A Saturday Trip to Necedah NWR

I'm getting way behind in my blogging (again!) so I'm going to try and get caught up in the next few days because my files are full of pictures that need to be shared and I need to do it soon while I still remember all the details.

I took my Sissy over to Wisconsin to visit the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge on the Saturday before Easter (since we were both lucky enough to have that day off). The weather was clear and sunny when we left Rochester, but by the time we got to the refuge the weather had gotten overcast with occasional rain showers (but at least we didn't see any snow flurries!)

Due to the over abundance of rain in recent weeks, most of the roads inside the refuge were closed due to high water, so without a four-wheel drive, we were limited in the areas we were able to visit. Fortunately, we were able to get to the viewing tower at the edge of the Rynearson Pool #1 where we were lucky enough to see WHOOPING CRANES! I had only gotten a brief glimpse of one on a previous visit to NNWR and this was my Sissy's first sighting. What beautiful birds! We actually saw 4 on this day and it was definitely worth getting wet & cold for.

After talking to another guy in the parking lot, he told me how far I'd be able to get with the car before the roads became impassable, so we took off down the road in search of other birds. We hadn't gone far when we spotted this single Sandhill Crane in the water-filled ditch to the right. We had been hearing them since our arrival and my Sissy was thrilled to see one so close.

While we were watching the crane off to the right, we heard more in flight and coming closer to us. On the left side of the road was a larger pond and that's where this pair of Sandhill Cranes was headed. Wow! We were so excited to see them in flight and so close!

They strolled around for a while and finally found this patch of higher, dry ground where they were able to spend some time resting, preening their feathers, and enjoying the few minutes of sunshine on this otherwise dreary day.

I hope all of you get the chance to visit Necedah National Wildlife Refuge some day. Their beautiful new visitor's center is now open and if you check their website, they have lots of great programs open to the public throughout the year. I hope to get another chance to visit later this summer -- I'm sure the water levels will have gone down by then!

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

I'm getting so far behind in my blogging activities, so I need to show you the highlights of last Saturday afternoon spent at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NNWR) so I can move on to the other great stories and pictures I have to post for this week.

I hope you all get the chance to visit NNWR some day. I would love to see them offer a 3-4 day birding & nature workshop where participants could go out with the naturalists and study all the diverse habitats, plants, animals, and birds. The 90 minutes spent on the bus in the morning and several hours I had in the afternoon gave me only a small sampling of what this >43,000 acre refuge has to offer. They're currently in the process of building a large new visitors center, with a projected completion sometime in 2010. Maybe we should start planning now for a bloggers get-together that summer. They will arrange special field trips for birding groups......

Welcome!

At my first stop in the refuge, I was treated to a fly-by from this squadron of sandhill cranes.

Here's another look at a pair of Sandhill Cranes. We have them in Minnesota too, but usually closer to the Mississippi and I don't get down that way very often.

Here's a look at one of the juvenile Red-Headed Woodpeckers I saw. You can see from the back there's a lot of white on its wings. When they're flying, there's also a large white spot on their back, just above their tail. It's quite distinctive and makes them really easy to spot and identify when they're flying.

Here's an even worse picture of the adult woodpecker that the juvenile shown above was hanging around with. I'm guessing this was one of the parents. I know I said it in the previous post, but it was just fantastic to see so many Red-Headed Woodpeckers in one afternoon. I bet I saw at least 20 all over the refuge. The habitat (with its many dead or dying trees) was ideal for these birds. They're on the Audubon WatchList as records show this bird has seen a 50% decline in overall population since 1966.

Here's a story about Whooping Crane restoration near one of the viewing platforms in the refuge.

This was a little road to another viewing platform. It was in a native prairie area and I was trying to give you an idea of how tall the native grasses were growing right along the road. I was in Mr. Johnson's Tahoe and the grass was 4-5 feet tall. I also saw lots of Monarch butterflies all over in the refuge.

There was quite a bit of fall color starting to appear. I like the way the colorful maples, oak and sumac contrast with the dark colors of the evergreens.

Just another fall color shot with native prairie grasses in the foreground.

