Our Latest Excursion

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cam.  As Maggie told you, we made a trip down to the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday.  The highlight for us was getting a couple bites of Mom's sandwich; the highlight for Mom and Dad was birdies galore!  Let's take a look at the trip!

On the way down, it looked like this:

FOG!

We couldn't see anything, so Maggie and I opted to do this:

"Zzz..."
"Zzz..."

We were called "very good girls" for doing so.

When the fog started to clear, we saw lots of farm fields like this one:

A fresh crop of Snow Geese!

We also saw a whole lot of hawks on the way down, and at the wildlife refuge.

Red-Tailed Hawk on the hunt

While Mom was at the edge of a pond, trying to photograph some ducks, this guy kept hopping in front of her camera:

Red-Winged Blackbird

Mom does love a cooperative birdie!

Out on the pond, she spotted a "lifer" for her (a bird she's never seen/photographed before) -

Canvasback Ducks (the "lifer" -- with the thin, long bills) and Ring-Necked Ducks

She was quite excited!

The most abundant bird was the Sandhill Cranes. The Quivira NWR people estimated their numbers to be around 7-8,000!

A few of the Sandhill Cranes we saw!

Mom is working on her video skills (and says she still has a long way to go!) but did manage to capture a bit of the activity:

Please click here to view on YouTube or click here to view on FlickR.

We apologize for the Kansas wind noise.

At times, it was as though they were falling from the sky!

It's raining Sandhill Cranes!!!

The other "lifer" bird for Mom was Tundra Swans!

Tundra Swans, a Sandhill Crane, and a couple Northern Pintail Ducks

She was mighty excited!

Among Mom's favorite ducks are these tiny guys:

Bufflehead Ducks!

She wasn't able to get very close, but it's always fun to see them!

For more photos from our trip, we have a two-page album you can visit on FlickR at this link. We saw all kinds of stuff, to include an Armadillo!

Here's a shot of me waiting patiently at our rest stop on the way home:

"Seriously?  Would you just go?  So we can go?"

And here's Maggie:

"What?  I had to find the right spot!"

Anyway ... it was a wonderful trip - so many birdies, beautiful scenery, interesting wildlife, and the best thing of all -- time together as a family!

Thanks for coming with us; we hope you enjoyed our photos!

Cammie!