Late Winter Birding Drive

After what seemed to be a fairly mild winter earlier in the season, February and March have decided to make up for the winter snows and  weather we didn't receive in December & January.  The winter blues are really starting to set in so a couple weeks ago, we decided to take advantage of a sunny Sunday afternoon to go for a birding drive (with a stop at the yarn store, of course).  It's a good thing my favorite yarn store is in Winona & right on the Mississippi River as that gives us a good excuse to take my favorite birding drive through the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area for waterfowl viewing and then up the river road on the way home for eagle watching.  Here are some of the pictorial highlights from our Sunday afternoon drive......

A pair of Tundra Swans have spent the winter again in the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area. They were in exactly the same area as last winter.  Pretty cool!

There were some ducks in this little patch of open water also.  I was excited to see this Northern Pintail as it's been quite a few years since I've seen one.

Driving along the Whitewater River I saw these tracks along the riverbank.  I was thinking they were probably made by otters.  What do you think?

As we were driving past this one little patch of open water, I was scanning for waterfowl when something dark caught my eye in the ditch.  "Back up," I ordered Mr. Johnson.  As we were backing up, I got my camera ready and started snapping pictures as soon as we got past this little critter.  Once I got home and started editing the photos, I was able to ID this furry little creature as a Mink.  Woo-Hoo!  I've never seen one in the wild before and felt extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

Farther down the road we spotted a large hawk perched in the top of a tree, thinking it was maybe another of the numerous red-tails we'd been seeing all afternoon, I got out of the car and started walking towards the tree with my camera ready for a possible flight shot.  The raptor didn't disappoint me.  I was even happier when I was reviewing my shots and found out this wasn't a red-tailed hawk at all, but a Rough-Legged Hawk who only visits Minnesota in the winter!

Down in Winona, there was a small patch of open water on one of their lakes going in to town.  We stopped there to see if there might be any interesting waterfowl besides the usual mallards and Giant Canada Geese and there was!  Here are several nice Canvasbacks, plus a Lesser Scaup.

I was really surprised to see a Coot hanging out with these ducks too.  Then I read a birding report later in the week indicating that some of these ducks are already starting their spring migration.  I'm glad they decided to hang out at this nice spot in Winona on the day of my visit!

There were even some pretty interesting looking mallards mixed with the regular ones.  Obvious there's been some duck hanky-panky going on here!

The mallard hen seemed pretty happy with her dapper looking, multi-colored mate.  And I was happy with how nicely they posed for my camera!

It was getting late in the afternoon and close to sundown by the time we finally started up the river road towards home, so the light wasn't the best for pictures anymore, but I did manage to get this one shot of an eagle fishing for its supper in the Mississippi.  There were so many eagles in this area, but most of them were hanging out on the ice at the far side of the open water, and beyond the adequate focus reach of my 300 mm camera lens.

Train tracks also run parallel to the river road, and we usually see at least one train.  This day's train was a long one and the engines were working pretty hard to get all the cars up this gradual incline. 

And of course, Holly had a great time.  Even though the temps were only in the 20s, we were going slow enough that she was able to have her head out the window.  She loves the wind in her face and being able to smell all the wild things outside.

I see by my ticker at the top of this blog that there's only a few days until the first day of spring.  Hard to believe it this year, especially with the 20+ inches of snow we've already received in March and much more predicted for the next week.  I'll be very happy when spring weather and birds finally arrive this year!

Early Spring Birding

It looks and sounds like spring has certainly arrived early in Minnesota this year -- after a record-breaking mild winter. We took advantage of nice weather the past two Sundays to drive around southeastern Minnesota and see what kinds of early migrants we could spot. Last Sunday, we were super fortunate to find this beautiful Bald Eagle perched in a tree right along the Mississippi River near downtown Wabasha. I was able to get out of the car and walk right up to this magnificent raptor and he didn't even budge. How lucky was that?

(Sorry, I love this eagle photo so much, I'm making you look at it in another blog post!)

Driving through the Whitewater State Park Wildlife Management Area, I also spotted the first Killdeer of 2012. Glancing down along the river bank, at first I thought this was a bit of trash, but when we stopped and got binocs on it, we could definitely see that it was a shorebird of some kind. A quick glance in the field guide confirmed Killdeer by the two dark breast bands.

This afternoon, we loaded Holly up in the car to drive around the Rochester area and see what we could find. We managed to finally see our first wild turkeys of 2012 and also several Eastern Bluebirds who declined to be photographed. We again saw several Bald Eagles and I managed to get one decent shot during a fly-over. I never get tired of seeing these raptors flying around.
The warm weather and strong southerly winds of the past few days have helped get lots of the ice out on ponds and lakes in the area. We headed out to the landfill reservoir west of Rochester where we had found some good waterfowl last year. It was a wise choice again this spring. As we were walking up to the reservoir, we could see plenty of waterfowl flying in to land. Check it out! These are mostly Greater White-Fronted Geese with a few Snow Geese in the mix too.

Here's some more! The ice was mostly out on this reservoir, at least all around the edges. There was still some in the middle and many of these geese (including some of Rochester's Giant Canada Geese) were just hanging out on the ice.

Before heading for home, we drove around to the other side of this reservoir to see if we could get a closer look from that side. There were more ducks over on this side, including this little group of American Coots.

Here's one look at the ducks. My duck ID skills aren't the best, but through my spotting scope, I managed to see and ID several species, including Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Mallards, Green Winged Teals, Ringnecked Ducks, and Canvasbacks. I'm sure there were others I missed, but that will give me a reason to head back to this reservoir on another warm spring day.......

