My Yearly Visit to Montezuma Wildlife Refuge

It was about the driest I have ever seen at the Wildlife Refuge this visit.  The ducks were almost totally absent as there was literally very little water in which to swim.  I did see some mallards with ducklings but that was about it.  The Mallows were all beautifully in bloom along the marsh shores.

There was one swampy area where there was quite a bit of variety of those shallow digging wading birds.  There were several Great Egrets here.

I also spotted a few Great Blue Herons along the way.  All the birds were at quite a distance.

There were several Greater Yellowlegs foraging.  I have seen them here before.

There were also several Kildeer looking for food in this shallow pond.

A real surprise was the appearance here of several Snipe.  I had originally misidentified them as Dowitchers which I have seen here before.  Snipes are a little less common although I have occasionally spotted them in NC in the winter.  Again, there were several of these.

Two of the Snipe feeding.  They have much more pronounced striping than the Dowitchers. Also the Dowitchers this time of year have more color on their breasts.