Weekend at Crex Meadows

On the last weekend of October, we took a trip to Crex Meadows Wildlife Area near Grantsburg, Wisconsin to catch the Sandhill Crane migration. We left early Saturday morning so we could be there in time to see sunset arrival cranes at their nighttime roosting areas in the refuge. We got there early enough to take a drive through the park and observe some other birds. At one area where we stopped, we got to see some Trumpeter Swans.

Trumpeter Swans can be seen at Crex most of the year (except winter), so we felt fortunate to be able to see them this close before their migration to warmer climes.

Holly isn't much of a bird dog, but she kept my seat warm in the car while I was out taking pictures!

About an hour before sunset, the cranes started arriving. We were at the wrong part of the refuge for the first part of this, but after driving around a bit more and seeing where all the other cars were parked, we did manage to catch quite a few of the cranes still arriving before it was too dark.

There were cranes everywhere! Here with "landing gear" down......

A group of cranes takes a walk across the marsh.

Here's a nice shot of a large flock in silhouette against the twilight sky. It's magical so see and hear so many Sandhill Cranes at one time!

Sunday morning brought another chilly and cloudy day, but we did head back out to Crex before the rain moved in. We saw a few more cranes and some waterfowl, but the biggest thrill for me was this flyover of a first year Rough-Legged Hawk.

I felt privileged to be able to capture these shots of this beautiful raptor who had made its migration journey all the way south to Wisconsin after being hatched earlier this year somewhere near the Arctic Circle.

Be sure to add Crex Meadows Wildlife Area and to your birding "must see" list on your next visit to Wisconsin!

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!

Sunday Birds

I got this suet feeder last weekend at the Sax-Zim Bog birding festival. It's a little chunk of a cedar log with a hollow center. The Boy Scouts were selling them for $1 and if that's not a heckuva deal, I don't know what is! I stuffed it full of suet on Tuesday morning and hung it out on a hook off the deck. I've been keeping an eye on it but haven't noticed any activity at this new suet feeder until this morning. We were at the dining room table eating our breakfast pancakes and watched this little female Downy Woodpecker cautiously approach and then fly over to sample some suet.
It wasn't more than 10 minutes later and a male Downy showed up to try out the new feeder too.

Later in the morning we took of for another birding trip to the Mississippi. I'm still trying to check the Long-Tailed Duck off my list and was hoping that the ones that had been seen down there last weekend were still hanging around. Unfortunately, there were almost no ducks to be seen anywhere on the open channels of the Mississippi, but our disappointment was only temporary because once again there were plenty of Bald Eagles for our viewing pleasure. This one perched really nicely right at the edge of a scenic pull-out along Highway 61.

A little farther down the road we pulled out at Reads Landing where we had seen ducks and swans a few weeks ago. We saw only a small flock of mallards, but the swans were still there. We counted about 20.

Aren't they beautiful?

After checking out the open water near the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, we crossed the bridge to Wisconsin and followed the river road south from Nelson. Again, there was a surprising lack of waterfowl on the river, but we did get a good look at some longbeards pecking some grit along the edge of the road.

It's only 2 months now until our spring turkey hunting season and I sure hope we see some nice birds like this when we're out there (I also hope the snow's gone by then too!)