There were also several Trumpeter Swans on this reservoir. You can see two of them in this photo below. (BTW, remember you can click on any of these photos to make them bigger!)

Here's another look at all the Greater White Fronted Geese with some other ducks and geese mixed in. See that white one over to the left? That's the white adult Snow Goose. (I think the white bird over to the right is a gull.)

One last stop before heading for home was the County 9 Wetlands just east of Rochester. That lake was still mostly covered with ice, so nothing really noteworthy there except for the juvenile Bald Eagle that flew from a dead tree nearby. You can tell that the geese were not at all concerned with this eagle's presence. And see the houses right in the background? Sadly, the City of Rochester is rapidly encroaching on more wildlife areas.

I hope all of you are enjoying some early spring weather and chances to get outside and see who's flying into your area! Have a good week!

A Visit to Crex Meadows

Since I've been such a poor blogger of late, I've decided to make this my grand finale post of 2010. Please join me on this wonderful pictorial (and video) journey to Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. This visit took place on November 6, 2010 during the Sandhill Crane migration. Since a spring visit to the Platte River is not in my immediate future, the next best place for witnessing the Sandhill Crane migration is Crex Meadows in the fall. And the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area is really easy to find......just follow the goose!

See, it's right there on the road -- you can't miss it! (I was really glad it was just a painted goose though)

Turn right, then left, and you're there!

Be sure to watch for Trumpeter Swans along the way. I was thrilled to see them on the small river running right through town.

with their youngsters too!

We were a bit too late getting going to see the early morning Sandhill Crane departure, but we decided to do a drive around the entire park and try to catch some of the later departing cranes and any other waterfowl that might be hanging around. As you can see, it's a paradise for waterfowl.

While taking these photographs, I was lucky enough to capture this video of a Trumpeter Swan flyover. (In case you're wondering, that's the sound of Sandhill Cranes in the background!)

Farther down the road, we did spot a couple of Sandhill Cranes still hanging around in the marsh.

The Crex Meadows Wildlife Area does allow hunting for deer and waterfowl. In my opinion, if you're a responsible goose hunter, you should be smart enough to know the difference between a Snow Goose and a Trumpeter Swan, but apparently the Wisconsin DNR doesn't want to make any erroneous assumptions regarding the intelligence of their licensed waterfowl hunters.......

In addition to wetlands, there's also some beautiful prairie and oak savannah areas within the park.

Sophie got to go along with us on this trip and we were glad to be able to bring her -- especially after almost losing her earlier this summer. I was really happy that one of the motels in Grantsburg allowed pets for a mere $10 extra on our room price. I think Sophie had a good time too.

You can click on this photo to enlarge it for reading the Crex Meadows story on this sign.

Another view of a large pond in the oak savannah area. Can you see what appears to be a stick pointing up from the lake just to the left of center in this picture? I had to get the binoculars out for this one.

Fortunately I was able to maximize the zoom on my camera to get this shot.......I believe it's an Osprey nesting platform, but the really cool thing was that there were 2 Bald Eagles sitting on the platform!

Driving further down the road, we were lucky enough to spot this Northern Shrike just hanging out on a small tree in the ditch. It's always a good year when I get to see and photograph both species of shrikes.

This is one of the drainage ditches in the park.

After completing the auto tour of the park, we headed back to the visitor's interpretive center.

I believe this is a fairly new center for them and it was really neat inside. There was this big diorama featuring the wildlife, birds, and plants that are commonly found in the park. It was really nice to hear all the spring and summer bird calls and sounds of the park. Except for the Sandhill Cranes, there were almost no bird calls to be heard this time of year.

I'm looking forward to going back for visits next spring and summer.

They had a bunch of taxidermist mounts of waterfowl in the interpretive center but my photos of those didn't turn out. They also had this large wolf on display. I guess there are bear and wolves in the park, but we weren't lucky enough to see any during our visit.

Outside the interpretive center, there was a hiking trail loop, so while Mr. Johnson toured the center, Sophie and I decided to take a hike through the woods........

out to the boardwalk........

and across the marsh.........

to the viewing platform at the end of the trail. What a beautiful view!

From all directions!

Walking back through the woods, I noticed these plants growing close to the ground. Maybe some kind of moss? I don't have a field guide to moss and I was too lazy to look it up, so if someone can ID these plants, please feel free to leave a comment telling us what they are. Thanks!

This plant had a few remaining red berries that the birds hadn't devoured yet.

While were at the visitor's center, we met another couple who were in town to see the Sandhill Cranes. They told us that if we really wanted to see lots of cranes we should head south of Grantsburg and drive some back roads past farm fields. Because almost all of the corn had been harvested, this is where the cranes tended to hang out during the day, foraging for food to prepare themselves for their long migratory flight to Texas and New Mexico. We were grateful to them for this tip because it provided us with the best Sandhill Crane viewing of the day. They are truly magnificent birds and we were just so thrilled at being able to see these huge numbers of birds up close. They're magnificent in flight!

Especially against the background of a beautiful autumn blue sky.
They were extremely watchful when on the ground, much like Wild Turkeys. We were able to stop the car and take photos, but they kept a close eye on us.

I hope their wariness works to their advantage when the Wisconsin DNR decides to institute a fall Sandhill Crane hunt (yes, they're talking about it pretty seriously -- taking their cue from Minnesota, I'm sure!)

I was amazed at the sheer numbers of cranes in this field. I've never seen this many together in my life!

It was cool to see some of them "dancing." They are quite graceful for such a large bird. And the sound of their calls of this many birds was magical.

I'll finish this post with one more video of the Sandhill Cranes.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year full of good health and good birds!