Rowe Sanctuary

 

At the beginning of April I decided to take a short trip down to Nebraska to see the sandhill cranes. I had already been offered a job but since it took a while for the background check, drug test and all of the paper work to go through I decided it was the perfect time to head down to the Rowe Sanctuary. It had been many years since I last visited the sanctuary, I was still shooting film at the time, and typically the timing never seemed to work out. Either we were vacationing down south in late winter or we were heading to Yellowstone in May, either way it would be difficult to get away so close to another vacation. Since I was not starting work for another week I decided it would be a perfect time to go. 

The Rowe Sanctuary is an Audubon sanctuary located in central Nebraska. It consists of 1900 acres of river channel, wet meadows and agricultural land along the Platte River. It is named for Lillian Annette Rowe who financed teh initial purchase of 782 acres back in 1974 to help protect the habitat for migrating cranes.

 It is necessary to protect this part of the Platte River because it is the main resting spot for cranes migrating back north across the central flyway. Each year approximately 600,000 or more cranes stop at the Platte between mid February and mid April. This includes about 80% of the worlds population of lesser sandhill cranes. It also includes a good number of greater sandhill cranes and many other birds. The weekend I was there we saw a pair of endangered whooping cranes mixed in with the sandhills.

The reason why they stop at this location is because the Platte is a shallow river with many sandbars. During the day the cranes venture through the bordering fields eating any left over grains. Since cranes do not have feet that allow them to perch in trees they spend the night standing in the shallow water of the Platte. The shallow waters act as an alarm to let them know if an terrestrial predators may be around. Each morning the cranes rise up from the river giving visitors a spectacular show only to return each night for an encore.

Seven Years

 This Tuesday will mark the seventh year anniversary of the Ecobirder blog. I began the blog on Earth Day in 2007. In October of the 2007 I began as a volunteer at The Raptor Center. At first I began as on the Transport Crew. These are the people that go out to pick up injured birds. As a part of the Transport Crew I was happy that I was helping The Raptor Center fulfill their important mission but since I was only at TRC when I was dropping of a bird I did not feel like I was as involved as I wanted to be.

 So I asked the Volunteer Coordinator if I could come into the center and help out during my transport shift. So they agreed to let me become a lobby assistant on Wednesday afternoon. The lobby assistants job is to greet visitors when they arrive and help out with the office administration. This was definitely a step in the right direction but I was still not completely satisfied. So I started bugging the staff and with in a couple of months I was able to worm my way on to the Education Crew.

 When you begin on the education crew you spend most of your time cleaning. You clean the crates, you clean the mews and you clean the dishes. That is because one of the primary jobs of the ed crew is to take care of our 30+ education birds. The other primary job of the ed crew is to help educate the public about raptors and TRC. Eventually after training you get to begin interacting with the public by doing tours. Since I already knew a lot about raptors, after all I had been photographing them for about 20 years before beginning at TRC, it did not take me long to start giving tours. Eventually after a year in education I auditioned and began being trained as a handler.

Handlers use many of the techniques of falconry to work with the birds. Handlers are responsible for doing programs for the public and private groups. They also help the staff reinforce positive behaviors by feeding the birds while they have them on the glove. The photos above are just 3 of the birds that I have handled over the past 5 years. Handling is one of the most rewarding experiences at The Raptor Center. Another rewarding experience is the occasional opportunity to release an eagle. This winter we had a lot of snow which made it very difficult for the Flight Crew to take the eagles out for their final practice flights. So as the snow melted we had a good number of eagles that were ready to be released. Since I had not released one since February of 2008 I had the opportunity to release this very handsome male at the Carpenter Nature Center at the beginning of April. My friend Les, who is a great photographer and a member of the Wednesday afternoon ed crew photographed the release for me. The other photos where taken by my old crew leader and TRC staffer Kelly Scott.

Peregrine Nest Box at the Ford Dam

Like most areas east of the Mississippi the peregrine falcon population was wiped out by DDT. DDT was a chemical insecticide that was originally used to kill mosquitoes that were spreading malaria back in the 1950's. Once Malaria was no longer a threat in the US DDT was used as an insecticide on crops. The DDT did not affect the adult birds, instead it made their egg shells very thin. So when the peregrines were incubating the eggs they would break and so there were very few birds that were being hatched. By the time DDT was banned in 1972 there were very few falcons left in the eastern half of the continent. In the 1980's the Midwest Peregrine Fund began releasing peregrine chicks that they procured from falconers in Minnesota. Initially they tried to release them in the cliff areas of the southern Mississippi River Valley. When that did not work they began to release them from sky scrapers. The release programs worked so well that the peregrine falcon was removed from the endangered species list in 1999. Here in Minnesota we actually have more nesting pair then we did prior to DDT because we created a variety of man-made nesting locations ( buildings, bridges, smoke stacks ) that increased the amount of nesting territories in the state. 

