Birds
Sandhill Crane in Profile
The stately Sandhill Crane is a common sight in the farm fields of rural northeast Wisconsin during spring.
As I’m typing these notes, I can hear the loud, unmistakable call of the Sandhill Cranes interrupting the early morning silence around our rural homestead. I can’t see any, but they are out there.
This is the second of two Sandhill Cranes that appeared in my yard a couple of weeks ago. Take a look the first image and the story behind it, titled “Crane Down.”
According to Wikipedia…
The sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska’s Sandhills on the American Plains. This is the most important stopover area for the nominotypical subspecies, the lesser sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis canadensis), with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually.
Adults are gray overall; during breeding, their plumage is usually much worn and stained, particularly in the migratory populations, and looks nearly ochre. In flight, their long, dark legs trail behind, and their long necks keep straight. Immature birds have reddish-brown upperparts and gray underparts. These cranes frequently give a loud, trumpeting call that suggests a rolled “r” in the throat, and they can be heard from a long distance. Mated pairs of cranes engage in “unison calling”. The cranes stand close together, calling in a synchronized and complex duet. The female makes two calls for every one from the male.
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Crane Down
A sandhill crane seems to have found a green spot to rest. It was struggling to walk, due to some injury to its right leg and dropped to this stance for a short while.
Though sandhill cranes are plentiful in our area, I’ve had a difficult time getting a good photo of any. They are particularly shy and head for the hills whenever I attempt to get close enough for a decent photo. I spotted this one out my back window one morning as I was preparing to go to work. I could only see its head and upper body because it was behind the mound of grass it eventually rested on, as seen here.
When I first saw it, it was bobbing its head and hopping around with a flutter of its wings. It’s early spring so I thought it was some kind of mating dance going on. Of course, I ran for my camera. When I returned, it had made its way up the mound and I could see that its bob, hop and flutter was the result of some kind of painful leg injury. It was limping on it’s right leg and the herky-jerky motions, as it hobbled, to take some of the weight of its leg. After limping to this spot, at the top of the mound, its long legs buckled and it plopped into this position where it remained for several minutes. I closely looked at some of the other photos I took, while it was standing, and I didn’t notice any malady with the right leg other than the joint seemed to be larger.
When it eventually got back on its feet, it limped around a little until it reached down and ate a huge night crawler it found in the grass. A few moments later, another sandhill crane flew in and landed nearby and this one took to the air, flying off across the farm field and beyond the woods.
As I mentioned, these birds are shy – at least all the ones I’ve encountered. I was only able to get this image by shooting out the not-so-clean window of my garage. Even then, I was keeping myself hidden as much as I could; shooting at the edge of the window frame. I’m sure, if I would have attempted to get outside for a better vantage point, the bird would have been off at the slightest sound of the door opening.
I also got a few photos of the second sandhill crane that came just before this one flew away. I’ll post it sometime in the near future.
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Short-billed Dowitcher
The short-billed dowitcher is a medium-sized, stocky, shorebird in the sandpiper family (Scolopacidae). These birds are found in North America, Central America, and northern South America. This one was photographed along the western shore of Lake Michigan.
I captured this handsome character a couple of weeks ago, on an early morning excursion to Algoma, WI. I was there hoping to capture a nice sunrise alongside the lighthouse. The sunrise didn’t turn out to be the beauty I had hoped for. Thankfully, this little guy (or girl) showed up before I headed home and showed a willingness to be photographed. It’s been awhile since I last posted a bird photo.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Bluebird Family Outing
These are Eastern Bluebirds perched on a stump in our backyard. We have bluebird nest boxes at several locations around our rural home. Each spring we watch, expectantly, for them to return, build their nests and raise their young.
The three birds with the speckled plumage are the young ones. They were attracted to the stump by a treat of mealworms we offered on a regular basis. We love watching them and their progress from hatchlings to fledglings…until they head south for the winter.
Feeding them mealworms on a regular basis creates a location where I can set up my camera and capture some good images. This photo was taken with my camera on a tripod ten to 15 feet away from the stump. I was actually in my house, watching out the window, snapping the photos with a wireless remote.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Winter Convention
The geese were thick as thieves as they congregated on the December ice covering the harbor at Kewaunee, WI. These are wild, Canada geese.
The early morning light provided an interesting quality to this scene…which I enhanced further, taking a little artistic licence.
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Pheasant Profile
The colors and intricate plumage patterns found on the ring-necked pheasant make it one of the world’s most handsome birds.
I snapped this beautiful specimen last Saturday. I spotted him in the ditch along the road. This time of year, it is common to see pheasants roaming the countryside in our area or Northeast Wisconsin.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Pheasant Friends
I was driving home yesterday afternoon and I noticed a flash of color in the tall grass of the ditch along the road. I pulled my camera out of it’s case and doubled back. When I got there, these two, gorgeous, ring-necked pheasants were moving in the grass.
When I first spotted them while driving by, they may have been sparring, but now that I’m closing in they decided to head for the hills – literally.
They ducked into the very tall grasses (taller than me) that filled the ditch. I followed, crossing the muddy ditch water, hoping to get a clear enough view to snap a good shot. Beyond the tallest grass was a very steep hill. I chased them up the hill expecting them to get spooked enough by the pursuit to just fly away. They didn’t fly and I kept following.
I could usually see one or the other moving through the brush, but never in an area where I could get an unobstructed view. Finally, a little further up the hill, where the cover wasn’t so thick, I was able to snap a couple of frames. They continued to move and soon were back into thick brush, now among trees where I couldn’t follow.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame option or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Bluebird Family Brunch
This is a family of eastern bluebirds. The gal standing tall in the back (on the left) is the mother. The rest are her offspring from 2014 hatch. They’ve come together to share a mid-morning brunch of mealworms in our backyard.
This female brought two broods into the world this season.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.