Monday, March 14, 2011

Sojourn To Nebraska

March 11, 2011

Richard Stevens:

Four of us packed our gear and headed out (2:00 am) for Kearney, Nebraska. My target bird was to photograph an American Woodcock. Sandhill Cranes were on the others minds.

There were plenty of Sandhill Cranes at the Rowe Sanctuary outside of Minturn. Thousands of Sandhill Cranes were everywhere. Unfortunately, no one has reported the Common Crane that has visited several years in the past. No one knew when the last sighting was? Several friends and I last observed it on March 29, 1999. I believe a sighting was posted last year or the year before.

My brother used to live on land that was adjacent to the Audubon Rowe Bird Sanctuary. The reason I drove from Denver to see the bird in 1999 was that he called one night about his two daughters feeding Sandhill Cranes by hand from their back porch. He called to ask about a "weird looking" Sandhill Crane. Short story, they were also feeding the Common Crane!

Before heading to the Rowe Sanctuary, we made the required stop at the Woodcock Trail outside of Kearney, NE. Roger and I walked around for a good hour without seeing any American Woodcocks.

We gave it another try in the afternoon; without success. Unfortunately, we did not want to wait until dusk (being 340 miles from Denver and 160 from Julesburg).

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