Nine Springs Lagoons

Detail of Nine Springs Lagoons, May 2010

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The lagoons and wildlife observation area at the Madison Municipal Sewerage District site off Moorland is one of our favorite spots for viewing waterfowl and shorebirds. Lake Farm County Park is adjacent to this area, and just across the road is a parking lot for the Nine Springs E-Way, so we generally refer to the site as “Nine Springs Lagoons.” The relationship among these three natural areas is clear on the site map of Lake Farm Park.

Crossing the road after parking, you can go straight ahead to a boardwalk that crosses over a marsh or turn left and walk about 700 ft. along the Capital City Trail to the trailhead to the lagoons. The 900 ft. boardwalk dead-ends at an observation deck with a good view of the easternmost of the main lagoons, so it is very convenient for birders with disability issues, but spotting from there is best done with a scope. In spring and fall, the marshy woods between the lagoons and Moorland Road abound with warblers and other small migratory birds, although it is often difficult to get good views and even more difficult to photograph when the dense foliage is in its full glory. At the trailhead you have to negotiate a shallow ditch to reach the path around the lagoons. Tom walks with a rollator (rolling walker) and needed assistance to get across. The lagoon paths are either dirt and coarse gravel or thick grass, which can be further impediments depending on the weather.

On this trip, we were disappointed to see how green and scummy the lagoons were (compared to the photo above taken in 2010), but numerous mallards and some Canada geese idled or moved slowly in the water. There were some smaller ducks that Gene thought might be young or female blue-winged teals, but Tom convinced him they were young mallards, so there was no excitement on the waterfowl front. We did see a pair of Sandhill Cranes on the far bank, and we never tire of them. We also observed two Killdeer thanks to Linda and Sayoko’s spotting. Sayoko spotted another small shorebird, but its lack of strong markings and considerable distance made identification difficult. Tom’s photographs suggest that it is a Pectoral Sandpiper.

Pectoral Sandpiper(?), NSL, 15 September 2012, 8:23 AM

Pectoral Sandpiper(?) and Killdeer, 15 September 2012, 8:21 AM

As three of us moved on past the middle lagoon, Sayoko hung back to look at the boggy area on the other side of the embankment. Since she lingered for quite a while, Gene went back and found that she was looking at small marsh birds. Photography was difficult because of the direction of the sun and the undergrowth, but he managed to get a fairly decent picture of a Sora, a new bird for both of them. Unfortunately, it had disappeared in the bushes before Tom and Linda arrived. In the nearby trees, we saw two Common Yellowthroats and a Cedar Waxwing among a variety of even more common birds.

Sora, NSL, 15 September 2012, 9:05 AM

We ended our outing back at Gene and Sayoko’s house for brunch and a leisurely few hours of conversation.