Monday afternoon a young woman stopped into the Visitors’ Center and mentioned that she had thoroughly enjoyed a driving trip down Towpath Road. She was thrilled with the large number of songbirds present!! Oh, that’s right, our Muckrace team usually spends time along Towpath Road during that event. I had forgotten the potential in that area for birds. If you have a car with high clearance, nerves of steel and can drive R-E-A-L-L-Y slowly then, go for it by vehicle. However, I totally lack nerves of steel, so we hiked it yesterday morning! We wore boots and needed them in a few places where the Towpath Road craters stretched all the way across the road with several inches of water. That way too, we didn’t have to walk through the tall vegetation on the sides or under the low overhanging trees in those places. It also allowed us also to slog through the water sometimes like a couple of kids!!  We had a FANTASTIC trip!  We walked about ¾ mile east to the cross dike between Knox-Marsellus and Puddler Marshes then returned. We identified a couple of dozen songbirds, and absolutely LOVED the melodic song of a wood thrush. It was near the beginning, west end, of the road and heard it going out and again coming back. We had anticipated heavy mosquito pressure, so we sprayed up before heading out. However, we were pleasantly surprised to only find mosquitoes in a couple of locations, not everywhere along the road. Or maybe our insect repellent worked REALLY well.  We heard bull frogs and green frogs in Knox and saw several Northern leopard frogs in the large puddles on the road. We learned that we are at an age where we are TOO SLOW and cannot catch frogs anymore. RATS!!

As usual, I learned something when I got home and checked out my pictures. On my laptop, I could see two mosquitoes on one of the leopard frogs!! One was drawing blood! Holy cow!! I knew mosquitoes fed on mammals, and a quick search on Google informed me that they feed on birds, frogs and reptiles too!! WOW!! Enlarge the frog pic to check out the mosquitoes!

As we got closer to the cross-dike we found over 50 wood ducks in Knox-Marsellus. There was also a female with over 20 ducklings! It must have been “spa day” for the other moms. We could see the trumpeter swan family with 3 cygnets, but I couldn’t get a decent picture.

Along Towpath we found several Spring Azure butterflies.  When they are flitting and flying, they look blue.  But when they land they hold their wings up, together, so look whitish. I got some pictures of one not flying. So, Google the name and see the beautiful blue that is hidden in my picture.

We found a common milkweed stalk that showed 4 stages of blossom development.  It was so cool to see all those stages on one stalk!

After our hike, we were famished so we went to the South Spring Pool Trail and enjoyed lunch on the bench again. We were entertained by green frogs, dragon flies, Eastern kingbirds, grackles, various other songbirds flitting about, turkey vultures and an adult bald eagle fly by. From there we checked out Tschache Pool Tower because someone had seen a pair of trumpeter swans with 6 cygnets earlier in the day.  We didn’t find them but will keep an eye out for them.

We didn’t survey the Wildlife Drive units on Tuesday, but I spoke with a photographer on Monday morning who had seen the sandhill crane family with the chick in Seneca Flats early Sunday evening. Monday morning when I did a quick survey before opening the VC, there was a gathering of sandhill cranes, great blue herons, great egrets, black-crowned night herons and an American bittern. They were in the area on the left and back to the south, after the short row of shrubs and trees across the Drive from Larue’s Lagoon. There must have been some FANTASTIC food in that area!

It is predicted to be steamy and stormy today, with varying temperatures the rest of the week.  It is summer, after all!!  Hopefully, you can get out soon to explore the REALLY COOL stuff at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex trails, towers and the Refuge Wildlife Drive.  Remember, the Refuge Wildlife Drive is now open to hikers and cyclists as well as cars.  Dogs on a leash are only allowed in and around the Visitors’ Center and on the Seneca Trail.

ENJOY, be respectful and safe.