Sandhill Cranes

My buddy, Carroll, and I agreed that it was time for a road trip. The Sandhill Cranes were reportedly in residence at Wheeler Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama, so that became our destination. We arrived at 9am, which was perfect as the sun rose over the treeline illuminating the wetlands beyond.

We saw them flying high overhead toward the fields so we hastened down the path to the observation building. Silently approaching our ears were treated to their unusual trumpeting which is described as deep, rolling trumpet and rattling. Once you hear it you'll never forget it. Carroll and I stopped, overwhelmed by the beauty of the sound around us and we both had tears streaming down our faces. We've been dreaming of this moment and were overwhelmed by the gift. Entering the observation building and heading straight to the glassed walls we stopped, dumbfounded at the sight beyond. Across the wetlands in every field standing in every range of our vision stood hundreds and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes. Their trumpeting and calls were so loud we could clearly hear them though the glass.

These birds are quite large, with wingspan of up to 80 inches, or close to 7 feet. Their red foreheads could be clearly seen, and there were a lot of juveniles as well. They mate for life and can live up to the age of 20. These are tall, gray birds of open grasslands, meadows and wetlands who tend to migrate south as a group. Their summer range is Alaska and Canada, eastward to western Quebec and southward to northern United States. They reside as well in Florida and Cuba. We are fortunate enough to have them winter here at Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. The common name of the bird references habitat like that at the Platte River on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills in the Midwest.

They are omnivorous, eating grains, seeds and berries, some insects and even some invertebrates and small vertebrates. Fields are prepared here for migrating birds within the refuge. Their habitat is open marshes or bogs, and in wet grasslands and meadows, and nests tends to be either a large mound of vegetation floating or attached to vegetation or a scooped out area in the ground, lined with grasses. The young are called "colts."

But enough of that. All those facts came from the Cornell and Wikipedia sites, so please check them out if you're interested to know more. For me and Carroll, our pleasure came from listening to their beautiful trumpeting sounds and watching them in flight. We dubbed them the Botti Birds after our favorite trumpeter, Chris Botti. I'm sure he'd be pleased to know that!

There we other birds milling about with the Sandhill Cranes yesterday. Northern Shovelers and Common Goldeneyes and the ubiquitous Mallards were everywhere. Lots of gulls and doves were also flying about. Yesterday's temperature was in the low 60's, sunny and calm. The birds were everywhere. We left the WWR happy and content in the knowledge that we finally saw our Sandhill Cranes. Today, I took my mom to see them as she loves cranes of all kinds. I'll update the blog with those photos maybe tomorrow. In all, I took over 300 photos but only a few are okay. The birds were pretty far away.

Oh! The husband changed my computer around, adding a third monitor and updating some software. While I am completely grateful that he did so all three monitors need to be color calibrated - each one is slightly different. One is too pale, one has a greenish tint and the other has a grayish tint. All that to say I processed these photos as best I could so let me know if they look okay. If so, I'll know which monitor is the best until such time as corrections can be made. Many thanks!

New Year...New Look

As much as I loved my banner and the clean white slate I was frankly boring myself. While recuperating from the hustle and bustle and lovely noise and busyness of the holiday, I am indulging myself with play. Playing on the blogs, reading books, listening to music, quietly rejoicing Life with as little effort as possible. Time to freshen this puppy up. Blue. Quiet, calm, peaceful, Zen. Reminds me of the beautiful blue-green Tree Swallows that delight me so.

I've been fortunate enough to see them twice during migration, but only once did I photograph them. They swooped through our yard and settled into a field across the street, diving and foraging among the weeds. They dove and hopped and rustled through the grass obviously after something specific, but I couldn't determine just what. They were only there about 5 minutes before lifting en mass and moving eastward in a blue-green swirling dervish. They flew all around me, not bothered by my presence. Cornell says their ability to use plant foods help them survive periods of bad weather. Maybe they were picking up some yummy seeds. Normally, they catch insects in flight and nibble berries.

Cornell also states that outside of the breeding season the Tree Swallow congregates into enormous flocks and night roosts, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands. They gather about an hour before sunset at a roost site, forming a dense cloud. They swirl around like a living tornado and as darkness approaches they then wheel low over the cattail marsh or grove of small trees. Large numbers drop down into the roost with each pass of the flock until the flock disappears.

The Tree Swallow uses many feathers from other birds, usually waterfowl, in its nest. The feathers help keep the nestlings warm so they can grow faster. They help keep levels of ectoparasites, like mites, low too. They normally nest in tree cavities or nest boxes. Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a NestCam which occasionally highlights Tree Swallows but today, the NestCam is showing Barn Owls. You can link to Cornell Lab of Ornithology's blog, Round Robin, to the right under Nature & Photography Blogs.

Happy birding!

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons. It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

~Dr. Seuss

My wish for each of you this season is the warmth of family,

the joy of friendships, and the magic of the holidays.

Be safe.

GHT

Self Explanatory

Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own. ~Logan Pearsall Smith, "Age and Death," Afterthoughts, 1931

Adolescence is perhaps nature's way of preparing parents to welcome the empty nest. ~Karen Savage and Patricia Adams, The Good Stepmother

Mother Nature is providential. She gives us twelve years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers. ~William Galvin

The best substitute for experience is being sixteen. ~Raymond Duncan

Violet will be a good color for hair at just about the same time that brunette becomes a good color for flowers. ~Fran Lebowitz

There's nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won't cure. ~Dan Bennett

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. ~Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874

I've been told that the average child's brain doesn't fully mature until they reach the age of 25. Let's hope that she and I both live to see that milestone.

Mourning Dove

Mourning Doves are quite common, yet however common they are I'm still drawn to their mournful call which, to me, is soothing and comfortable. This time of the year they tend to congregate in canopies of bare trees, seemingly like ornaments dotted here and there. Doves are frequent visitors to our feeder and always drives Baylee crazy.

Cornell gives some cool facts about these birds. Seems during nest building the female stays at the nest and the male collects sticks, standing on her back to present the nesting material to her. She in turns take the material and weaves it into the nest. She normally lays 2 eggs and may have up to five or six clutches in a single year. The male usually incubates from midmorning until late afternoon and the female sits the rest of the day and night.

These beautiful birds are plentiful, being the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. There are dove hunts here, of course, as in all part of North America yet the Mourning Dove remains among the 10 most abundant birds in the US. These birds remain close to my heart with their whistling wings and sudden bursts into flight, and their feathers are so beautiful.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Mourning_Dove.html