One of the best nesting spots for people to actually view the young falcons is at Dam Number 1, often referred to as the Ford Dam. The nesting box is not much higher then the observation platform for the dam which gives falcon watchers a birds eye view. Today while I watched the two chicks in the nest were not very hungry so mom decided to take the food and eat it herself. Shortly later the male falcon made an error coming out of the box and he missed the perch and ended up on a ledge below. Fortunately he did not appear to be hurt. He is away from predators and the parents will keep an eye on him and feed him on the ledge but there is very little shade. Hopefully he will be flying soon and will be better off for this ittle adventure.       

Tower Falls

On the northeast side of Yellowstone National Park, Tower Creak plunges 132 feet on its way to converge with the Yellowstone River. Tower Falls was named by Samuel Hauser, a member of the Washburn  Expedition, in 1870. He named it Tower Falls after the rock pinnacles that surround the top of the falls.

Lower Falls

The lower falls is the larger section of the two part Yellowstone Falls. The Yellowstone River leaves Yellowstone Lake and heads north. It wonders through the Hayden valley and then plunges 109 feet over the Upper falls. It travels another quarter of a mile and then it plunges another 308 feet down into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. At over 300 feet it is almost twice as high as Niagara Falls. It was named in 1869 by the Cook, Folsom, Peterson Expedition.

Emerald Pool

Yellowstone has more geological features that any where else in the world. A great deal of the park is on top of the Yellowstone Caldera. This is a hot spot with molten rock rises toward the surface. This is one of the things that makes Yellowstone such a wondrous place. The emerald pool is one of the geological features that is found in the Black Sand Basin which is near Old Faithful.

Lamar Valley

The Lamar Valley is a long valley that sits in between flowing hills on the northeast side of Yellowstone National Park. The valley follows the Lamar River from which it got its name. Another name that you often here for Lamar is the Serengeti of North America. The wide open valley is frequently home to herds of bison and pronghorn. Dear and big horn sheep are often found along its peripherals along with the occasional moose. Fox, coyote, badgers, ground squirrels and other smaller mammals scurry through the grass and sage while golden eagles, red-tailed hawk, osprey and other birds of prey circle in the sky above. The creatures that you see most frequently is the wild life watcher. People with their large scopes hoping to get a quick glance of one of the elusive wolves. Lamar was good to us this year especially on our last day in the park. We did not get to see any wolves but this large grizzly crossed the road near where we were parked. Yellowstone is one of the few places south of Canada where you can see a grizzly. In 1975 the grizzly bear was listed as a threatened species in the lower 48 states. Extensive hunting and habitat loss decimated a population that once stretched from Alaska to Mexico. Yellowstone was listed as one of six recovery areas for the species. In 1975 the Yellowstone grizzly population was estimated at 136 bears that occupied a territory of about 5 million acres. By 210 the population had increased to 602 occupying 14 million acres. While the Yellowstone numbers are hopeful they account for over half of the estimated grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states. Grizzly bears require a good deal of territory to roam and as a predator they are often misunderstood and maligned by people who make a living raising livestock in the region.     

Yellowstone Bison

 Yellowstone is the only place in the lower 48 states of the US where bison have roamed continually. Over 3000 bison roam the park. They are divided into two group or herds, the northern herd and the Hayden Valley or central herd. The Yellowstone bison are pure bison with no cattle genes. They are descendant from the small herd that continued on and was protected in Yellowstone.

Old Faithful

The most iconic landmark in Yellowstone is Old Faithful. We usually stop by Old Faithful when we are at Yellowstone to photograph the birds that hang around but since there was a little bit of blue sky this year I took a couple of pics. Old Faithful was named by the Washburn Expedition in 1870. It is the most predictable large geyser in the world, erupting around every 90 minutes. This interval has increased over the years due to seismic activity and people throwing junk inside of the geyser cone. Eruptions last between 1.5 to 5 minutes with the boiling water spraying to a height of 185 feet. This particular eruption was not a very large one with more steam then water.

Yellowstone National Park

 Michelle and I spent the last week driving around Yellowstone photographing wildlife. The weather was really a mixed bag. Things started out gray and snowy and I was worried that we would have a lackluster trip but the weather cleared up, at least for a few days, and the wildlife viewing was good. I took this shot one morning while we were on our way out to Lamar Valley. There were 3 bull elk feeding on grass in Gibbon Meadows. You can probably expect to see some more Yellowstone pics for the near future.

Butterfly Hunting at Crex Meadows

Crex Meadows in west central Wisconsin is a great place to go to find and photograph some unusual early season butterflies. Last year I went on a butterfly excursion with a local butterfly expert. I have been photographing butterflies for years but have concentrated more on my odes then on lepidoptera.

I had photographed butterflies at Crex before. This was primarily in the middle of summer when the fields are full of wild flowers and orange and black fritillaries and monarchs and yellow sulphurs are all over the place.Going out in early may with someone who knows where to look offered me an opportunity to photograph some species that I had not in the past. I had photographed Olympia marbled, first pic, in the past but it was my first time photographing any species of elfin butterfly. We found 3 different species of elfins that day, the most common was the eastern pine elfin which is pictured above, This year the cold weather pushed the dates of the butterfly trip back to the end of May and unfortunately I was not able to attend but I am hoping to get back out there next year.

