Fauna, Force of Nature, and Cornell Campus - Finger Lakes' Trip

Of course there were much more than gorges and water falls on this trip for us to see and experience. 

Fauna

We saw only a handful different birds on this trip, probably due to the time we hiked. Most interestingly to me is that waking up from a nap on Lily's lap on the shore of Lake Arthur after a lunch picnic, I saw something peculiar on the shoreline, and we witnessed a snake eating a fish. 

There are creatures in the creeks at the gorges, but they are hard to spot or recognize by untrained eyes like ours, as they are camouflaged so well.

Sometimes we don't see things in plain sight. There was a huge hornet's nest along gorge trail at Enfield Glen, we saw it the second time we passed it by when another hiker pointed it out to us.

A Hawk @Lake Arthur - unfortunately pushed the shutter late

Double Crested Cormorant @ Lake Arthur

Green Heron @ Lake Arthur 

The most common birds we saw are gulls 

Vultures are frequently sighted

The next of black birds on the cliff of Taughnnock Fall

an unknown bird

Chickadee

A snake at Lake Treman - upstream to Buttermilk Creek - Can you see it?

Snake eating a black fish live on the shore of Lake Arthur!

the fishes have the color of the rocks

Hornet's Nest at Enfield Glen

Human vs. Nature

The gorges are the making of nature in tens of thousands of years. The Kinzua bridge is a reminder of the power of the nature which can tear man-made grand structures in a matter of minutes. There is another rail road bridge which runs across Watkins Glen. This bridge originally had three towers to support railroad, but the one stood in the creek was washed away in 1935. Sapiens yielded to nature, reinforced the remaining two towers without replacing the washed away tower to let water go freely in the creek!!

This huge structure seemed to be indestructible

The Kinzua bridge was teared apart by a tornado in 2003 in a matter of 2 minutes! One reason was that the 120 year old bolts to the foundations were rusted, not replaced in previous repairs

what it was - three towers to the bridge

What is now - View of the remaining two towers are blocked by trees and bushes along the creek

The sky

On the way to Finger lakes region, we stopped at Cherry Spring State Park for a star-gazing. Unfortunately a weather front arrived in the afternoon, threatened to bring mayhem. It came and went after about half an hour rain, left behind a cloudy sky, and a beautiful sunset. We did not see the spectacular star-studded sky that night. 

Cornell Campus

We visited Cornell campus to see our graduate school friends. The campus is a beautiful park in every sense. It is more beautiful than what I remembered from a short visit there 20 years ago.