Iroquois and Montezuma NWR's...

I swung through the Iroquois and Montezuma NWR's again on my latest foray to conduct Northern Harrier and Short-eared Owl surveys in NY.  While both visits fell during a poor time of day, there were still some feathered friends kind enough to allow for viewing pleasure.  It was still very much spring and not yet summer, but the Tree Swallows were out and about, looking perfectly coiffed in all their sapphire glory...

 
This little guy obviously meant business and was likely to pull a Monty Python's Holy Grail-style rabbit-attack if anyone dared to not obey the sign...

Though my digi-scoping skills clearly have gone to rust, I was very excited to see my only-second-ever Caspian Tern on it's migratory pit-stop at Iroquois.  I think it may have been asking that American Wigeon for directions...

Since my last visit, Iroquois staff have been busy setting up nesting tubes for the ducks...

And the fowl, in turn, have been busy occupying them...

I finally got a photo of a militant Red-winged Blackbird (RWBL).  The word for that red-shoulder - 'epaulet', must be related somehow to the term for military uniform shoulder boards - 'epaulette', which is french for "little shoulder"...how perfect.  But I prefer to think that the RWBL's came first - inspiring military, runway, and rock-star fashions alike...

I saw more American Coots than I've ever seen in Maine and was delighted to actually hear them as well.  They made a sound I can only liken to a squeaky bicycle horn crossed with a kazoo...

Then at Montezuma there were these distant swans adorned with sassy green wing tags.  I think they were Tundras, but admit I was too hurried to bust out my scope and window mount.  The tractor trailer trucks on I-90 made for such a lovely background...

American Kestrels were seemingly everywhere and Turkey Vultures kept materializing out of nowhere...

 

Scoobs eventually tired of all the roadside birding, signaling it was time to head out...

Overall it was fun, fun, fun - and I look forward to once again stopping by these magnificent examples of habitat conservation and management during my next trip to NY.