Snow Geese on the wing

These migrating Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens) need little explanation. Their sheer numbers and their white and black plumage make for an amazing sight. I was lucky enough to catch them on their way up from the Atlantic Ocean coast at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge/Wetlands Complex near Seneca Falls, New York on March 12, 2013.


 

 

To keep up with the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, like them on Facebook:

Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex

Sleeting, and Snow Geese, and Sandhills...oh my!

Photo credit: The Wildlife Society

When I was at FLCC, I was very involved with their chapter of The Wildlife Society. I was elected to be the president in the fall of 2010, and then was lucky enough to keep that title through 'til I graduated in May 2012. My current college, SUNY Cobleskill, has a very active chapter. I think it's a bit easier for a 4-year school to keep members, there's less turnover and more momentum between school years. And because FLCC is still very near and dear to my heart, I had wanted to do a joint event between the chapters. FLCC and Cobleskill have a good articulation agreement, so many students transfer here from there, as I did, and I thought it would be cool to get the 2 groups to mingle!

Students here already had a field trip planned to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in Seneca Falls, NY for this past Saturday, 11/3. For FLCC, this is a quick 35/40 minute drive. For us, it was more like two and a half hours. BUT it's worth it. This past spring I planned this same trip for FLCC's chapter, and we had a great time. Check that out at: Wildlife Wednesday: April 18th, 2012.


Photo credit: Google Maps
A= FLCC, B= Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, C= SUNY Cobleskill
 

Montezuma is located at a prime location for migrating waterfowl. As you can see at letter B, the Refuge is located between NY's Great Lake Ontario, and at the northern end of NY's largest Finger Lake, Cayuga. Montezuma is a complex of wetlands. There's a lot of emergement vegetation as well as open water for birds to rest at. In the spring and fall, it's an AWESOME place to bird at. Upstate NYers are lucky to have this great spot to visit.

I've been many, many times with my family, friends, classmates, and fellow club members, and I can add to my "bird list" everytime I visit. What made this visit unique is that not only are waterfowl migrating, but we just experienced Hurricane Sandy here in the northeastern United States. While Upstate New York really didn't suffer from Sandy, the birds may or may not have been blown about, and they're using this Refuge even more than normal.

The day we went was cold, rainy, snowy, windy...not ideal for us, but the birds didn't seem to care. My only complaint about the weather was that I couldn't keep my binocs and camera clear of water droplets. I did the best I could with pictures, but the lighting wasn't the best. There were some cool birds there this time. The following is what I could best capture!

Oh, and by the way: our day was led by John Van Niel, a past professor of mine, current prof at FLCC. He has volunteered for years at MNWR, and know his birds. I selfishly wanted him to lead so that I could visit with him and the other FLCC students, and I think Cobleskill students enjoyed him too. Thank you JVN! (John's the one who got me into blogging, please visit his blog: Backyard Beasts)

We caravan'ed around the Refuge. There is a several mile "wildlife drive" that you can take, and there are several spots to get out and observe (from the road). This was one of them!

Cobleskill TWS Treasurer Kristi is using one of Cobleskill's PREMIER spotting scopes: a 85mm Zeiss Diascopes, 20-75x. I've heard that apparently we have around $45K worth of this gear, which is pretty awesome!

Canada Geese

The next place we travelled to was the Tow Path Road. John said that this was open to the public, but I'd like to think it's a secret spot. Because we saw this:

Sandhill Cranes!

 

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Soldotna, AK
May 28, 2012

Sandhill Cranes are special to me, as I'm sure they are to many people. I first learned about these birds in the Conservation 100 class I took almost 3 years ago. John was the instructor of that class, and drilled Aldo Leopold's collection of essays, "A Sand County Almanac" into my brain. I'm a reader. I love it- BUT this was and is a hard read for me. I've since picked it up 4-5 times and tried to read it cover to cover, and I can't. So instead, every now and then I pick a story and read just that. Aldo purchased his "shack" in Wisconsin because he heard that Sandhill Cranes had been seen nearby. So he purchased this land with hopes of seeing them one day. This was back at the turn of the century, when populations of animals were low due to overhunting and slaughter. Aldo is the Father of Conservation, as he's known, and established the beginnings of managing wildlife in the United States. John also has a few great Crane stories himself, and told me before I went to Alaska this summer, to watch for them. He told me that even though I may have never heard them before, I'd know it when they were near.



Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Seneca Falls, NY
November 3rd, 2012

My first night in AK, I was sitting on my porch (at 11:30 pm reading in the daylight) and heard this bizarre trumpeting. I ran down the steps out into the open of the parking lot and stood staring, open mouthed at a pair of Sandhills flying over.

 

It was magical.

 

So now, I associate that sound with Alaska. You know how sometimes a particular smell or sound can bring you back to an earlier time and place? That's what these Cranes on Saturday did for me. Brought me back to my cabin in the black spruce and poplar forest I lived in for 3 months.

