Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

Before starting out to visit the refuge, I practiced on a few earth-dwellers in our yard.

It’s nice to know the critters have good personal hygiene…

Our aim in visiting the refuge was to see birds — usually raptors and waterbirds. The entry in seemed promising as we saw a bald eagle perched in a tree.

But generally speaking, it was the yellow warblers that stole the show.

We heard chestnut-sided warblers and yellowthroats, and we were hoping to see a cerulean warbler. The yellows were the only ones who cooperated, though. Good thing they’re so beautiful.

There were a few more common sights as well.

We saw several ospreys, some geese, a couple of sand hill cranes, some orioles and some cedar waxwings.

Returning home, we marveled again at the number of species frequenting our bird feeder. The most unusual visitor is the pileated woodpecker, but we’ve enjoyed the orioles this year as well.

There’s always a group of squirrels and chipmunks feasting on the dropped seed. This one kept rushing the others, and my daughter decided to fly her drone out from the kitchen window to see if it would startle him enough to have better manners.

He was, obviously, unfazed and applied himself steadily to eating.