Highlights: glossy ibis near the Seneca Spillway (pic), sandhill crane pair with 1 chick (pic) Main Pool, great egrets in their finest (pic) near the spillway, Canada goose pair with 22 goslings (pic) in Eaton Marsh. It actually must be a pre-school to have that many kids with only 2 adults! The Spillway eaglets are about 9-10 weeks old, I think.
They are large, dark brown and often seen stretching and flapping their wings. They should be fledging soon. The Maple Island nest has two eaglets. I saw 1 for the first time on May 7 and saw the second one this week.
Pumphouse South nest has at least 2 eaglets, Clark’s Ridge has at least 1, May’s Point has at least 1. Theses are birds we have seen. Pumphouse North has at least 1 chick based on the posture and behavior of an adult on the edge of the nest that could be seen before the leaves came out and obscured my view.
If visitors ask what happened to the water in the Main Pool please let them know that it has purposely been drawn down to allow vegetation to grow. Basically, we are growing duck food for the fall migration! As a matter of fact, I have heard wildlife managers called “duck farmers.” If Mother Nature cooperates we hope to have lush plants that will provide copious amounts of food for our autumn migrants. In the meantime, we have amazing shorebird habitat! We also are seeing large numbers of great blue herons and great egrets hanging out as the fish get concentrated into a smaller area. During the last draw down the bald eagles eventually got into the action as the carp were forced into a small channel leading to the spillway. Exciting times ahead! I hope you can get out to enjoy the Refuge.
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