Last Thursday was our day to head north. We made our monthly stop at Sauder’s for bulk foods, and were heading on to Auburn to spend the afternoon with Dad and Evelyn. We always try to fit in a drive around the loop through Montezuma Wildlife Refuge because we never know what we’ll find.
On this day I caught sight of three birds with black heads and red bills out on a little island. We always try to get pictures so that we can study any new sighting later on and make sure we ID it correctly. Besides my field guide, which still left me guessing, I relied on eBird and the new version of All About Birds to help me out. I hope I identified this correctly as a Caspian Tern.
We also saw a lone tundra swan, 4 gadwall, 6 mallards, 8 northern shoveler, 2 redhead, 10 ring-necked ducks, 1 great blue heron, 1 osprey, 1 killdeer, 5 Canada geese, 1 lesser yellowlegs, 8 ring-billed gull, 2 purple martin, 1 tree swallow, 3 red-winged blackbirds, 1 common grackle, and about 75 American coots.
After leaving the refuge, we took the short drive down to Mud Lock, to check out the bald eagle nest. 
I am always in awe when I see one.