On the way back from a short afternoon meeting in a nearby town, Ingrid and I stopped at the Buffalo Ranch in Bath, Maine for a little birding.

The Buffalo Ranch used to  . . .  you guessed it . . . have dozens of buffalo roaming through it’s meadows.   Several years ago, the owners sold off the herd and now just run cattle (snore).

Today, the Ranch was more of a lake . . . melting snow and daily rain storms have flooded the fields and created a ideal habitat for dabbling ducks . . . Mallards, Green-winged Teal and Northern Shovelers have taken up residence.

A cursory scan of the “shoreline” turned up a Killdeer and a sole Greater-yellow Legs and surprisingly three Wilson’s Snipes.

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”314″ display=”pro_mosaic”]Ingrid and I had both seen Snipes in the past, but always at a distance or in a fleeting “spook” flight.

We watched the Wilson’s Snipe for 15 minutes as they fed and waded in and out of the Lake Buffalo . . . quite a thrill.

On the drive home we came upon a couple pairs of Wood Ducks and a pair of Common Mergansers.

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”315″ display=”pro_mosaic”]