My World: Crex Meadows

Welcome to this week's edition of My World.

This week I would like to feature the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area located in western Wisconsin. Crex is about an hour drive from where I live but I still manage to spend quite a bit of time there.

I usually begin my trips to Crex by stopping of at the visitors center to check and see if there have been any interesting sightings that have been reported, it also has the only restrooms with indoor plumbing in the park.

The visitors center was built in 2002 and it includes several wildlife interpretive paths. One path, which begins behind the visitors center, runs through several different habitats. If you look closely you can usually find some very interesting wildlife on the trails, like this tree frog that was on an interpretive sign.

With over 30,000 acres Crex is the largest state owned wildlife area in Wisconsin. It is made up of many different types of habitat such as sand prairie and bush prairie.

During the warmer months of the year the prairies are filled with wild flowers which attract many types of wildlife. Like this female twelve-spotted skimmer.

Butterflies are also pretty abundant especially common species like the monarch.

More uncommon species, like this Olympia marble, and even some endangered species, such as the Karner blue, can also be food in the fields and wildflowers of Crex.

The prairies are also home to a lot of mammals, such as deer, wolves and rodents, like this thirteen-lined ground squirrel.

One of the larger, and most popular, of the Crex prairie residents are the sandhill cranes. Crex has a population of these large birds typically from late March through November.

About 6000 acres, out of Crex's 30,000 acre total, are open water. This includes 4 lakes, numerous ponds and twenty-nine water flowages. Twenty-two miles of dikes run in between the flowages and the water levels are managed using thirty-four water control structures, eight miles of water transfer ditches, and a diversion pump.

All of this open water makes great habitat for waterfowl such as the common loon.

Trumpeter swans are commonly seen on the lakes and flowages of Crex.

Birds are not the only wildlife that enjoy the water features of Crex. River otters, muskrats, and beavers can be seen swimming in the waters at Crex.

Reptiles, especially turtles and frogs, also live in the Crex waters.

Dring the spring new life is abundant at Crex. Sandhill cranes are one of the species which nests in Crex. Do you know what a baby sandhill crane is called?

There are also typically a dozen or so nesting pair of trumpeter swans in Crex. Do you know what a baby swan is called?

During the fall many migrating birds stop at Crex to feed and rest. Large flocks of waterfowl, like these American coot, can be found on the lakes during the fall.

Migrating sandhill cranes also stop at Crex during their fall migration. While their numbers do not compare to those of the Platte River in Nebraska, during the spring migration, the hundreds of cranes attract birders and other visitors to crex to watch them as they take off in the morning or return to the water at night.
Crex helps the migrating water fowl and sandhills by planting agriculture crops on some of the land to provide extra food.

All of the migrating waterfowl also attract migrating raptors. Birds, like this rough-legged hawk often show up in the late fall.

Other raptors like turkey vultures and osprey, pictured above, leave the area before it gets cold.

There are some raptors that will stay all year long as long as they can get food. These would include bald eagles, red-tail hawks, and great-horned owls. If food becomes scarce even these hardy raptors will head south.

One of highlight of my life so far occurred at Crex Meadows on my birthday, August 12, 2007. This was when Michelle, my wife, and I found and rescued an injured immature eagle from Crex. Rescuing the bird was a thrill for me but it got even better when I got to release the bird six months later after it was patched up at The Raptor Center. If you would like to read the whole story check out these posts.