Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

With the Independence Day holiday last week I had a three day weekend so I decided to head over to central Wisconsin and shoot in the Necedah NWR for a couple of days. This was my first opportunity to get a look at the new visitors center and it is very impressive. Inside is a store, educational displays, offices, an info desk, small theatre and a nice sitting room complete with a fireplace. You can see from the picture above that much of the building is powered by renewable solar power.
One of the things that Necedah is famous for is their work with the endangered whooping crane. It is dangerous to have the majority of the remaining population of whoopers all in one area. Disease or natural disaster could destroy the entire population adding another extinct bird to the list. So the staff at Necedah has been working with a number of other organizations to set up a second migrating population. Unfortunately the only crane that I spotted over the weekend was a sandhill crane.
There were a lot of young birds that had recently fledged. I found a young kingbird perched on a branch overhanging a small stream. I watched for a while and was rewarded as one of the parents came down to feed the youngster a plump insect.
As I watched the kingbirds feeding four river otters appeared and began to play in the stream. So I switched subjects. I think that Michelle was kind of jealous because she really likes to watch otters.
Necedah has a variety of habitats to explore. Near the new Visitors Center they have built some trails into and over the wetlands. Raised boardwalks help give visitors a good look at wildlife with out getting their feet too wet.
I also took a hike on the new boardwalk that skits a boggy area. I was hoping to get a glance and a photo of a ringed boghaunter dragonfly. Necedah is in one of the few counties in Wisconsin where this member of the emerald family can be found, the only other place to find them in the Midwest is Michigan. It was a little late in the year for the boghaunter but I did find quite a few racket-tailed emeralds.
Also near the bog trail I found several bobolink. There were two pairs that squawked at me noisily as I walked down the trail. I wonder if they were nesting near the trail and I was getting to close to the nest.
One of the birds that I always like to photograph when I go to Necedah is the red-headed woodpecker. Although they are not endangered like the whooper are their population has been decreasing over the years. The problem that they are facing is habitat lose. Red-headed woodpeckers live in a habitat that has a lot of dead trees for nesting and caching food. They also require some space between the trees. This type of habitat has become scarce and the red-head population has declined as a result. Fortunately Necedah still has a lot of area that fits the bill and it is quite easy to see the red-heads flitting between the trees.
On my way out of the refuge I saw another youngster crossing the road. Mom was already in the woods on the side of the road but junior slowed down to take a look at the curios shiny creature on the road in front of him.

Eastern Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

The eastern kingbird is one of the easiest birds to photograph during the summer. They re common through out most of North America except the arid south west. They spend most of their time perched in open habitat where they hunt for flying insects.

Since there are not many insects to eat around here at this time of the year, the kingbirds have migrated south for the winter all the way down into the central portion of South America. During this time they tend to congregate in flocks and eat mainly fruit and not insects.
When they return they will find a territory and build a cup style nest typically in a tree or shrub. They will defend the nesting territory aggressively from other kingbirds and even harass any other large birds that come near. They are able to identify cowbird eggs and will usually remove them from the nest. They will typically only raise one brood per year, this is because they spend a long time feeding the chicks at the nest.

Eastern Kingbird

Road Trip Necedah

Last week Michelle and I made a pretty big change. We decided to take my truck in and buy a new car. This is kind of a big deal because I have been driving trucks for twenty some years and not owned a car, other then Michelle's cars, since my first vehicle, but I decided it was time to do more to help the environment and my truck was only getting 15 MPG so it was time to trade it in for something a bit more fuel efficient.

So I bought myself a Honda Insight hybrid. For day to day I do not drive all that much, between 30 to 40 miles to work and back, but since I like to go out to photograph nature in a variety of different habitats I do put on a few miles doing road trips. So this weekend I took the new car on its first road trip to Necedah NWR in Wisconsin. Everything went perfect, the weather was nice, there was a good amount of wildlife to photograph, and the new car, pictured next to the Necedah sign above, worked great. The trip was 384.4 miles round trip and I used 9.1 gallons of gas, which means that I got over 42 MPG.

