Intro to Necedah

The 4 hours between these 2 photos held rains and storms.





This weekend I took a trip to Necedah. Dr. Urbanek gave me an introductory tour, trained me on how to observe the wild cranes, and showed me what to record while I observe them.









So far there is one pair of cranes on the Wildlife Refuge (the Refuge is what I mean when I say I went to Necedah) who have 2 baby cranes. I actually got to see the babies at one point in my observations! They were so far away, they were little brown blobs in the microscope, but I definitely saw them!


I also saw lots of Sandhill Cranes, swans, Canada Geese, deer, ducks... well you get the picture. Since I was observing from a public observation tower, I wonder how many visitors who go up there actually know they can see a whooping crane from that vantage point. If I was to go up there, I would never have known.



This is a wild Sandhill Crane on the plains. A whooping crane had been foraging around that scraggly tree you see in the picture not 5 minutes earlier.






There's a dam that creates the wetlands.












Richard, my boss (pictured below), took me to see the dam.















Part of his job is to make sure the water level doesn't move too high or too low, so he opened the grates, and pulled up some of the heavy railroad ties they use to block up the water (pictured below)

















I'll leave you with a few more pictures of the whooping cranes from my scope (sorry they are so blurry).