Wildlife Festival at Montezuma NWR

AMGO

 I have felt like sharing my experience of helping out at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge for a while, so I am going to do a post about it even though it was back in May of 2012. I was lucky enough to be able to assist my professor, John Van Neil from Finger Lakes Community College with a bird banding booth at the festival. We set up one mist net near the feeders that are just outside of the Audubon center in Wayne county. At first we thought we may not be able to set up the net at all due to the wind, but it died down a little and we made sure that someone could see the net at all times. Through out the day we caught 4 different birds, all males. First we got an American Goldfinch, then a White-breasted Nuthatch, a Red-winged Blackbird and the last was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. I helped John watch the net and helped in the banding process while John explained what we were doing to the public.

Red-Wing Blackbird

Removing the bird from the net

Aging the bird

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Near the end of the day the head of the Finger Lake Community College Conservation Dept brought out her captive Bald Eagle, Liberty. Liberty is in her mid-20's but has been in captivity since she broke her wing in AK at the age of 6 months. 

Liberty the Bald Eagle

Birding in Alabama

Brown Pelican on AL shore

On January 12th 2013 I went birding with some of my 4 of my bunkmates, Jared, Eamon, Matt and Phil. We went to Alabama in search Sprague's Pipit  along with many others. Our first stop was some random field in AL looking for the Pipit's. We did not find the Sprague's Pipit, but we did find a lot of American Pipit's. There were also a ton of Killdeer in the field. Our next stop was the AL shore in search of a Razorbill but it was not clear enough to see out over the water. We saw a Brown Pelican and a bunch of Laughing Gulls.

Laughing Gull  

We made a trip to Dauphin Island, we did not get over to the Gulf shore due to the Mardi Gras parade. However we did go to a park and then we made a stop near the bridge that lead to the island where were saw some shore birds.

Bald Eagle Pair, Dauphin Island AL

Live Oak covered in Spanish Moss

Great Blue Heron near Dauphin Island

Killdeer near Dauphin Island

Bufflehead near Dauphin Island

Willet with Brown Pelican photo bombing

Overall, it was a great day. It was very interesting to go birding with people who know a lot of birds. I have a Nat. Geo. field guide that I keep track of the first time I see a bird. I was able to make several entry's knowing that it was a correct ID since I was birding with knowledgeable birders.