Ok, anyway...



Snow Geese

Assorted ducks and swans and geese...not sure of species. This was REALLY far away...

AnotherSandhill Crane...and for more information on birding at MNWR, visit: Montezuma Birding.

 

It was a great time for all, and I hope we can do a joint event again in the future!

 

 

 

 

Wildlife Wednesday: April 18th, 2012

This past Wednesday, the 18th, our Wildlife Society Club rallied together for a field trip to our local National Wildlife Refuge: Montezuma. We were able to snag a college van, and headed out mid afternoon. It was a perfect day for birding, which was the theme for the day. MNWR is known for it's migratory birds that take a stop off the flyway during migration. Of course there are resident birds year round, but we're able to see many different water birds that we might not without the refuge.

So under sunny, mild skies our first stop, just outside of MNWR was at a Bald Eagle nest. This nest was naturally made by the birds on top of a utility structure right at the North end of Cayuga Lake at the outlet. As we pulled up, we were excited to see an adult Eagle up there. As we stood and watched we saw 2 brown fuzzy heads pop up, and then another adult off in the distance, perching in nearby trees.

Mom?

Club members checking out the nest, and some of the students to the right are watching the other adult soaring above us.

Kelly and Delicia using the scope John brought for us.

An Eaglet!

TWO Eaglets!

Photo credit: Joe Varga 

I recently bought a beautiful Nikon with a 36x zoom, but that camera did not take this picture. The club's VP, Joe, took this picture with his smart phone lined up to the scope we had set up. A little bit of ingenuity got the shot!

Photo credit: Adriel Douglass

And finally, both adults! The one in flight has a stick that he/she is bringing back to the nest to add to it. I'm sure with 2 rambunctious Eaglets up there, some of the structure of the nest is lost.

After a half hour or so at the viewing site, we had to get going. We headed back to MNWR and stopped at the Visitor's Center to look out over the first marsh flat.

Photo credit: Kevin Skrzynski

As we walked up to the observation deck, we noticed a little Tree Swallow on the railing. It didn't fly away for a few minutes, and allowed us to get some great pictures!

I love the markings on the face, I didn't realize that they had a 'mask' like the raccoon...it makes this little bird look so stern!

We then loaded back up into the van to do the several mile "wildlife drive" through the refuge. This refuge is known for migratory birds using the land as a "stop-over", and that's what we saw!

Photo credit: Adriel Douglass

 Green-winged Teal

Friend, classmates, and students! And our tour guide, John, is in there too somewhere :)

Canada Goose demonstrating a yoga pose?

Great Blue Heron

Trumpeter Swan and an American Coot

Coots! One of my favorites! I would love to handle one someday...

A male and female Mallard

Blue-winged Teals, male and female.

Caspian Terns

Pair of Mallards on a nest, which also happens to be on top of a muskrat lodge.

Yellowlegs

A brief stop at one of the pull-offs.

And some of us are very excited to be at the refuge!

In the background you might be able to pick out a tractor trailer. MNWR is cut right down the middle by Interstate 90. This has been pretty controversial, but human necessity out-won the wildlife and precious ecosystems that were there first.

A panorama from the top of an observation tower at Tschache Pool.

Miscellaneous ducks.

And that was our final stop at Montezuma for the day!

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After we regrouped back at the visitor's center, John invited us all to his house for dinner and a dusk walk. He lives nearby and owns 50 acres of old farm land that has been allowed to run wild. Because it is in the earlier stages of succession, it's brushy and shrubby, but still open more or less, and John mows trails through it. The point of this dusk walk was to look for the Woodcock, which is an awesome springtime bird to look for.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the Woodcock, but we did see and hear one. The sun was setting, and I didn't even both trying to play with settings on my camera. I didn't want to miss any of the action! The following picture though is one of John's that he got on his property a few years ago.

Photo credit: John Van Niel

How awesome is this? An adult and baby caught at just the right time of year! John wrote an entry about this last year, to check that out visit: Sky Dance: An April Tradition.

As the sun hit the horizon we headed out for our walk to be in place for when the birds came out to do their "dance"...

Two years ago when I started at Finger Lakes Community College, the first class I was in was "Introduction to Environmental Conservation" taught by John. In this course, John intruduced us to Aldo Leopold who writes about the Woodcock and its 'spring dance' in A Sand County Almanac. The read was a hard one, if anyone has read or tried to read Sand County before. I'm a 'reader', always in the middle of a book for leisure, but I struggled getting through that book. Over this past winter I picked it up again and read through it. It's still a tough book, but the content meant so much more to me now being 2 years deep into conservation-minded life. Visiting John's home, and finding the Woodcock performing this annual 'dance', just brought my time here full circle. It was such a fun day with friends, classmates, and a professor that goes out of his way to educate and connect with his students.

This was one of my last events involved with FLCC's Wildlife Society, but I'm glad to have been apart of it and to experience days and nights like this.