Visitors Part two

We had a picnic at Bear Mountain, another one of our favourite sopts. This day was no good for kite flying but was good for the RC Gyro Copter and fun was had with that. Also we walked through the trailside Zoo. All of the animals in the Zoo have been injured or reared in captivity and can not be released. There are three bears, two of them are 3YO twins that some one decided to remove from their den when they were cubs, just to have them as pets!! I can't imagine for a second how any one can think it is ok to remove bear cubs from their den (imagine if mum had come back during the process)or think it is ok to have them as pets. They might have been put down but the zoo keepers managed to take them. Their enclosure is not particularly nice but the zoo is trying to make improvements and I guess it is better than having no chance of survival.

The Bald Eagle is called Samantha. She had been hatched in a program where eggs were removed from the nests of wild birds and raised with puppets that looked like Bald Eagles (to stop them imprinting on humans) and then released. The program has been very successful in helping to increase Bald Eagle numbers and they are no longer on the endangered list, should come off of the threatened list this year, but will remain protected.

Any way, Samantha took off to North Carolina after her release and was shot by a farmer. She had a tracking device on and they found her and took her to the zoo at Bear Mountain. She only has 2/3 of her right wing and would not be able to fly, she has been there for 22 years. She liked to show off for us and did lots of wing flapping, showing us her impressive wing span. She has amazing tallons and is really very beautiful - well I thought so any way. It was great to have the chance to see her, the only bald eagle I have seen in reall life.








We spent an afternoon at Phillipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow (of headless horseman fame) it was established by a Dutch fellow when NY was a Dutch Colony. Mr Phillipse owned almost all of Westchester County and was the richest man in America at the time. He made his money with his grain mill and tenant farmers and enslaved African labour.

It is a lovely place. The staff are in colonial dress and explain the roles of colonial workers (slaves). Bob the miller gave us a great tour of the mill, opened the gate so that the wheel turned and the stones ground some corn to make corn flour - we bought some samples to make some corn bread. They also grind wheat to.