Montezuma Birding

Very early this morning I met Gary down in Mansfield and we drove up to the Montezuma NWR Complex to do some birding. Some photos from the day will follow as soon as I edit them. Meanwhile, here is the report I just field with eBird:



Location: Montezuma NWR--Auto Loop
Observation date: 3/25/09

Notes: Very, clear, cold (35 degrees) and windy (from the south at 20-25 MPH) at the start. The temperature rose as the cloud cover increased and the wind subsided. At first there were no Snow Geese on the main pond but around 9 AM they started arriving from the fields. Thousands of them eventually settled on the water as flock after flock showed up all morning.

Number of species: 35

Snow Goose X
Canada Goose X
Tundra Swan X
American Wigeon X
American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal X
Northern Shoveler X
Northern Pintail X
Green-winged Teal (American) X
Canvasback X
Redhead X
Ring-necked Duck X
Bufflehead X
Common Merganser X
Great Blue Heron X
Turkey Vulture X
Bald Eagle X
Red-tailed Hawk X
Rough-legged Hawk X
American Kestrel X
American Coot X
Killdeer X
Ring-billed Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Downy Woodpecker X
American Crow X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
American Robin X
European Starling X
Song Sparrow X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

A long drive and a long day but it was worth it for all the water fowl species to be seen. It was too wind and too chilly to do much walking. Even standing in the photo blind which cut the wind considerably was tough to do for more than 10 minutes. (All the ducks vacated the area right in front of the blind as we walked out to it anyway.)

We also scouted out the Northern Montezuma Complex, which is a NYS Wildlife Management Area, and the Montezuma Audubon Center. We'll be back in mid to late April when some of the forest birds start to arrive (and the temperature warms up) to walk some trails.