Birding in Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

It's been almost 4 months since my last birding outing. Since I did not get a chance to look at any waterfowl in Hagerman this winter I thought I will try my luck before all the waterfowl leave for the summer.

Started home early at 6AM and reached the refuge center by 7:30AM. The access road to refuge center is laid new. When I reached I could already see people looking for birds and some of the folks with fishing lines in the water too. I did not see any Geese on the fields. The first pool I checked had good number of ducks. It had Shovelers, Blue-winged teals, Gadwalls and Coots. There were lot of ducks around but not in the same number as we see in December and January.

I could see Shovellers, Blue-winged teals, Green-winged teals and Coots everywhere. I saw only one Pintail among all these other ducks. There were lot of Wilson's snipes and few Yellowlegs scattered across the pools too.

Blue-winged Teal

Ross's Goose?

Shoveller

I saw a group of Pelicans at the back of the lake right next to a group of Terns. Just behind them I could see there were group of dowitchers too.

Wilson's Snipe

American Golden plover

Killdeer

Yellowlegs

Pelicans and Terns

After birding the lake decided to walk the Meadow pond trail. Just before I entered the trail, I did some birding right next to the gate. There I saw couple of nuthatches, lot of Yellow-rumped warblers and sparrows. The near by stream had a lone Belted Kingfisher too.

The walk on Meadow pond trail was great. I saw almost all the sparrows I had seen earlier(Savannah, Lincoln, Harris, Fox, Vesper and Chipping). It was great to see all these sparrows again. The other birds I saw on the trail were Brown Thrasher, lot of Ruby crowned Kinglets, Chickadees and Titmouses.

Red-bellied woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

White-breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Harris Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

Lincoln Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Tufted Titmouse

Brown Creeper

After walking this trail I decided to try a Crow Hill Trail for the first time. And it was good idea to try this since I got to see first Black and White warbler for the season.

Black and White Warbler

And started photographing butterflies too :-)

Goatweed Leafwing

Dusky-blue Groundstreak?

Southern Dogface

Elada Checkerspot?

Mournful Duskywing?

Red Admiral

Buckeye

ebird : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S35121007

Birds seen during the day :

1	Snow/Ross's Goose
2	Canada Goose
3	Gadwall
4	Blue-winged Teal
5	Northern Shoveler
6	Northern Pintail
7	Green-winged Teal
8	Pied-billed Grebe
9	American White Pelican
10	Great Blue Heron
11	Great Egret
12	Black Vulture
13	Turkey Vulture
14	Northern Harrier
15	Red-tailed Hawk
16	American Coot
17	American Golden-Plover
18	Killdeer
19	Least Sandpiper
20	Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher
21	Wilson's Snipe
22	Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs
23	Ring-billed Gull
24	Mourning Dove
25	Belted Kingfisher
26	Red-bellied Woodpecker
27	Downy Woodpecker
28	American Kestrel
29	Eastern Phoebe
30	Blue Jay
31	American Crow
32	Carolina Chickadee
33	Tufted Titmouse
34	White-breasted Nuthatch
35	Brown Creeper
36	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
37	Eastern Bluebird
38	Brown Thrasher
39	Northern Mockingbird
40	American Pipit
41	Black-and-white Warbler
42	Yellow-rumped Warbler
43	Field Sparrow
44	Fo  Sparrow
45	Dark-eyed Junco
46	White-crowned Sparrow
47	Harris's Sparrow
48	White-throated Sparrow
49	Vesper Sparrow
50	Savannah Sparrow
51	Lincoln's Sparrow
52	Northern Cardinal
53	Red-winged Blackbird
54	Western/Eastern Meadowlark