It's Winter and that means it was time to visit the Sandhill Cranes at Staten Island.
No, not that Staten Island! This Staten Island is in the San Joaquin/Sacramento Delta and is operated as both a farm and a wildlife preserve by an affiliate of the Nature Conservancy. It is the winter home of many Sandhill Cranes.
During our visit the cranes were mostly foraging and we saw few active interactions between them.
Nor did we see the variety of species that we have seen on previous visits. There were a fair number of Northern Shovelers with their large beaks.
There were several pairs of Common Goleneye.
And a single Eared Grebe was spotted.
We also saw a Red Tailed Hawk and a coyote. Perhaps we will get a chance to revisit Staten Island this season or one of the many other refuges in California's Great Valley.
Find other views of our wonderful World at Our World, Tuesday and look for more images of birds at Wild Bird Wednesday.
15 comments:
I do love your winged friends, Martha! Great captures for the day!!
they are pretty cute. glad they posed for you.
Wonderful shots indeed!
They stop in at a wildlife refuge not too far from us on their Spring migration. We may be able to get to the local festival celebrating them this year.
Love their red heads!
Loved the pictures of the shovelers.
Really like that last tranquil photo.
I love the sandhill cranes. Hope to see them in person soon.
A place I'd never heard of...so much to see in California, one could almost never cover it all..well except for you I guess.
I'm worried about the weather reports I'm hearing from there and the citrus etc.
Great photos! I think I need to go birding!
Interesting duck but the cranes are especially great. Wish I could see one of them!
I love the cranes, they are so elegant. Love the ducks and cute grebe too. Beautiful photos.
I love your banner image! Those Sandhill Cranes...are they not just plain amazing!!!
Great set of pictures - I love to see the sandhill cranes in real life.
Thanks for the link to WBW.
Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne.
PS: sorry for slow reply - I been out of internet range in Tasmania!
Great photos! Our local Sandhill Cranes are already mating and preparing to raise a new crop of chicks. Hope to get some baby photos soon.
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