We put the drone up Friday for her first workout and took a few pics. It’s tough getting whole marsh pics at places like Marten’s Tract or Guys Marsh without flying higher than is legal or being at an angle that makes it tough to pic out detail.
You can see in some of the pics that we’re still dealing with higher than normal water levels, and our drawdowns have been taking longer than we’re used to, but we’re getting a bit more aggressive now that we can so we should be back on track. Check out the phrag control area from 2016 in Unit 1 (cool), and also the 2016 “snake and eggs” mowing in Guys Marsh (also cool). The Teal Pond Pic also shows the fields at Martens Tract that we recently planted with seed provided to us by DU (Thanks DU!).
Let us know if you have any ideas for the drone, detailed pics you think might be useful etc.
I am glad you are experimenting with a drone. This seems like a good way to Survey habitat status. Perhaps it can also be useful in monitoring the deer activity and herd size. How about monitoring and policing hunting activity to assure it is conducted according to policies. Be cautious of unnecessary stress on bird life , particularly during nesting season. David Marsh
This is so cool! Helpful to you folks, too.
Jeanne Sullivan
Hi All,
Thanks for sharing the drone pictures. As a hunter, it would be helpful to have recent photos. The marsh level is dramatically different now than at the time of the images. That said, these image are still helpful to see the lay of the land.
Was happy to see a strong DEC presence at the MWC on opening day of duck season. Let’s enforce the rules on the books.
Finally, I am curious why the cattails were cut so close. Visibility is very good, but difficult to discern the benefit from a non-expert perspective.
Regards,
Peter Georgianna
Hey Peter,
Check out our recent post https://friendsofmontezuma.org/aerial-images-of-northern-montezuma-wma-marshes/ that has images from last week.
Thanks for the comments Peter. We do have relatively up to date aerial images of several of the Northern Montezuma WMA Marshes up on the website as of last week, and we’ll be adding more occasionally. On the Friendsofmontezuma.org homepage click on “Aerial Images of Northern Montezuma WMA Marshes”.
Like you mentioned, the vegetation and water levels within our marshes change dramatically at certain times of the year, and with the recent rains there is quite a bit more water in some of our marshes right now than the images would suggest. As far as the mowing goes, it is purposely done in some places to affect the vegetation community there the following growing season, and in other cases to allow for waterfowl use of an area that is too dense. Hopefully the images help you plan your time at Northern Montezuma, but there’s no substitute for spending some time on the ground at Northern Montezuma enjoying the wildlife or scouting for a hunt.
Feel free to reach out to us at the Northern Montezuma Field Office to talk about this in more detail. 315-365-2134