Sandhill Cranes under attack

A number of times this year I’ve seen Sandhill Cranes being attacked by Red-winged Blackbirds. Apparently they wander into the blackbirds nesting area. The cranes seem to ignore the blackbirds.

 

A Beautiful Day at Hoffman Hills

We had gone out to Hoffman Hills to check on the nesting Canada Geese but there were many more things to see. A Green Heron landed on the other side of the pond. We watched as it hunted along the shore for frogs.

There were also quite a few Red-winged Blackbirds around

The Marsh Marigolds are blooming in the swampy areas.

The Painted Turtles were sunning themselves along the edge of the pond.

The last of the Pussy Willows were blooming.

The Willow Trees are getting ready to bloom.

There were a number of Turkey Vultures flying around the area.

 

Red-winged Blackbirds at Gilbert Creek

There have been a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds at Gilbert Creek. The females have started showing up in the last few days.

Early Spring at Gilbert Creek Wildlife Area

One of my first photography locations each spring is Gilbert Creek Wildlife Area. It is only a short drive from home and it allows me to photograph a variety of wildlife. On my first trip this year this I found quite a few Canada Geese.

 

The male Red-winged Blackbirds were also abundant. This was my first time photographing from my Electric Vehicle and I found it worked well because it was so quiet and I didn’t have to turn the car off and on.

The Pussy Willows ware out now at Gilbert Creek.

There were also some ducks flying around.

Annual Midwest Crane Count 2019

This past weekend was the Annual Midwest Crane Count for my area. It was originally scheduled for April 13th but was postponed one week because of a blizzard. Probably a good thing it was because there were not many birds around the day after the blizzard. When we headed out early in the morning we were greeted with a full moon. Our counting area was Gilbert Creek Fishery and Wildlife Area about seven miles west of Menomonie, Wisconsin.

 

The goal was to count Sandhill Cranes. We saw four cranes and heard another pair calling. This tied for the most cranes we have counted during the crane count

 

In addition we counted other birds in the area. The highest count was for Red-winged Blackbirds. We stopped counting at thirty five. All but one of them were male birds. The second photo is of the only female that we saw.

There were a few Buffleheads in the pond and they seemed to be chasing one another around the pond.

 

For the first time since I started counting I found Trumpeter Swans in the area. I noticed them a couple of times this spring so maybe they will stay for the season.

 

There were several Canadian Geese on their nests.

Counting Cranes at Gilbert Creek Fishery and Wildlife Area

This weekend was the annual Midwest Sandhill Crane Count. Actually it was scheduled for April 14th but we were in the middle of a three day blizzard so the count was postponed one week. This year my wife agreed to go with me as long as I took her to breakfast afterword. We were up before sunrise and headed to my designated area which happened to be Gilbert Creek. The area is surrounded by roads so I typically drive around stopping along the way to listen and watch. We had already gone around once without seeing anything but things picked up just after sunrise. We noticed a pair of cranes in a backwater area. We watched them for a while before I heard several cranes calling some distance away. As we drove past a pond we noticed a second pair of cranes in the pond. I photographed them before continuing on to where I heard the cranes calling. There was a third pair at that location. In all we saw six cranes. This is the most I have counted during the years I’ve been counting.

There were also some Wood Ducks in the pond.

A pair of Pied-billed Grebes were also swimming around.

Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds were singing.

There was also a Muskrat swimming in the pond.

There were a bunch of American Coots in the pond.

I was surprised to find a number of Canada Geese on the nests considering we were a week away form a three day blizzard.

This was one of the best count days I’ve had over the years.

Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area

This spring we embarked on a road trip to the southwest. On the way we didn’t make many stops.  It was really hard to find some compelling landscape photography locations as we traveled through Iowa, Missouri and Kansas on the first leg of the trip. The hawks must have been migrating because we seemed to see one at about every mile marker. Unfortunately one can’t stop while driving of the interstate system. On the second leg of the trip we did stop at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area in Kansas. It was just a few mile off of the highway and I like to photograph birds. There were a lot of Coots in the Area.

There were several large flocks of American White Pelicans in the area but most of them were too far away to photograph.

There were also quite a few Northern Shovelers on the flowage.

When we left on the trip the Red-winged Blackbirds had not returned yet but we found quite a few of them around.

Blue-winged Teals and Northern Shovelers were hanging out together.

I thought we would find more shorebirds around but we only saw Yellowlegs in a couple of places.

At the end of the second day we ended up in Amarillo Texas. Not much to see in Amarillo but we did stop at the Big Texan Steak House. It looked like a Wall wannabee. We ordered the special of the day and decided to split the order. My wife likes her steak well done and I like mine a little on the rare side so we ended up selecting medium. When it came the cow was still kicking which was fine with me but my wife sent her half back twice before it ended up well done. By the third trip to the kitchen it was like shoe leather. I liked the visit she didn’t.

When we arrived at out hotel in Amarillo we were surprised to find a large number of Chinese. Turns out they were installing windmills in Texas. Seems our government is so busy pushing coal technology they are leaving the technology of the future to the Chinese.

A Morning at Crex Meadows

We recently spent a morning driving around Crex Meadows. During a stop at the visitors center we found that several eagles had been spotted earlier in the morning. We were lucky to find they were still hanging around. This one was sitting by the nest. A little later in the morning we noticed it was hunting on Phantom Lake. When it caught a fish it went back to the nest were we were able to watch it feeding its young.

Bald Eagle

We did not spot many Sandhill Cranes. This one was near the road. I suspect most of the others were nesting deeper in the marshes.

We could see Trumpeter Swans nesting but they were all quite some distance from the road. We did encounter three non nesting swans in a small pool.

We found this pair of Ring-necked Ducks in a small pond.

Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds around the area.

The muskrats were very active throughout the flowages.

We noticed this Killdeer ahead of us so we stopped. It was very accommodating and walked right up to us and posed for photos.

The marsh grass provided some interesting patterns. In the second photo the area had recently been burned providing for a variety of colors as it started to grow again.

The Lily Pads were starting to grow now that the ice is off of the flowages.

An Early Summer Birds a Crex Meadows

Last week we made our first summer visit to Crex Meadows since returning from Iceland. Things have really changed since our last visit. The large amount rain we received in May and June has raised the water levels in the ponds and really made the vegetation grow. In some places it is difficult to photograph from the car because the grass is so high along the road.

We found some Wood Ducks sitting on a log. On our second pass around the Meadows this one was still sitting there and posed for me. It’s the first Wood Duck I’ve been able to photograph up close and my first one at Crex.

The ducklings were all over the place. It was fun to watch them making their way through the lily pads.

This Red-winged Blackbird landed next to the road. I had my wife drive up to it and it didn’t move. I was able to get some great shots before moving on.

We found this fledgling sitting in the road. When we stopped it hopped into the foliage along the road and sat there while I took its picture. I think it was a young Red-winged Blackbird.

There were lots of Trumpeter Swans around with their young. They looked to be teenagers now.

We drove past a Bald Eagle nest on the north side of the refuge. It had one eagle in it. The wind was blowing and it seemed to be testing its wings into the wind. I will probably be gone from the nest very soon.

A short time later we encountered two Sandhill Cranes walking through the Prairie.

I’ve photographed Great Blue Herons before at Crex but this is probably the best photo of them that I’ve gotten.

It was a great day for bird photography.

Red-winged Blackbird

The Red-winged Blackbirds have been back for a few weeks. During the annual Sandhill Crane Count I counted over sixty of them in my count area.