There was just one blemish on an otherwise lovely afternoon...... For whatever reason, there are certain roads in the refuge that are open to ATV traffic, and this was one of the groups I encountered. I could go into a huge ATV rant here, but I won't because Mr. Johnson owns one and he reads this blog. Suffice it to say that I do think ATVs have a purpose--on the farm or for work-related hauling and chores, etc. However, there's no way anyone's going to convince me that the folks in this picture above were out on their ATVs to enjoy nature because #1-they were going too fast to see much of anything; #2-you can see how dusty it was--after the third rider, the rest of the riders weren't able to see anything; and #3-any wildlife you might have been able to see would be scared off by the sounds of these ATVs coming up the road. OK, 'nuff said (deep cleansing breath and back to nature)

As I was crossing one of the roads, I happened to notice a large black chunk of something down the road to my right. It kind of looked like a blown-out tire, but as I watched, it started moving. I quickly changed course and headed up the road to investigate. By the time I got there the "black chunk" was in the grass next to the road. Getting out of the truck for a closer look revealed the HUGEST snapping turtle I have ever seen. Isn't this guy a monster? There was a drainage ditch from one of the lakes that ran under this road and this large snapper must have just crawled out of there. I felt really privileged to see such a creature.

Here's a pair of Trumpeter Swans. Caitlyn told us on the morning tour that there were several pairs in the refuge. (Lifebird #224 for me!)

Great Blue Heron (juvenile)

Belted Kingfisher

Goodbye for now......thanks for the memories......please come again!

Whooping Crane Festival

I pulled out of the driveway at 5:30 this morning on my way to Necedah, Wisconsin for the 8th Annual Whooping Crane and Wildlife Festival. I got down to LaCrosse, Wisconsin around 6:30 and had the chance to capture this DWOO (driving while otherwise occupied) shot--out my speeding car window--of pre-sunrise over the Mississippi.

I arrived at the festival shortly before 8 AM.

Uh-oh, looks like there's already a pretty good crowd!

As I was walking to the entrance gate, I noticed that there was a variety of license plates (in addition to the Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois visitors you would expect).

I was able to hop aboard the 8:00 tour bus. Our trip leader was Caitlyn, who's been working at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NNWR) as an intern this summer. She's also been leading lots of other groups this year and was really knowledgeable about the whooping cranes and everything that goes into raising them here at NNWR, not to mention all the additional information she shared with us regarding the other plants and animals within the NNWR.

Hey, what's that bird over there?

That's no bird.....it's one of the ultralight aircraft that Operation Migration uses to help the whooping cranes make their migration trip to Florida. The pilots were just finishing up their early morning flight training sessions. If I had gotten an earlier start and made it on the 7:30 bus, I might have been able to see the whooping cranes flying along with this aircraft.

Could you imagine flying all the way to Florida in one of these? Caitlyn told us that the program will continue until approximately 100 whooping cranes have been raised and followed the ultralight aircraft during fall migration. She said they're currently at just over 60 whooping cranes that have been taught to migrate this way.

Here's one of the enclosures where the young whooping cranes are being raised this summer. It's in an area of the refuge where the general public isn't allowed to go, so this bus tour gave us a chance to see it when normally you wouldn't be able to. You can learn more about the whooping crane project by clicking on this link for the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership.

I did manage to catch a fleeting glimpse of one whooping crane flying. They are a striking white color--especially when you compare them to the sandhill cranes which are quite common and in some fairly large flocks within the NNWR.

This is just another view within the refuge. On our bus tour through the refuge we were treated to the sight of many red-headed woodpeckers. I've never seen so many red-headed woodpeckers in one place!

The festival had several speakers lined up throughout the morning and afternoon, but since I was anxious to get back out to the NNWR, I only stayed to listen to Keith Kennedy give a talk about nature photography. I picked up a few pointers but came away with a longing for a new camera and longer lens (yes, size does matter!)

I then visited the big tent featuring informational booths on whooping cranes and also vendors selling a variety of goods. I resisted the urge to purchase another t-shirt or sweatshirt, but couldn't resist some new whooping crane "bling" for my binocular straps and my earlobes.

It was a fun day for me, but I realized after I got to the festival that it wasn't quite what I expected. It was a festival celebrating the whooping crane and I went expecting it to be more of a birding festival. I believe I was the only person there with a spotting scope and must have looked like a total dork walking around toting all my birding gear! Caitlyn did mention that NNWR has field trips geared more towards birders where we would actually be able to visit viewing blinds and see the cranes, so next time, I'll have to check out that possibility if I want more of a "birding" experience.

Stay tuned for my next post where I'll be taking you through the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and sharing some of the amazing things I saw there on my own.