Our Wednesday is spent counting waterfowl on the refuge. We drive about 50 miles during the day and we’re out from 8 to 10 hours.
We have a magic key that gets us into all parts of the refuge.
We need to be set up on Highway 106 by about 6:45 a.m. The Sandhill Cranes, White-Fronted Geese, and Snow Geese come up out of the refuge and fly across the highway. We have counted up to 2500 total Geese and Cranes. This is always our first stop of the day.
Snow Geese - Blue morph
We have a map of the refuge sectioned off into units. We have certain units that we count waterfowl in and, except for our first stop to count cranes, every week we change our route so that we are not always counting in the same unit at the same time of day.
We have a list of 28 species of waterfowl that we are looking for.
Redhead
Red-breasted Merganser
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintails
Mottled Duck
Gadwall
Bufflehead
Blue-winged Teal
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
American Wigeon
More about our Wednesday’s next time - It’s not all birds!
Never did get to see the Sandhill cranes while we were there and now I know why! They get up too early too! Headed to another school in Mandeville tomorrow to give my Endangered Species schpeel. So far all kids have been awesome! Staff here are great too!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you are enjoying yourself! It sounds like a great outreach program.
ReplyDeleteTeri