Monday, March 13, 2017

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  

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