Adventuring

 

I only see a few swans ever, but these sounded like Trumpeters

A good friend conveyed us out to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge yesterday and what an adventure it was.

The weather was supposed to be neutral, not a lot of precipitation, cloudy, but not horrible. Turned out it snowed most of the day, sometimes quite eagerly and it was cold, cold, cold.

Which in no way dampened our enthusiasm for the banquet of birds the swamps and mucklands served up. 

Tundra Swan

In fact we found the Route 31 mucklands, of snow goose fame, without much effort at all. We were just hunting for a couple of other good places of which we were already aware, and there they were, stretched out in front of us and absolutely thronged with ducks. I get excited if I see one Redhead Duck here on our river. There were hundreds of them alone.

No Snow Blue-winged Teal

Just add snow and shake well Blue-winged Teal

I don't think it would be much of an exaggeration to say that there were a thousand Northern Pintails in various locations, three-hundred American Wigeon, Ring-necked Ducks, Scaup, at least one of which I was able to identify as to Greater/Lesser (it was the latter), Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teal galore, Blue-winged Teal, in all their natty glory, a few Wood Ducks, Mallards and Canada Geese, of course, and a nice bouquet of Bald Eagles sending them up out of the grasses for our enjoyment. Tiny Buffleheads bobbed for minnows, accompanied by flashy little Hooded Mergansers as well.

Northern Shoveler looks a little grumpy

Oh, and both expected species of swan too, Trumpeters and Tundras scattered here and there.

What we saw

Heavily edited

The Snow Geese have mostly left the area for their northern nesting grounds, but three-hundred or so gave us a nice look arrayed across a hilly green hayfield, then a pair of Ospreys tending a nest capped off an amazing day.

The weather did not make for great photography, but the company and the ducks made for great fun. The signage in the region has been much improved, which helped us find several really good new places to observe birds. Thanks Kris for a really great time. Ralph and I shared your sammiches for supper and they were good!

If you zoom in really close
there are ducks out there...

Ducks....