Elizabeth Morton Wildlife Refuge ∙ Sag Harbor, NY
This past Saturday happened to be unseasonably warm (83 to be exact) and felt very much like mid July rather than the end of April. Since it felt like summer we decided it was a good idea to spend the day by the water. We took a drive out to Sag Harbor and stopped at the Elizabeth Morton Wildlife Refuge. This place is really special and if you’re an animal lover, this is a spot you need to check out. It has a nicely shaded sandy pathway that leads down to a beach and is most well known for being able to have the birds (and other critters) eat right out of your hand! All you have to do is fill your palm with some seed, hold it up into the air and wait. Chances are within a few minutes you will have a sweet little chickadee swoop down into your hand to snag some seeds. It is easily the cutest thing I have ever seen and it never gets old, I could stay there all day.
We noticed that the chickadees seem to be the brave ones when it comes to eating out of people’s hands but on a past visit to Elizabeth Morton we did have a tufted titmouse fly down a few times to grab a snack! It seems some of the other types of birds you may have to be a bit more quiet and patient to get them to fly down, but it is totally worth the wait. There are tons of beautiful birds to see here and during our walk down to the beach the trees were alive with their songs. Lots and lots of chirping! We spotted cardinals, gold finches, sparrows, and of course chickadees. On this particular visit I even had a chipmunk come cautiously up to my hand to check out what I had to offer. Sadly he or she just tapped its little nose on my hand and decided to turn around and scurry off without taking any food. It’s cheeks already looked pretty full, so maybe next time!
Once you get to the beach at the end of the trail there is a small little boardwalk with a couple of benches where you can sit and take in the beautiful view. Probably also a good time to check yourself for ticks, we spotted one crawling on one of our shoes…eek! But despite a brief tick sighting the view and the perfect weather made it really hard to get up and leave from that bench! Another good thing about Elizabeth Morton is the fact that it is only about 12 minutes away from the Village of Sag Harbor, which is filled with yummy places to eat and cute little shops. This was perfect since walking around in the 80-degree weather can you make you pretty thirsty and hungry! We stopped at one of our favorite places in Sag Harbor, LT Burger. It’s funny because I myself do not even eat burgers or red meat for that matter but this place makes a delicious chicken Caesar salad and I order it every time! They also make delicious milkshakes and we can never leave without ordering one. If you are ever in the village of Sag Harbor I would definitely recommend trying it!
