2022 10-23 Llano Seco
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We drove up and arrived on the scene at 11 AM. Skies were clear and blue, caused by the strong winds gusting to 25 kn. This kept the water a bit rough and consequently all the crafty waterfowl were hunkered down on the lee side of the little islands. All the basins had water, although they were shallow.
The sky, in addition to being blue, featured a constant stream of ducks and geese in their V formations. They were moving in all directions often crisscrossing each other. The two species with the largest aerial populations were the greater white-fronted geese and the snow geese. Occasionally small groups of ducks would fly by. All of the above were high in the sky. But there was also activity closer to the ground and the ponds. This is where most of the ducks were flying and a few long-billed curlews.
The “target“ species, for us, was the Sandhill Crane. We had some Intel from the Internet that cranes had been in the area. We were not disappointed. Most of the cranes were in a southern pond and were generally away from the foot path. A few were in the north pond and sometimes they walked and wandered a little closer to the path for better photography. These big birds appeared to be mostly feeding. They frequently stretched their necks up and looked around. A couple of them were vocal. Occasionally, an unknown stimulus would provoke all of them to raise their necks and look at the same direction. Or, if the situation seem to dire to them, they would take flight and move to a different section of the pond.
We did a little bit of “forest“ bathing, just absorbing the beauty of the day as we walked out to the far platform, and back.
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Read MoreWe drove up and arrived on the scene at 11 AM. Skies were clear and blue, caused by the strong winds gusting to 25 kn. This kept the water a bit rough and consequently all the crafty waterfowl were hunkered down on the lee side of the little islands. All the basins had water, although they were shallow.
The sky, in addition to being blue, featured a constant stream of ducks and geese in their V formations. They were moving in all directions often crisscrossing each other. The two species with the largest aerial populations were the greater white-fronted geese and the snow geese. Occasionally small groups of ducks would fly by. All of the above were high in the sky. But there was also activity closer to the ground and the ponds. This is where most of the ducks were flying and a few long-billed curlews.
The “target“ species, for us, was the Sandhill Crane. We had some Intel from the Internet that cranes had been in the area. We were not disappointed. Most of the cranes were in a southern pond and were generally away from the foot path. A few were in the north pond and sometimes they walked and wandered a little closer to the path for better photography. These big birds appeared to be mostly feeding. They frequently stretched their necks up and looked around. A couple of them were vocal. Occasionally, an unknown stimulus would provoke all of them to raise their necks and look at the same direction. Or, if the situation seem to dire to them, they would take flight and move to a different section of the pond.
We did a little bit of “forest“ bathing, just absorbing the beauty of the day as we walked out to the far platform, and back.
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