A trip to Montezuma presents a wonderful opportunity to see
many species of birds that aren’t necessarily found around here. I’d checked
the weather earlier in the week and it looked like it would be smooth sailing
for the DOAS trip to Montezuma on Sunday. The first indication I got that
things might not go as smoothly as hoped was when my Dad cautioned me to take
my umbrella. Apparently the forecast had changed. I woke up at one o’clock the
morning of the trip and the rain was beating against the house accompanied by
thunder and lightning. This did not bode well, but there were still five hours
for the weather to improve before I had to leave. Things did get better. The
rain slowed to a drizzle and in some areas during the trip we even saw the sun
shining, but the closer we got to Montezuma the harder the rain came down. Now
I don’t worry too much about a little rain while visiting Montezuma since a
little water isn’t going to bother a duck. The ducks would be there rain or
shine. I, on the other hand, preferred not to get soaked to the skin, especially
with the freezing winds that blow through there.
I have learned when going in the spring or fall to Montezuma
that I need to dress as if I was going to Nome Alaska. It will be cold, very
cold. Something about the wind coming off the lake creates flash freezing of
hands, feet and body. The better dressed you are for the cold, the less the
cold air will bother you. I had on my long underwear, hiking boots, knit cap, gloves,
wool socks, jeans, sweatshirt and heavy winter coat. I forgot my umbrella.
We found two bald eagles before we even got to Montezuma,
which was a very good start for the day. Upon arriving at the refuge our first stop was at a muddy area near the entrance where in the past I had seen various
shorebirds, but this year it only had a large number of killdeer. Further up
the road the shallow pond behind the visitor’s center held more killdeer and a
few ducks. Our main interests here were the
numerous bald eagles flying around among the trees in the distance and the
harriers that were cruising above the marsh.
We started slowly down Wildlife Drive racking up one
sighting after another, gadwalls, ruddy ducks, mallards, Canada geese, ring-
necked ducks and lesser scaup. Green-winged teal were everywhere. Shovelers,
pintail ducks, coots and pied-bill grebes swam about along the edges of the
water. Larger concentrations of ducks drifted around in the center of the lake.
A small cluster of swans could be seen quite a distance away, too far away to
identify what type of swans they were.
The rain had been steadily coming down.
The car windows would steam up from the cold and in order to see the birds I
had to roll the windows down which let in the rain. A strange thing about this
rain was the way that instead of falling straight down it would come down sideways
right through the car window.
We received word that other members of our group had arrived
at the refuge and we arranged to wait for them there by the lake. There were
many American widgeons swimming amongst all the other ducks on the lake. I
decided to use that time while we waited to inspect the widgeons to see if
there was a Eurasian widgeon as well, but I found none. Once the others in our
group caught up to us they said they thought they had found a Eurasian widgeon
and a discussion ensued about whether or not it could have been one.
We all
started down the road again stopping at a small pond where some peeps/shorebirds
were busy feeding in the shallows. I spent considerable time trying to learn to
identify shorebirds this year, yet when put to the test they still all look alike
to me. The peeps in the pond appeared to all be the same type and were basically
nondescript. Our group turned to our
most experienced birder for his opinion about what species of birds the peeps might
be. Finally it was decided that they were white-rumped sandpipers. Also in the
pond was a great egret and as we watched the egret someone noticed another
darker bird moving around near it. It was a glossy ibis.
We completed the wildlife loop and headed over to Tschache
pool, but found nothing there except for a group of bluebirds that flew by overhead.
On the brighter side the rain had nearly stopped. We then decided to look for
some avocets that had been reported by other birders. The avocets were said to
be in an area where we have reliably found sandhill cranes in the past. No trip
to Montezuma would be complete without finding sandhill cranes and two were soon
located after we arrived. The birds were distant and not the best looks we’ve
had of cranes. While we looked at the cranes we could hear them calling, but
the sound wasn’t coming from the two cranes we could see far away. The sound
was coming from directly behind us. Sandhill cranes seemed to be calling to
each other in a cornfield behind us and although we couldn’t see them we could
hear the wonderful sound they make. After taking note of several eagles that
were flying around a search for the avocets began in earnest.
We decided to quit the group and leave them to their search
for avocets to see what was lurking on Towpath Road. Talk about an obstacle
course. The car bounced and jostled its way down this road of huge ruts, puddles and
potholes. One puddle was so big that I wondered if the great blue heron standing
next to it had mistaken it for a pond. The road runs down alongside the two
large bodies of water that we had previously been looking at with the rest of
our group. We spotted one shorebird in the water and proceeded to try and
determine if it was an avocet. Try as we might to turn it into an avocet it
appeared most likely to be a greater yellowlegs.
As we drove back by the area where the sandhill cranes were
we spotted a cooper’s hawk in a tree. Further along there was a merlin in a
tree on the opposite side of a field. The merlin very obligingly flew up into a
tree beside our car giving us great looks at it. From there we traveled to a
remote area of the refuge where there were several small ponds. One pond had
been a pretty reliable place for spotting wood ducks, but the pond was largely
dried up and there were no wood ducks there that day. The road ended at another
pond. That pond appeared to only contain a few gulls, but looking a little
closer we could see a small group of peeps there so we decided to walk down a path
in order to get a better look at these little birds. As we did so we were able
to see a great egret at the far end of the pond. The peeps in the pond were
very similar to the ones we had seen previously and because they appeared to be
exactly like them and because none of us had thought to bring our bird guides
and because none of us were very proficient at telling the difference we
decided they probably were also white-rumped sandpipers.
There were two more stops to make before going home. The
first stop yielded nothing of interest and the second was in an area across
from the Audubon Center. This area often had swans on previous visits and it
didn’t disappoint us this time. There were three swans there. Now came the task
of determining the species of the swans. To make matters worse the two closest swans
started to swim toward some reeds to hide behind. The first thing we looked at
was the swans’ eyes. A trumpeter swan’s eyes appear to be included as part of
the black bill whereas a tundra swan’s eyes appear to be separate from the
black bill. Our two swans looked like the eye and bill were all one. No orange or
yellow coloring was seen on the bill. Next we examined the neck. Trumpeter
swans appear to have a funny s-shaped kink at the base of their neck whereas a
tundra swan’s neck appears to go up much more straight. It looked like our swans
had a kink in their neck. Finally we looked at the top of the birds’ bills. The
area where the forehead meets the bill could either be rounded or v- shaped. If
v-shaped then the birds were probably a trumpeter. If it was rounded they were
probably a tundra. As best as we could see, these two birds had a v-shaped area
between their eyes. It seemed these swans were trumpeter swans by our analysis.
The third swan appeared smaller and the eye looked separate from the bill. Most
likely it was a tundra swan.
As we were leaving the refuge and heading toward home we
noticed a bird by the roadside. It was a beautiful male ring-necked pheasant. He’d
better watch out for the hunters we’d seen earlier.
Thus ended another
fun trip... in spite of the rain...to search for birds in one of New York state’s
great wildlife refuges.
