The Wexford Wildfowl Reserve

Every birder should go to the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve. Like Sweetwater Branch or the La Chua trail, you’re going to see different animals depending on what time of year it is and what the weather is like. On this day I my primary goal was to patiently train my camera on lots of ducks and wait for DUCK BUTT.

The Wexford Wildfowl Reserve is located on the North Slob – land around Wexford Harbor that was reclaimed in the 1840s. I believe the whole thing is a couple of thousand acres, and we only saw the tiniest bit. They have a great observation tower you can climb up and look out of, with telescopes so that you can even see the birds. Both Hawk and I happened to buy our cameras because of the good zoom ability, so we got some great photos.

Occasionally there are other animals, like hares, but unfortunately this is as close as I got to one. There are also badgers, red squirrels, red foxes, stoats, mice, and otters.

According to their website, other birds that can be seen there (at differing times of year) are as many as 250-plus bird species that include Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Bewick’s Swan, Whooper Swan, Greenland White-fronted Goose, Light-bellied Brent Goose, Shelduck, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Pintail, Scaup, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Hen Harrier, Coot, Oystercatcher, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Little Tern.

The ducks were out in full, though! I don’t know that I’ve actually seen so many ducks at one time together since I lived on the farm with my dad, and we had ducks. Our ducks didn’t have a great pond like this, though, so I got to see much more Duck Butt than I saw on my own farm.

Triple-and-a-half Duck Butt! I score this one a ten!

If you want to see the rest of my Wildfowl Reserve (which I keep trying to write as “Preserve”) photos, you can see them here. Warning: tons of Duck Butt.