Tuesday July 13th
Added a stop at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge to look for
Whooping Cranes and
Trumpeter Swans. Necedah has been a part of the Whooping Crane recovery plan in establishing an eastern migrating population to safeguard the viability of the species. It was the northern terminal for the famous whooping crane flights using ultralight aircraft to teach young cranes on how to migrate, till the program ended a few years ago.
Five years ago Bob Pelkey and I can across one of the ultralights used by 'Operation Migration' at the southern terminus at St Marks NWR in Florida. Seems they were wrapping up the final flight, as conservation efforts were headed in other directions.
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Back in February 2016 this Ultralight was a part of Operation Migration
seen at St Marks National Wildlife Refuge |
Our visit here included checking out the area around Headquarters Road and Goose Lake. We enter the refuge at Headquarters Road were we started with a pair of
Cliff Swallows. Further along we had
White-tailed Deer, Bobolink, Dickcissel, Red-tailed Hawk Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Eastern Bluebird, Robins, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Phoebe. American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, Red-winged Blackbirds, Gray Catbirds, Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, singing
Common Yellowthroats and
Sandhill Cranes. Stopped at the observation tower were we saw a pair of
Whooping Cranes on the distant edge of the water, plus a pair of
Greater Sandhill Cranes and
Canada Geese. Nice to see the whoopers. At the Visitors Center we added
Barn Swallows and
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
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| Song Sparrow |
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| Believe this is the 'Greater' subspecies of Sandhill Crane, based only on geography. |
Still need to catch-up with some swans and was directed up to he Goose Pool area. Before spotting the Trumpeter Swan family we had a beautiful Common Loon diving close to the road. The swans were across the water with the pair of adults and their cygnets. Other waterfowl seen here included Hooded Mergansers and Wood Ducks. Other birds seen in the area included Killdeer, Veery, Turkey Vultures, Eastern Kingbirds, Robins, Black-capped Chickadee, Cedar Waxwing and Song Sparrow.
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| Common Loon |
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| Distant look at the Trumpeter Swan family |
Some of the Wildflowers at Necedah
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| Orange Hawkweed |
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| False Sunflower |
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| Tuberous Grasspink |
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| Great Mullins |
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| Swamp Milkweed |
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| Common Milkweed |
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| Purple Vervain |
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