Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge April 14th, 2016
Spring has finally arrived in Central New York. Today was the first of what is supposed to be 4 beautiful days in a row. So it was time to drive out to one of my favorite places in the world for the first time this year.
The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and the adjacent state owned Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area are designated by the Audubon Society as a Globally Important Bird Area.
Even though it is warming up today it was still below freezing this morning. The Tree Swallows and Purple Martins will have to wait a while longer before there is any significant insect activity.
The male Red-winged Blackbirds have been displaying for a few weeks. Very few females around as yet.
Most of the ducks that were close enough to photograph flew off as my car approached. Hundreds of pics of ducks that were too far away...species that I was able to identify: Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Mallard, Ring-necked, Greater Scaup, Ruddy.
Shoveler Drake
Another RWBB, not quite as defensive.
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Ring-necked Duck
Ruddy Duck - Drake
Hen
Song Sparrow sharing a song
Female RWBB
The only shore birds I saw, other than a lone Killdeer, were Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Mmmm...Leech...
Lesser Yellowlegs
Only saw 2 Great Blue Herons on the Wildlife Drive. Usually I see more...
Next stop after the Wildlife Drive was the Sandhill Crane Unit on Van Dyne Spoor Road. Not many birds around other than American Coots and RWBBs. I usually see Bald Eagles there, but not today. There is a pair of Osprey trying to start a nest on one of the power lines though.
Last stop before I had to return home was the Carncross Salt Marsh and Howland's Island. The Carncross Marsh is owned by the Nature Conservancy. Howland's Island is part of the NMWMA.
I spent a few minutes watching a pair of Bluebirds try to defend their nest box from Tree Swallows.
In the future I'll be visiting the Montezuma Audubon Center and Seneca Meadows Wetland Preserve. Seneca Meadows is a landfill known as Mount Trashmore. The wetlands preserve was created because they wanted to expand the landfill...
Comments
Lovely, just marvelous. I need to go listen to their songs.
Thank you.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
Beautiful photographs!
I really enjoyed your photos of the ducks. In north Florida, along the coastline, we would see blue herons fishing in the shallow waters of the Apalachee Bay. What was most interesting to me is how these birds would space themselves equally from one another, about two to three hundred yards apart. Each bird had his own fishing zone.
Your photographs have such a wonderful clarity to them. I hope you will continue to share more with us here.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Awesome !!!
I need diaries like these along with my politics.
Thank you
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Beautifully done
love the way you compose your bird photographs.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
It's not anything I consciously do in the field
I crop in post processing. In the field I'm just trying to get the bird in the viewfinder...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
I am expert at
getting the bird on the outside of the picture frame. On a good day I catch a bird's back end.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Wow, very nice!
Great shots boriscleto, I especially like the tree swallows and your Ruddy drake is just marvelous.
We try to make it up to Squaw Creek, a NWR in northwest Missouri, once or twice a year. It's a fantastic place to observe birds, especially waterfowl, during migration, spring and fall both. We were just up there a couple weeks ago and the birding was so good we ended up getting a motel and staying over for another day. If it was closer to home we'd probably be there every week or so.
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
I go to Montezuma whenever I can
It's only 35 miles away, but it takes about an hour to get there. But there are so many other places to go birding within an hour to an hour and a half drive that it only works out to a few times a month...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
I love all the open beaks!
I can hear their voices in my mind. And our sunny days make for great photo scenes. No eagles?
I may have kinglets coming through--very poor lighting conditions whenever a bunch of small birds appear in a maple in my front yard. My first red-bellied woodpecker arrival for the season, and I still have suet out, good.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
AWESOME!
Every year we rent a Cabin in Cayuga Lake State Park for two weeks, and one of the things we do is go for a hike in Montezuma!
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” - John Steinbeck
Song sparrows
are such a great joy to hear, but you seldom get to see them. Great shots!