My Trip To Montezuma Wildlife Refuge

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.