Warbler Wave Crashes on Crosby Park

Well the wave of warblers that I have been hoping for this past month finally hit this weekend. Even though it was a bit chilly it was sunny and the warblers were out in force. It was a perfect weekend for photography. Because of our late winter the trees are just starting to leaf out which makes photographing these tiny little birds a lot easier.

The last time that we had a warbler wave was back in 2011. During that wave I photographed many of the different species at the Minnesota Valley Refuge and Crosby Farm Park. So on Friday, after I left work, I headed over to Crosby. The woods were thick with the common warblers, yellow-rump, palm, black and white and yellow, but I also managed to find some of the sexy warblers, like magnolia, black-throated green, Wilsons, blackburnian and more. Crosby is an excellent location to find warblers during spring migration because much of the park is wooded flood plain which is excellent habitat for wood warblers. The park is also along the Mississippi River which is the path that the warblers in this area take to migrate, the Mississippi flyway.

Denali

Back in 2001 Michelle and I took a trip to Alaska. It was awesome. The scenery and the wildlife was absolutely amazing. We spent 3 days on the tour bus in Denali National Park. During the time that we were the there, most of the mountain was covered by the clouds. Since Denali is the largest mountain in pure mass this is not uncommon.On our last day I did take this shot with much of the mountain showing through. I am hoping that some day soon we make it back to Alaska.

Lake Hiawatha

 So after a very long winter this weekend's weather was almost perfect, at least on my scale. We had mostly sunny days with highs in the lower to mid seventies. Since it is almost May I went out to a few of my favorite places to see if I could find some early warblers. The only warblers that I found were yellow rumps but I did find a lot of the migrating waterfowl was still around. Most of the time they would have moved on by now but because of our longer then normal winter many of the lakes up north still have ice on them. So many of the migrating waterfowl are holding tight until things get better up north.

The best place that I found for photographing migrating waterfowl was Lake Hiawatha. This lake in south Minneapolis is one of several that is fed from Minnehaha creak. Since it is smaller then many of the other lakes around, it is usually where the ice melts first. This open water attracts migrating waterfowl who stop to feed on fish from the lake including northern pike, walleye and large mouthed bass. In 1922 when the lake property was purchased by the City of Minneapolis, Lake Hiawatha was just a swamp but the city transformed it over a number of years into a beautiful lake surrounded by a park and golf course. This year the lake had a number of common loons which is not uncommon but there was also a number of horned grebe in their breeding plumage. I took advantage of the rare opportunity to get a lot of horned grebe pics before they head up to their breeding grounds up in Canada. I also spotted bufflehead, common, hooded, and red-breasted mergansers, pied-billed grebe and numerous species of ducks. There was also a few eagles that circled above the lake for a few minutes and osprey diving into the lake after fish.

Minnehaha Falls

Minnehaha Falls is a popular landmark in south Minneapolis.  The Minnehaha Creek begins at Lake Minnetonka in the western suburbs of Minneapolis and weaves its way through the south west suburbs connecting several lakes along the way. At the falls the creek dramatically plunges 53 feet before resuming its path to the Mississippi which is only about a mile away. During the winter the falls is mostly frozen and parts of the park surrounding the falls is closed. As you can see from this photo that I took Saturday the water is open on the falls even though there is still a lot of ice around.

A Future Return to Yellowstone

 I am looking forward to going back to Yellowstone National Park next month. For many people like myself, who fall in love with the park, it is hard to be away for long. Its been almost two years now since we have been there.

The last time that we were there was in 2011. That year winter held out late into the spring and a lot of the park was still buried under the snow. This is a shot of me in front of one of the snow drifts along the side of the road in Hayden Valley. I am over six feet tall and that drift was twice at tall as I was.

Late spring in Yellowstone have typically been better for us for getting pictures. Since most of upper elevations are still covered the wildlife comes down to the lower elevations which is where most of the roads are. During our two snowy spring trips to Yellowstone in 2009 and 2011 is the only time that we have got a chance to see wolves up close. I was hoping that this year would be a repeat, since winter has been hanging on around here but I connected to the Yellowstone forums this week to see what people were seeing and many of the pictures that have been posted show very little snow. either way I am sure that we will have a good time. It is hard not to at a wonderful place like Yellowstone.

Target Field

 I am not much of a sports fan. I usually have better things to do, other then an occasional football game. It does not help that most of the professional men's sports teams around have not been able to get the job done when it comes to the big game. The exception to this is the Twins who have won two World Series. That is probably why they got a new stadium a couple of years ago.

Today is opening day at Target Field, the home of the Twins. Since I am not much of a baseball fan I had never been to the new stadium. However as part of the opening day festivities two of our eagles from The Raptor Center will be at the game to help with the National Anthem. I went along earlier this week to take some pics of a practice session. I have to admit that it was kind of cool being down on the field. Pi our immature bald eagle, first pic, was not faced by all of the preparations that were going on around us. Max, our big female in the lower pic, decided to pass on a homer dog and went for the rat choice instead. In just a minute the game will begin so I need to check out the show to see how my friends do.