That's My World!---Wildwood Lake

One of my favorite lakes to visit is Wildwood Lake. It's north of Lincoln, and just south of the town of Valparaiso.


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It's a wonderful place to sit and watch ducks and geese during the spring and fall migration. It's also a wonderful place to see songbirds.

The range of the Eastern and Spotted Towhee overlaps in this area. I have been fortunate enough to see and photograph each at Wildwood Lake.

Eastern Towhee

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Spotted Towhee

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Today's Flowers

Still no flowers to photograph here, so into the vaults we go!

This water lily was photgraphed at the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln.

The Sunken Gardens was built in 1930 on an old 1.5 acre neighborhood landfill site in the heart of Lincoln. The sunken gardens were made in a depression (hence their name) and were originally known as Lincoln's 'Rock Garden', which described their design. The project was developped as an opportunity for unemployed men to earn money to support their families through the difficult economic circumstances.
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After nearly 73 years without a major renovation, the Sunken Gardens was overhauled in 2004.

Major streets are on two sides of the gardens, but because it is a sunken garden it is still a lovely oasis.


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As the year progresses, you will most likely see many more photos from the Sunken Gardens.

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Camera Critters---Roseate Spoonbills

My decision to go to Texas in February was motivated by the desire to see a Roseate Spoonbill. I had never seen one in real life and I decided the time had come to change that.

I first saw some at Brazoria NWR.


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More Roseate Spoonbill photos.

Head on over to Camera Critters to see more critters (by clicking on the icon)

Crane Cam

Crane Cam at Rowe Sanctuary has gone live!

For more Sandhill Crane resources click here and here.


UPDATE: (as of 8pm CST March 12) According to the Rowe Sanctuary site:

We are currently experiencing technical problems with the Crane Cam and there will not be a broadcast tonight (3-11) or tomorrow morning (3-12). Please stay tuned as we hope to have it operating tomorrow evening. Thank you for your patience.

Also, it appears the link has changed, so the link has been updated. The Crane Cam seems to be working as of the time of this update.

Thanks to Sue for bringing this to my attention.

UPDATE: (as of 4PM CST March 13) Looks like they have changed the link yet again, so I've updated the link again. If my link does not work, go to Rowe Sanctuary and click on their link.

You Tube of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese

One of the posters on the Nebraska Birding Hotline posted a link to this You Tube Video of Sandhill cranes near Fort Kearney State Recreation Area and thousands of geese on lake behind Grandpa's Steakhouse located south of I-80 in Kearney. The video is from March 4.



For more Sandhill Crane resources click here and here.

Skywatch Friday

This photograph was taken in November near Salt Plains NWR in Oklahoma.

Abandoned houses always fascinate me. I can’t help but wonder why someone, anyone, would abandon a home, especially one that looks like it was a nice home at one time.


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I love the fluffy white clouds in this photo.

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Watery Wednesday

I was sitting in my car on the beach south of Port Aransas watching, and photographing some shorebirds.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw two women walking towards me and knew the shorebirds would soon be scattering. The ladies were obviously in deep conversation. When I looked at them I was immediately struck by the contrast in their clothing. The one lady has a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts on, as opposed to the lady with a sweatshirt and longer pants. Also one has a purse and one doesn't. What I didn't notice at the time, and the photo makes apparent, is that they aren't walking in step with each other. I shot the photo just because the opportunity arose, but when I looked at it later, I really liked the contrast of the gray overcast skies, the gray Gulf of Mexico waves, and their colorful clothing.


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That's My World!---Squaw Creek NWR

Can you imagine 1.6 million Snow geese in one place, at one time?

I paid a visit to Squaw Creek NWR last Wednedsday, and that was the estimated count for the day.

Imagine if you can, driving for more than a mile and this is what you see.

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There were constantly geese in the air as well the geese in the water.

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The din from the geese was phenomenal. My dawg that normally snoozes in her bed in the back seat was sitting up and staring out the window. One really wishes at times like that you could read the doggy mind.

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Nebraska Sandhill Crane Viewing Resources

UPDATE: See my updated post for 2010

Thought I would put together a quick and dirty post on Sandhill Crane resources. To me, this is the time of year a Nebraska birder looks forward to the most, but I’ll leave the adjectives to the cited resources!

Rowe Sanctuary is operated by Audubon. Their center is located on the Platte River and is beautifully situated. They have blinds where the cranes can be observed. If for no other reason, they deserve a visit because their building is the second largest straw bale building in the United States. Lots of other interesting information at their site. The birding list for Rowe (pdf) is representative of birds in the area. CraneCam will be active from March 7 until April 8.

A new site this year that I really like, is Nebraskaflyway.com. More on that site later.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission provides all the information you would ever want to know about Sandhill cranes.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission also has some general information about crane viewing. There’s also a section on crane viewing etiquette.

The three main places to hang out during your stay are Grand Island, Hastings, and Kearney.
The visitor’s bureau for Grand Island
The visitor’s bureau for Hastings
The visitor’s bureau for Kearney

My personal preference is to stay in Kearney, but there are good reasons to stay in Grand Island or Hastings.

For a birding enthusiast there’s much more going on. Seven to ten million Snow geese, Canada geese, and ducks pass through the area. Other migrating birds are starting or are in the middle of their migration. As of the writing of this post, Snow geese are abundant.

Nebraska Birding Trails has oodles of information of birding throughout the state. If you doubt that there are places to bird in the area, these two maps will dispel that notion. Maps are here and here. (pdf)

Nebraskaflyway.com has printable maps of the Platte River viewing sites, of a tour of the Western tour of the Rainwater Basin and of the Eastern tour of the Rainwater Basin. (all maps pdf) More information about the Rainwater Basin. About a week ago I took the eastern tour route, and it is a very organized way to tour the area. Having been to most, if not all of the areas covered in the western tour route, it appears to be an organized way to approach that area also. As you go from county to county, roads names change, and these maps cover the road names very well. Conditions in these areas vary from year to year based on the amount of rain or snow we have had. Many of the roads are county roads (read gravel) and their conditions will also vary according to weather conditions.

Birding Adventures of Southwest & Central Nebraska has some tours of the area in their left sidebar. The fun part of their tours is they talk about the local flavor of rural Nebraska. They also suggest restaurants along the way. (no chain restaurants included!) Their tours are also printable with maps.

The last link I will provide is for Fort Kearney State Recreation Trail. There is a bridge over the Platte River that is excellent for watching the cranes come to their nighttime roost. It’s also an excellent place for sunset pictures over the Platte River. A daytime stroll on this path will usually offer the opportunity to see songbirds.

It can be wickedly cold in Nebraska at this time of year. Don’t forget your longjohns and bring clothes you can layer. Weather can be unpredictable. Sunshine and in the 50’s one day, snow the next day, and everywhere and anywhere in between.

I hope you find these resources helpful. If there is something else that you feel could or should be covered, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll keep an eye on the comments section and respond. And if you find the resources helpful, a shout out would be nice too. Okay, now I’m starting to beg…..

Last but not least, thanks for stopping by my corner of the world. If you come to see the awesome wonder of the crane migration, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Today's Flowers--Wildflowers in Texas

I took these photos about two weeks ago at Brazoria NWR. When I saw the first wildflower, I thought it was Indian Paintbrush, but while taking the photo, I wasn't so sure. I've looked through several sources, and am still not sure.


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I saw these little guys while the dawg was stretching her legs. They are really small. I was as close as my macro lens would allow me to get. Haven't figured out a name for them either.


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