Anyway, on the way down, we stopped at a rest stop along the interstate to stretch our legs.
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| "Ooh, Maggie - check it out! All about our adopted home state of Kansas!" |
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| "OK, I'm done." "Wait! I'm still reading." |
As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, it was quite foggy that day. Like ...
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| Road to Quivira NWR |
... that foggy! There were lots of deer out! This White-Tailed Deer stopped and posed for Mom!
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| Mom to deer: "... beware of cars! And be careful - there are a lot of hunters out! And ... oh, you're so beautiful!" |
Anyway - this is one of the first birdies we saw, and it was a "lifer" for Mom!
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| Black-Bellied Plover |
Apparently, when they have their Winter outfits on, they don't have black bellies. How confusing!
We saw both kinds of Meadowlarks!
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| Eastern Meadowlarks |
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| And the Western Meadowlark (our state bird!) |
Mom had some people in one of her birdie groups help with the ID on them; they can be very hard to tell apart. She said that day, the easiest way to tell them apart was that the Westerns were much more cooperative!
There were lots of ducks there, like this tiny girl:
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| Ruddy Duck |
In the much larger birdie category ...
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| A Bald Eagle, communing with some Mallards. Cows in the background. |
We also saw lots of Sandhill Cranes and some Whooping Cranes! (Link to those at the end of the post; we were really far away.)
Back to small birdies, we saw this little Pied-Billed Grebe:
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| "Hi." |
He was friendly enough!
There are some other shorebirds still out there, such as:
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| Greater Yellowlegs |
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| American Avocets |
It turned into such a beautiful day! It was fun exploring different parts of the refuge. We even went down some rather ... interesting roads.
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| There WAS a road sign, but ... |
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| "Are you sure this was Dad's idea and not yours, Mom? Seems like one of yours." "Dad? I think you need to let me drive." |
What a great trip! Thanks for coming along with us! If you'd like to see more from that trip, please click here to visit our FlickR album (it's a 2-pager)!
Cammie!
Oh Dears...that Deer was quite majestic what a sighting. From the look of the excellent pose it might have been a super model deer.
ReplyDeleteHugs madi your bfff
Great photos! We BOL over the "I'm done/I'm reading thing".
ReplyDeleteYour Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
Those are some pretty birdies! We giggled at you two reading the sign - one a little slower than the other. MOL! We read the sign too. Our mommy and our Grandpa from KS are part Native American that was in Kansas - the Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribe. The reservation is in Shawnee, OK now.
ReplyDeleteAnother fabulous adventure! And the dear was so dear!(Our mom likes them too...) Such beautiful bird pictures, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThat deer was very pretty.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that you didn't get "sibetracked"? I love your birds - ah, you even have meadowlarks at this time of year! I'm jealous of the sandhill cranes. I saw and heard a flock of about 50 of them heading south over us last weekend. They are so loud! It seemed a bit late - I hope that they're okay!
ReplyDeleteWe love tagging along with you when you visit Quivira. The most beautiful waterfowl and birdies seem to live there!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful adventure with so many beautiful birdies AND a deer!!
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Jakey, Arty & Rosy
Ooh, I loves that shot of the Greater Yellowlegs, with his reflection underneath him.
ReplyDeleteMy mum would like to state she loves your Western Meadowlarks. We would like to state how come we don't get to go on birding trips like you girls?
ReplyDeleteKhumbu and co