Since this is a nature blog and not a car blog I also took some pictures of wildlife while I was there. I was excited to see a pair of endangered whooping cranes out in the field in front of the observation tower, unfortunately they were too far away to get any good pics.

I did get some better pics of the red headed woodpeckers. They are quite common in Necedah. This is probably due to all of the dead wood that the staff leaves in the refuge. Red headed woodpeckers thrive in habitats where there is a lot of dead wood around. They use cracks and crevices in the dead wood to cache their food, this would include seeds, nuts, and even live insects.

Eastern kingbirds are also pretty common in Necedah. They can usually be found hunting for flying insects in the open fields.

Gray catbirds are usually more secretive. You are much more likely to hear one then you are to see one as they typically stay in shrubs or brush piles repeating their distinctive call.

Necedah is also a great place to photograph butterflies. It is one of the best places in the world to find the endangered Karner blue butterfly. The Karner is a sub species of the Melissa blue that is found mostly in the Great Lakes region. The Karner blue caterpillar is very particular and will only eat the lupine plant. As the amount of lupine decreases, due to habitat destruction and fire suppression, so does the population of the Karner blue. They have already disappeared from many areas where they used to be quite common.

Monarchs, on the other hand are quite common. They are probably the most recognized butterfly in the world. They really love blazing star, which are blooming all around Necedah at this time. They need a lot of nectar because they will begin migrating south soon.

Another butterfly that was partaking of nectar from the wildflowers of Necedah was the eastern tiger swallowtail. The eastern tiger swallowtail is common though out most of the eastern United States. It can be confused with the Canadian tiger swallowtail, which is a bit smaller then the eastern tiger swallowtail but other then that they pretty much look the same, in the northern states where their ranges cross over.

My World: Maplewood Nature Center

Now that it is April it will not be long before the spring migration reaches Minnesota. Already migrating waterfowl have begun to move into the area and soon they will be followed by waders, raptors, songbirds and the rest.

I am looking forward to getting out to some of my favorite spots and actually getting to see a variety of bird life. One of those spots is the Maplewood Nature Center.

The Maplewood Nature Center is not very large, but it does have some really nice ponds that attract migrating and resident waterfowl.

One of the first ducks to return to the area, other then mallards who stay here year round, are the wood ducks. I have already begun to see wood ducks at several area ponds stacking out their territory.

One of birds that I frequently saw on the ponds of MCC last summer were green herons.

It is fun to watch green herons foraging through the shallow water and thick vegetation looking for small fish and invertebrates.

They slowly wade through the water their heads down and eyes on the water and when they find some prey they strike quickly with their long beak.

Sometimes you see them just sitting motionless at the waters edge waiting for an unwary prey to swim by.

There is also a small tree island in the main pond that was one of the best places that I visited last year to find fly catching birds.

The eastern phoebe is one of the most common flycatchers that we
see in Minnesota.

Another frequent visitor during the summer is the eastern kingbird.

They may not be as bright as their cousins the western kingbird, which are black and yellow, but they have a great personality.

The most exciting flycatcher that I saw at Maplewood was the olive-sided flycatcher. Since we are just at the southern edges of their summer range we do not always see these birds during August, when picture was taken.

It is fun to watch them take off from where they are perched at the top of a tree and do intricate maneuvers in the air. At first you are not sure why they be making acrobatic moves while they fly but when they land if you look closely you will probably see a fly, dragonfly or bee trapped in their beak.

