Despite the inclement weather yesterday, the birds were still out there doing their bird thing! Those intrepid souls continued to feed, rest and evade raptors in all that Mother Nature threw at them!! I am a wuss, several times I had to stop, close the window and let the squall pass.
FINALLY, I saw the ibis in the Main Pool yesterday!! For over a week, I had been looking for it. I found it a good distance south of the spillway, WAY back in the line of cattails. I had already looked there and was further up the Wildlife Drive when I noticed that there were quite a few more great egrets in that area, than when I first looked. In the process of recounting the egrets I saw the elusive ibis!! Woohoo, thank you egrets!!
I saw the sandhill crane family in the Main Pool on Monday morning, but did not see them yesterday. However, there were 17 sandhill cranes in Knox-Marsellus Marsh. There was a bunch of shorebirds in the Visitors’ Center Wetland. Again, due to recent rains the water level is higher and they were on the strips of mud. I am including a picture of them. There were shorebirds in the Main Pool in the mud and shallow water along the Wildlife Drive up to the spillway. There were also some shorebirds in Knox-Marsellus. Similarly, due to the rains, the water level is higher, there is less mud and they have moved further east. Many of the smaller ones were in water up to their bellies. I didn’t see a peregrine falcon there yesterday, but a northern harrier did a fly-by and upset the apple cart!! However, I did see and get a picture of a young peregrine falcon in the “eagle tree” at the spillway on the Wildlife Drive. I must have been looking in just the right place at just the right time to see 3 Wilson’s snipe in Larue’s Lagoon. I found them with my bins. They were resting and I was pretty sure I was looking at shorebirds and not clumps. So, I mentally marked the location and turned the car around so I could get my scope on them. SUCCESS, by then they were alert with their heads up and one was moving. WOW, they are so pretty! Sorry, no pics.
I have learned with wildlife that sometimes just about anything is possible. They don’t read the same books we read. Life happens, opportunities arise and they react. That said, yesterday I saw something I have never seen before. I watched a wood duck trying to eat a fish!! HOLY COW!! The wood duck struggled and struggled trying to get it into its mouth. It would drop it and retrieve it and struggle some more. It was similar to a great blue heron struggling with a HUGE fish. Eventually, the fish got away. I guess the poor fellow had bitten off more than he could chew!! Sorry, couldn’t help myself!!
I’m including pictures of the absolutely beautiful Joe-Pye weed and Black-eyed Susans in the Refuge Visitors’ Center flower garden. Many thanks to Ruth, Don and Glenora for taking such good care of our native wildflower garden!! The adult bald eagles were seen in trees along the Seneca-Cayuga Canal east of the Wildlife Drive. As I was traveling on Van Dyne Spoor Road, I came upon a couple dozen wild turkeys crossing the road. COOL!! The white flower is a water lily and the other pic is of a flock of American coots hanging out with 2 redhead ducks, both pics were in the Sandhill Crane Unit.
The forecast is for some great weather for the next couple of days. Hopefully, you can get out to explore and experience all the amazing things at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex trails, towers and the Refuge Wildlife Drive. The Wildlife Drive is no longer open to hikers and cyclists. It’s just cars until May 25, 2023. Dogs on a leash are only allowed in and around the Visitors’ Center and on the Seneca Trail.
ENJOY, be respectful and safe.
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