the Way of the Turtle

BIRDIES, BIRDIES, BIRDIES...
Driving All Around Montezuma NWR
Sunday, May 10, 2015

After breakfast Ann and I headed to the main headquarters for Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. We started out by checking the birds visible from the viewing deck - a small flock of terns, lots of Canada geese, and a lone snow goose. We also spotted an osprey hunkered down on the nest near the HQ.

From there we made our way along the wildlife drive... where we saw even more geese and quite a few herons, ducks (including both the typical mallards and a few unusual suspects like a redhead, a blue-winged teal, and several shovelers), more snow geese, an occasional grebe,and quite a few common gallinules. We also spotted four or five immature bald eagles and even one mature eagle flying off in the distance.

From there we headed north and made our way out to the sandhill crane unit... sadly no cranes in evidence (I definitely got lucky last May when that pair flew in and landed near the HQ) but still more geese and ducks, and wrapped things up with a visit to Lock CS-1, where one of the young bald eagle was visible on the nest, and where it looks like a pair of ospreys may have reclaimed the nest on top of the tower across from the parking lot.

JMH