pine nuts. I love menus that I have to look up the words to understand. Andrew loved it. I thought it was pretty good. 

12 ingredient chopped salad, including three kinds of lettuce, kalamata olives, red onion, feta cheese, tomato and a vinaigrette. I had them leave out bacon which would have been included. This was light and wonderful. 

Elote with wood grilled corn, chipotle aioli, queso fresco, cilantro and lime. Having recently been to New Mexico where we tried it several times, and loved it, this did not disappoint.

Cucumber and Almond Gazpacho, which included peaches, grapes and red onion. Shared by Judy and Michaela, it was mild and light. 

Pine smoked green lip mussels in a tarragon and mustard creme. These were very rich and some of the best mussels I've ever eaten. The creme was thick and I used what was left over to dip my roasted carrots (below) in. If I came back I would have a tough time passing these up. 

Housemade chitarra with kale and basil pesto, pecorino romano cheese and pine nuts. Chitarra is a variety of egg pasta from the Abruzzo region of Italy and has a square cross section. 

Judy and Michaela each got the Catskill farmers vegetable plate, which included spaghetti squash, asparagus, french lentils, quinoa, kale, pearl onions and beets. It also appears to have carrots. 

I got a side-dish of roasted carrots and peas. The carrots were gigantic in circumference, but were tender and nice flavor. However, I admit that I swished them around the creme sauce in the mussels and it made them much better!

I loved the meal and would love to go back and try other dishes on their changing menu. There is a reason it fills up. 

Midland Painted Turtle

The painted turtle, with four subspecies, is the most widespread turtle in North America. The subspecies are the eastern, midland, southern and western painted turtles.  

This map, from Wikipedia, shows the ranges of the eastern painted turtle (yellow), midland painted turtle (orange), southern painted turtle (blue) and western painted turtle (red). 

The painted turtle, in general: (a) has a shell 4 to 10 inches long; (b) the top shell (carapace) varying from olive green to black in color;  (c) the bottom shall (plastron) is flat-bottomed and can vary from yellow to red and sometimes has dark markings in the center; (d) skin colored from olive to black; (e) yellow stripes on the face with a large yellow spot and streak behind each eye; (f) the chin has two wide yellow stripes that meet at the jaw; and (g) other stripes on the neck, legs and tail that can be yellow or red. 

We were visiting the Sapsucker Woods near Ithaca, New York, part of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This midland painted turtle was standing on a log in Sapsucker Woods Pond, near the outer edge. The midland painted turtle is the most difficult of the subspecies to identify - I identified it by location and it was confirmed on iNaturalist. It has a symmetrical dark shadow in the center of the plastron which varies in size and prominence. 

Kaaterskill Falls (New York), Mushrooms and Pasta

One of my joys as a parent has been watching my son Andrew's interest in mushrooms develop over time and watch his expertise grow. He took a biology class at UCLA that sparked his interest and I saw that interest for the first time in the field in Colorado in August 2012 where he spent most of his time looking for mushrooms while Sam and I hiked. He was cautious and did not eat any of the mushrooms he found. A year later, in August 2013, Judy and I were with Andrew in Colorado and this time he collected, cooked and we ate king bolete and hawks wing mushrooms (see here and here). In August 2014 we were in Colorado again for a family reunion and had a king bolete and hawks wing mushroom feast. In August 2018, after Andrew had moved to New York, we met him in Maine for a drive up into New Brunswick, Canada and collected chanterelle, black chanterelle and lobster mushrooms, which we cooked on a grill in a hotel parking lot.  

Last month we met Andrew in New York, with his girlfriend, Michaela, and spent some time in upstate New York. On July 25 we went to an area near Kaaterskill Falls in the Catskill Mountains primarily to look for mushrooms, but also to see Kaaterskill Falls. Kaaterskill Falls is a two stage waterfall that is 260 feet high and has been an attraction for hundreds of years. William Cullen Bryant wrote a poem about it and the Hudson River School of painters, beginning with Thomas Cole, began painting it as early as 1825 (see here). 

Thomas Cole in 1826 (Wikipedia)

Kindred Spirits by Asher Durand in 1849 (Wikipedia)

Thomas Cole in 1826 (here)

Winslow Homer in 1872 (here)

Sanford Robinson Gifford in 1871

We hiked in slowly, looking for mushrooms along the way. 

A yellow patches (Amanita flavoconia) - also below - an inedible mushroom.

Pinewood gingertail

Andrew was very excited about this one: a Jackson's slender Caesar (Amanita jacksonii). It was the first one he's ever seen. It is one of the few species of Amanita that can be eaten. 

We got back to our Airbnb in Kingston and Michaela focused on making pasta while Andrew cut up and prepared the mushrooms. 

Our Airbnb

Michaela's pasta

Corrugated milky cap mushroom (Lactifluus corrugis) which Wikipedia notes is "a choice edible mushroom." Andrew coated them in olive oil and cooked them in the oven.  

The Amanita Caesar

Andrew noted that the Amanita Caesar was a mushroom that only someone who knows mushrooms should try. I found this in an article about Caesar mushrooms here: "Now you may be asking, 'isn't eating an Amanita dangerous? Aren't there deadly species as well that will kill you?' Why...yes! Yes there are! For this reason, eating them is highly discouraged for beginners to mushroom identification and hunting. Honestly, they should be considered an off-limits edible for all but the most experienced of shroomers." 

Pasta with tomatoes and parsley. 

Pasta with added black trumpet mushrooms, Amanita Caesar and Pecorina Romano cheese. 

The Amanita Caesar cooks with some onions and other ingredients. 

Andrew and Michaela pre-made wild ramps pesto. Ramps are wild garlic or leaks where both the white lower stalk and broad green leaves are edible. When they harvest them in the wild they only take one of the leaves so that the ramps will continue to grow from year to year. 

The cooked milky caps were added to the pasta. 

Both types of pasta and a salad made by Michaela were wonderful. 

Meals with wild mushrooms are always wonderful, but this was particularly fun because we were eating mushrooms I'd never heard of before.