Crex Meadows Birding

In the middle of August I decided to spend a Saturday up at Crex Meadows. It was about the same time last year, August 12th, 2007 to be exact, that Michelle and I rescued an injured immature eagle from up at Crex. This year my trip was not quite as exciting but I did have a good day and I managed to get a few pictures too.
Eastern kingbirds are a fairly common sight during the summer months. They are by far the flycatcher that we see the most during this time of the year. One nice thing about eastern kingbirds is that they are not as skittish as many other passerines. They will often sit and pose for you so that you can get an outstanding photo, don't we wish that warblers would take lessons.
The only raptor that I saw that day was a red-tailed hawk. You can see red-tails pretty much any time of the year in my part of the world. They are usually on light posts on the side of freeways looking for the rodents that populate the medians and shoulders of the road.
Sandhill cranes are one of the big draws at Crex. There is a small resident population that spends most of the year, except winter, at the park. During the fall these numbers are augmented by migrating cranes that use Crex as a staging grounds. The cranes gather together, feeding while they wait, and then migrate down to Florida, Texas, New Mexico, or some other southern location, as a large group.
Pied-billed grebes are the smallest member of the grebe family in North America. They are kind of tricky to photograph because when they get frightened they do not fly off, like most other birds. Instead they sink down into the water, a lot like a submarine does, and since they can hold their breath for a long time and are pretty strong swimmers often you will never see where they come back up. I usually only see pied-bills during spring or fall migration.
Another summer resident are the trumpeter swans. A small population of these large white birds use Crex as a nesting ground. In June you can often see a pair swimming through the shallow water followed by many small grey cygnets. During the winter they will migrate to where they can find food. Many may end up in Monticello, MN where the water stays open, due to the Excel Energy Plant, and a kind women feeds them cracked corn daily.

Birding Crex Meadows

After spending the long Forth of July weekend photographing the bears at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary and then spending time photographing things in the Sax Zim Bog I decided to rest a bit the following week and spend some time at home. By the next Saturday I was getting a little stir crazy so I decided to take a trip up to Crex Meadows. Crex Meadows is a great birding location and even in the summer when birding is a bit slow in this area you can usually find something to photograph in Crex.
Mourning doves are fairly common through out most of North America in one season or another, which is why I do not often stop to photograph them, but this bird was sitting beautifully in perfect light. So I stopped to take the pic. Mourning doves are considered a game bird and their are hunting seasons for them in many states. Fortunately Minnesota does not have a mourning bird season, I am not sure if Wisconsin does or not, which is good because I think that hunting mourning doves is one of the stupidest things that I have ever heard of. I am not a hunter, never have and never will, but at least with duck, pheasant, or dear you are hunting something that you can eat. After killing a mourning dove are you going to take it home and make yourself a sandwich?
Many eastern kingbirds spend their summers in the area feasting on insects. When they arrive in the spring they claim a breeding territory which they defend aggressively against other kingbirds as well as larger birds such as hawks, crows and bluejays. In the winter they migrate down to South America where they live in communities and eat mostly fruit.

The killdeer is the most common shorebird that we usually see in the area. That is because they have adapted well to people. This killdeer was searching the dirt road for worms, grasshoppers, beetles and other insects. Killdeers are great actors and will put on the show of a lifetime, pretending to have a broken wing to lure predators away from their nest.
Ring-necked ducks are named so because of the rust colored ring on their necks. Typically you do not get to see the ring, but this duck has his necked stretched so that the ring is visible. I wonder if this is the same ring-necked pair that I photographed earlier in the year at Crex that was also showing of its ring.
One of the birds that is most identified with Crex Meadows is the Sandhill Crane. Crex has a resident population of sandhills which comes each spring and stays though until fall. Last year Michelle and I were lucky enough to get to photograph a sandhill colt but this year I was not so lucky.
In the fall more sandhills will arrive at Crex from all around the upper Midwest and Canada. Hundreds of cranes will be grouped together preparing for the flight down to their winter habitat. Winters are spent in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico with small populations also in southern California and Florida. In the spring tens of thousands of cranes migrate together all stopping to rest at the Platte River in Nebraska. From there they break up into groups and move on to their summer breeding ground.
The only raptor that I photographed that day was this bald eagle who was keeping a watchful eye over the park. From what I have been told, at the National Eagle Center, Wisconsin is the state with the fourth largest population of eagles in the US, first being Alaska, then Minnesota and Florida.