It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and I had the day off, so I opted to head out to Quivira and see if I could spot any early-arriving migrants such as the sandhill crane. Well, I didn’t see any cranes, and my overall “luck” was pretty poor Friday afternoon/early evening. I did spot a couple Great Blue Herons, and I managed to get an interested landscape shot of a GBH in silhouette that I liked. Only about a handfull of keepers from this trip, which is somewhat dissapointing. The geese on Big Salt Marsh just weren’t moving much and were clear on the other side on the west end of the marsh which is farther from the road, plus with the sun setting in the west-southwest, it makes for horrible lighting. There may have been a couple Cranes in that huge bunch but I didn’t spot any. After visiting Bosque NWR last month, I’m finding myself missing the cranes. I have a feeling I may have to head up to the Platte Valley sometime in March….where almost a half a million cranes spend about 5 weeks between North Platte and Grand Island along the Platte.
One thing that is very fun to photograph I’m finding are the swarms of Blackbirds and Starling. I wasn’t dissapointed yesterday evening. As sunset approaches, red-winged blackbirds begin to congregate into massive flocks and just roost about anywhere… tree limbs, the tall prairie grass, or even a gravel road! I was driving north on the main refuge route when I encountered one such flock of blackbirds. What strange birds. Anyway, I think tomorrow morning I may get up very early and head out to Quivira for morning photography before bowling in a tournament later in the morning in Great Bend. (edited to correct mis-identification of this bird!)
Hey Mike, That bottom photo looks like something out of a Hitchcock movie! Are those the birds that fly in the tight flocks that I’ve seen out there in KS from time to time?
Comment by Verne Carlson — February 26, 2006 @ 9:17 pm
Hey Verne.. I have to correct my blog, because these are NOT starling, they are red-winged blackbirds. Either these blackbirds or European Starlings are very common out in the open rural areas on the Plains. These are the birds you see flocking in funky vortex-shaped patterns sometimes… you will usually see this behavior around sunset and sunrise. It’s fun to watch… I need to get these birds on video sometimes. There are a *ton* of them that roost on the tall grass that surround Big Salt Marsh at Quivira NWR. Combine that with all the geese that roost on this marsh, it makes for fun birdscapes at sunrise and sunset
Comment by Mike U — February 27, 2006 @ 11:09 am