I wrote over at my general nature blog about an evening visit to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Evening is not the best time to see birds at this sanctuary. The visitor center sits on the east side of the pond, so you are looking into a sunset if you go in the evening… and the day I went, the sky was clear and the sunlight was harsh! I vowed to return in the morning with the sun on my back to see what I could see.
The refuge is huge – just over 7,000 acres. It is situated at the north end of Cayuga Lake. There are several access points for viewing wildlife. (Click my small version of the map to go to the Refuge website and a larger version!)
On this lovely, sunny, Sunday morning (Aug 31, 2008), I opted to check out the North and South Spring pools before heading over to the Visitor Center on the Main pool. Never before has my desire for a long, image-stabilized lens been so strong!
At the Audubon Center where I work, we get excited if we see one Great Egret. This summer, we have sometimes been treated to two at a time! Wow! Well… at the North Spring Pool, I saw at least 30. THIRTY Great Egrets! They were spectacular. It was fun to see so many and watch their interactions with one another. This was the best I could manage:
Just a little to the left of this scene is a platform which has an Osprey nest on top. I watched for quite some time as an Osprey preened and then did some aerial stunts before flying off to the trees and out of sight. Here’s a really bad picture. That black and white blob above the nest is the Osprey:
I got pretty wet hiking around this trail, which is a mowed path that hadn’t been mowed in a while and was all dew covered. I found several of these:
And quite a few of these:
After a bit, I turned back and drove to the South Spring Pond where I met up with some folks who had really good binoculars. They let me watch a few Green Herons for a while. (You can tell I’m still only a reluctant birder by the fact that I didn’t have binoculars with me on a trip that I knew would take me close to the Refuge… And you can tell I’m becoming more of a birder by how much I regretted that!)
Next it was on to the Visitor Center, which still wouldn’t open for another hour… but that never stops the birders! There were several folks there with really good spotting scopes who helped me add a lifebird to my list: Long-billed Dowitcher! (Uh oh… did I just imply I keep a Life List???) They also told me plenty about Harriers, one of which was being mobbed by crows. There were plenty of other shore birds, geese, ducks, and herons, too.
It’s a pretty spectacular place for birds! Stop driving past it! Get off the Thruway and go have a look.
Filed under: birds, nature | Tagged: Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
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Next year you need to get a team together and participate in the Montezuma Muckrace 24 hour Birding contest. It raises money for Montezuma. It is taking place this weekend
Jen,
Since you know about Montezuma and are maybe nearby, how about joining my son-in-law and I for Birding on Saturday. The third member of our team has a family issue and can’t join us for the competition. Thus we have to drop our of the competition and become a Recreational Team for the Muckrace. It still will be fun and we never come close to the top of bird counts but we have good time.
Thanks for considering.
Dick
Don’t worry – if you had a long, image-stabilized lens then you would want a scope. Things are never quite close enough. But congrats on the new lifebird; keeping a lifelist isn’t a bad think, you know.