Back to Montezuma

   I recently visited the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge. I was hoping to find some birds there that I probably wouldn't find around here. As it turned out I just missed seeing a major migration of shore birds. A few days earlier, least sandpipers and dunlins alone had numbered into the hundreds. There were still flocks of shorebirds at the refuge when I was there, but not as many as there were previously and they were too far away for me to identify with just my binoculars. Never the less I was hoping I could at least find one or two shorebirds wondering around closer to the road and within range of my visibility. Even though the bird population at Montezuma was much lower than when migrants come through we had a good time hunting for birds and found a few new birds for my birding list for this year.

    The pond by the visitors’ center…wasn’t. It had largely dried up. Except for puddles of water here and there the pond was a field of grass with Canadian geese walking around in it. The bird houses by the visitor's center were swarming with purple martins. That was good. I needed to find purple martins for my list for this year.

   As we drove down Wildlife Drive the first pool on the left had Canada geese and mallards in it, nothing all that exciting. Then I noticed a small dark bird near the edge of the water. When I focused my binoculars on him I could see bright red on the forehead, a moorhen! Now that’s more like what I was hoping to find here. It was a great way to start the day.

   The water was drained off of the main pool exposing lots of mud. The ducks and shorebirds were concentrated on the water that still remained in the central part of the pool, but at that distance it was not possible for me to tell exactly what the birds were. There were plenty of mallards about and we spotted some pied-billed grebes in the water that filled a ditch by the road. A duck was walking along the shore behind some reeds. It took me a while to get a good look at it. I finally figured out it was a female wood duck. Great blue herons seemed to be everywhere. An osprey was fishing in the canal near stop number four where huge numbers of carp could be seen crowded together in the water trying to get into the main pool from the canal. Red-winged blackbirds were spotted here and there among the cattails.

   As we rounded the corner I spied two little ducks in amongst the reeds. The one duck had a crescent on his face. They were a male and female blue-winged teal. I would spot the only shorebird that I was able to see at the refuge here along the shore. It was a solitary sandpiper. It was a disappointment not to be able to see any more of the many shorebirds being reported by other birders.

   From Wildlife Drive we went to Tschache Pool. I could see nothing out on the pool except Canada geese.  Then I noticed something white at the far distant side of the pool. I could make out that it was a swan when I looked at it through my binoculars, but it was impossible to tell anything more about it than that. As we stood around by the pool two large white birds flew over the pool. Terns! I think they were Caspian terns. They provided some great entertainment. The terns would hover over the water then pull their wings into their sides and dive bomb into the water with a huge splash that sent water spewing up into the air..

   We went from Tschache Pool to May’s Point. I had read that a red-headed woodpecker had been spotted in that area. Finding the bird was no problem at all since we passed three people lined up along the road with their scopes and cameras pointed at it. It was a lifer for me.

    I wish I could have spent more time exploring other parts of the refuge, but time did not permit it. Maybe I’ll be back to try to find more of those shorebirds another time