Knowing that early January was a great time to see waterfowl in the
Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and wanting to avoid next weekend when a million people descended there for the crane festival, I was really hoping to go this weekend but rain was in the forecast for Saturday. Fortunately, my wonderful husband woke up this morning before 6:00 a.m. and thought to check radar to see if the rain had passed through and it had! It didn't take long to get ready and we were on the road. We drove through a little rain (that wasn't even showing up on radar) but blue skies had appeared by time we arrived and it was still the tail end of the golden hour.
We started at the parking lot near the fishing pier. Our first surprise was a flock of cedar waxwings high up in a tree right next to the parking lot. They didn't stay too long but they are a beautiful bird and so much fun!
Then in a field right off the parking lot were so many sandhill cranes.
Here are a few other birds we saw in this area.
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| Red-bellied Woodpecker |
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| Great Egret |
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| Carolina Wren hiding in some branches |
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| Flock of red-winged blackbirds |
We then drove across the street to the Visitor's Center which has a hiking trail, open view of the lake, and an observation building. There were even more cranes here. Here are some views from behind the Visitor's Center.
They had some bird feeders that were getting a lot of attention while other songbirds hung in nearby trees.
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| A feeder full of house finches! |
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| Females on the left and males on the right! |
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| Eastern Bluebird |
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| American Goldfinch |
We then took the short hiking trail that started out as a board walk.
There were so many cardinals and more than one was enjoying breakfast on various floating logs!
We found another field of sandhill cranes!
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| An American Kestrel is perched on the post in the midst of these sandhill cranes. |
Then we checked out the observation building which has indoor viewing areas on two levels. These next photos are all taken through glass. There was a microphone outside and speakers inside so we could listen to the bird calls.
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| Several Whooping Cranes were also present |
Update: I received a comment on my Instagram account about the whooping crane above. It appears this may be one of the ones released in Wisconsin that was taught the migratory route through the ultralight airplanes program. The odd thing though, is its appearance in North Alabama as the migratory route takes them to winter in Florida. You can read more about the
International Crane Foundation's work regarding these cranes (and other crane species).
I'm not expert but her band colors seem to match female whooping crane #14-15. Assuming that is her, you can read her history
here. #14-15 seems to regularly migrate with sandhill cranes and comes to Wheeler NWR in North Alabama every winter and returns to Necedah NWR in Wisconsin each spring.
Whooping cranes are an endangered species with only a little over 800 in existence worldwide so it was so cool to see them in the wild.
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| female American Wigeon |
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| Ring-necked Duck |
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| I think the group in the water are mostly Northern Pintails. |
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| Someone said this is an eagle, maybe an immature bald eagle. A nesting pair lives on the refuge. |
As soon as the eagle arrived, the ducks quickly scurried away.
But it didn't take long for them to come back.
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| Blue-winged Teals |
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| Sandhill cranes, Gadwalls, and Northern Shovelers |
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| Whooping Crane |
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| Tufted Titmouse |
On our walk back to the car, I caught this view of more sandhill cranes through the trees.
What an amazing morning of birding and everywhere we went there were other birders and photographers with a wealth of knowledge.
The day came full circle when at a late lunch, a flock of European Starlings and Common Grackles filled the tree across the street.
