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.

Yearly Visit to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

It was a gorgeous day for heading down south of here to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge to see if I could see some migrating shorebirds.

This is a cute picture of two Tree Swallows.  Mama (the one on the right) is feeding junior a dragonfly she had caught.  I didn't see the dragonfly until I blew the picture up -- had thought it was a stick!

The first bird I spotted in  pond next to a large drainage ditch was this Greater Yellowlegs which I see here often.

I believe this is a Long-billed Dowitcher, another one I see often here.  He had dark legs.

There were several Kildeers -- I don't usually see them in the water!

 These birds were far away as were the above birds.  They are some sort of Sandpiper -- either stilt, lesser or Western.  

I always see Caspian Terns here.  These were all in that same shallow pond.  I think shallow ponds are the best for shore birds up here!!

Just as I was thinking I would like to see a Common Morehen among all the American Coots that were swimming in the drainage areas, I spotted several -- all heading away from me as fast as they could!

Did spot this Pied-billed Grebe among the Coots as well!

I didn't see any eagles this time although there are evidently several resident in the area.  I spotted Cormorants and egrets off in the distance.

I was there right at noon which is probably not the best time.  Altogether I counted around 15 species of birds that I could identify from my car -- not my best count there!

I did score some of my favorite dyeing fabric (Hoffman 1377) at  good price at the local Mennonite quilt shop.  Have already started using it.  More posts to follow!!

A Visit to Montezuma Wildlife Refuge

I had arranged to sell my last two remaining Singer 301 sewing machines to a friend in the Syracuse area.  As she ended up in the hospital, her husband and I arranged a mid-point meeting place which was right near the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge which I had wanted to visit this summer.  This was the perfect excuse and a nice day besides!  This is the perfect setting for a Goldfinch, in among the Scotch Thistle.

I did see some Caspian Terns like last year but not as many.  There were some Gadwalls, Mallards, Canada Geese, Laughing Gulls, Great Blues and one lone Great Egret and I believe a Blue Winged Teal female.  Unfortunately, everything was too far away for good pictures.  There were some great Goldfinches but just as I was about to take pictures, a huge tractor with a mower came by and cut down all the thistle!!  

I did see a few of the Black Swallowtails and several other butterflies that were moving just too fast.  This one had its wings flapping constantly so I increased the speed to 1/1200 of a second to get the picture!
I liked it sitting on the Scotch Thistle as this was my favorite flower as a child!

I also spotted this Red Admiral off in the distance.

This was the coolest find.  I saw a lot of dragonflies but none of them were landing so impossible to photograph. This is a Halloween Pennant Dragonfly which looked like a butterfly from a distance.  I took this from my car window quite a distance away.  I know I haven't seen one of these before.

There were a lot of these beautiful Marsh Mallows all in pink.  They look an awful like our perennial hibiscus.

Of course lots of Queen Anne's Lace which was my least favorite flower as a child although I can't imagine why!

There is very little water now in this normally marshy Refuge. They drained it a couple of years ago to clean it up and have yet to fill it back up again. I am sure there will be more birds when that happens.

This is one of the few ponded areas  which lies outside of the long nature loop.   It is pretty though and has a high observation deck.