Another coronocruise to check out a wild life refuge. Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge a wet land about 3 hours north of us up in Idaho. A beautiful day well worth the drive. We saw a wonderful assortment of birds, the sounds of the Sandhill Cranes were joyous. Our big treat was when we were heading down the west side of the marsh and we came across a great herd of elk!
Heading north for some bird watching I spied porch full of potential Art-o-mats sitting on the porch of dilapidated building in the tiny town of Bennington,ID. One has to wonder where they all came from and why they are there! What a great reminder that it is time to send in my latest submission.
And a second travel treat, spying the nest of a Red Tail Hawk, in very viewable spot!
Last Sunday morning at 11 Shin said to me... "I think we have a window. If we leave now we can get to Kearney and have a day of good weather. Are you game?" We'd been watching the weather for a break in storms so we could cross Wyoming and Nebraska and have decent Sandhill Crane viewing weather. Game I was, so by noonish we were in the car heading east. Made it to North Platte on Sunday, then over to Kearney very early on Monday. Spent the day and evening finding all the birdy places, got up for the dawn bird viewing on Tuesday, then headed back home, with a small detour so I could see a little of my old Sandhills stomping grounds.
For those that aren't familiar, the Sandhill Crane migration is one of earth's major animal migrations. During March, 80% of the world's Sandhill Cranes (over 500,000 birds) enroute from the south (Mexico, New Mexico, Texas etc.) to their breeding grounds in the north (Alaska, Canada, Siberia), spend a month on a section of North Platte River fattening themselves up for the journey. At night they all converge to roost in the shallows of the river, at daybreak they fly off to forage in surrounding corn fields, then return again at night.
I'm a bit under equipped lens wise for good bird pics, but even if I had that long lens to better capture close up birds, close ups don't show the sheer number of birds in the water and in the sky. During the nightly fly-in you'd really need some sort of 360' virtual reality gear to capture the experience; birds flocking in from left, from the right, from behind, squawking in every direction. You also need audio, as the cacophony of calling cranes is an experience in itself. Even daytime corn field foraging birds were amazing, Sandhill Cranes are big 'displayers' and do a lot of 'happy dancing' so they are really fun to watch.
I know most folks don't think of Nebraska as a spring break destination, but if you're at all a nature lover, biology geek, or nerdy birdy type you should put spring in Nebraska on your bucket list!
A few pictures are in my facebook album Off to see the cranes
Not much adverturing in my life lately, unless you count the downhill ski adventures at Alta. President's Day Weekend was a small exception, as after 3 days in a row of skiing... and the reminder that I'm out of shape... day 3 my legs could really feel it, we headed up north to the hot springs.
Since we were way up there we decided to check out the 'Happy Place' - Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. We did not get to see much, as the road was closed a few miles off of the highway due to flooding. There are spots along the road with signs say not to cross when flooded, but in all the years I've been visiting the refuge there has never been water anywhere near those spots, though when I first moved to Utah in the '80s the refuge had flooded so badly for so long the visitor center had to be relocated to it's current location. This may be the year where we are finally leaving the drought behind, maybe the Great Salt Lake will begin to fill again but hopefully not so much that the refuge becomes inaccessible to us bird nerds. A local birder/photographer documented the current flooding on his blog it is strange to see places normally high and dry so waterlogged.
But even without getting out the auto loop, we had a nice birdy moment watching a large flock of murmurating blackbirds. It is so fascinating to watch so many birds fly in such a synchronous manner.
Another trip to the Spiral Jetty... what a cool place. We didn't let bad weather spoil our adventure, and as it turns out, the incoming storm sure made for some nice skies and rain puddles nicely decorated the dry lake bed. We had a surprise encounter with a Great Horned Owl too. Every visit to the jetty is different and interesting.
Funny to find this lone office chair sitting here, it's always interesting what you will find out in the desert. The view from the chait was pretty spectacular!
A favorite of my friend April, a self ascribed jetty junky, walking the salty, rain puddled, lake bottom. As April likes to point out, the cool thing about visiting the jetty is that is different every time. Sunday was no exception... I love the surreal quality of this shot.
I was trying to capture the water's amazing pink hue... pink because the high salinity of this end of lake allows the growth of interesting microbes that don't grow on the more dilute south side of the railroad causeway. What an interesting ecosystem the Great Salt Lake is.
I flushed this owl from a distance of about 6 feet, not once, but twice. The second time he dropped a dead rabbit and flew to this perch along the shore... I followed him to try get a picture... Of course with him watching I couldn't get too close, but I did snap a few and with the wonders of digital photography was able to crop in for a nice look at this magnificent Great Horned Owl.
