This beautiful bird is the white-naped crane (Antigone vipio), an Asian crane that breeds in northern Mongolia, northeastern China, and neighboring parts of Russia. The eastern members of the species winter in Japan and Korea, including the Korean demilitarized zone. Japan and Korea play important roles in my family history, so maybe that’s why this particular pair of cranes were so cooperative in letting me take their pictures.
The demoiselle crane is not a Wisconsin bird. But I photographed this individual in Wisconsin, thanks to the International Crane Foundation having its headquarters in Baraboo, Wis. It’s the only place in the world where you can see all 15 extant crane species. Read more …
I don’t often get a chance to see coots up close. At the lake, they tend to congregate out in the water and swim away if I walk toward them. And they are fast swimmers—at least it seems to me that for every step I take toward them, they move three steps farther away. Read more …
Most domestic duck breeds are descended from mallards and classified as the same species, Anas platyrhynchos. So it can be hard to tell if a white duck is an escaped domestic or a mallard that lacks feather pigments. Whatever the case may be, this one is pretty cute. I took a lot of pictures.
Most domestic duck breeds are descended from mallards and classified as the same species, Anas platyrhynchos. So it can be hard to tell if a white duck is an escaped domestic or a mallard that lacks feather pigments. Whatever the case may be, this one is pretty cute. I took a lot of pictures.
I saw this cutie a few days ago while walking by the lake. It’s younger than the previous juvenile ring-billed gull I wrote about last week, just a few months old and getting ready for its first winter. Read more …
Today is a photo post in praise of the great blue heron (Ardea herodias), the largest heron in North America. It can be found from southeast Alaska and southern Canada down through Mexico and the Caribbean to Central America. Wisconsin is toward the north of its winter range.
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Brown creepers (so called because they “creep” up the sides of tree trunks in search of insect eggs and other food) are new birds to me, despite that they live in all forty-eight contiguous United States and Alaska. Read more …
Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are one of the smallest ducks in North America. They’re also very skittish. Combine those two things, and you get pictures like this. Keep reading to learn why buffleheads are called buffleheads. Read more …
White-breasted nuthatches live here year-round, but are easier to spot in the winter when the leaves have fallen from the trees—though this one was in a pine-tree, so it actually wasn’t all that easy to spot. Read more …