December Color

Not much color around this time of year. However, the long civil twilight can make for some nice landscape color, especially when the snow mimics the sky color. This was taken earlier this month along Hickerson Road. Once again this is an HDR image to make the prairie visible in an otherwise silhouette image. I hope to make it up next week to check trail cams. Earlier this month I pulled one of the cameras for cleaning and the wolf pack chose that day to walk down the trail, perhaps they will have made their rounds again with the camera in place.

Dale

Tundra Swan

On Saturday, Dec. 5th, I was driving through Crex on my way home from photo club when I spotted a lone Tundra Swan on Dike 1. I thought it was strange that it was all alone but really didn't give it much thought. Today I found out from toomanykayaks that it was rescued the next day and was found to be suffering from severe lead poisoning. I should have known better than to have ignored it. I have no further details other than what I just posted.
So just a reminder for anyone to notify your local DNR if you should spot anything out of the ordinary like this.
Kathy J.

Cranes landing in snow

There were about 1000 cranes landing on Grettum when this video was taken on Friday afternoon, however the cranes left Grettum over the last 24 hours. Perhaps the temp dipping into the single digits had something to do with it. Late Friday afternoon they were exploring Dueholm and Fish Lake, probably looking for some open water to roost in.

The season of silence has begun.

Dale

The International Wolf Center

Visited the Internation wolf center in Ely,Mn on Friday afternoon November 27th for the first time ever. During the afternoon we got to see all the wolves at the Center.Shadow, an Arctic subspecies of the gray wolf, and is a brother to Malik.He is the Alpha Male of the Ambassador pack.Denali,Aidan youngest of the Ambasador pack are from northwestern subspecies.Grizzer, a Great Plains subspecies of the gray wolf.Maya, a Great Plains subspecies of the gray wolf is the Alpha female of the pack. We could also see Malik in his retirement pen.

They were quite active all afternoon long beacuse it was cool and overcast which enabled my wife Marge Cutter to take a lot of photos of the pack.I will post her photos here.

We also were there for two howls by the pack an extra special treat.

posted by Howard Cutter of Waconia Minnesota.

Wolf Kill

A hunter killed one of the Crex wolf pack during the recent deer hunting season. It was deposited in a parking lot near Buggert L. The wolf was an adult male weighing about 65 lb. There are two remaining black adults: one collared and the other known as "Gimpy" because of a deformed front leg. I have not seen a photo of the dead wolf but this photo from last spring is most likely the one that was killed. I hope to see a photo of the dead wolf to compare chest markings. Unfortunately, wolves and men have a long and tenuous relationship.

Dale

Trumpeter Swan 82K

Blogging is a new experience for me so there's going to be some trial and error and testing. This is my first try at posting a test video. I took it last February. Trumpeter Swans are one of the favorite things I love to see at Crex, Fish Lake and the surrounding areas. 82K is quite an old gal. She was captive reared and released in 1991 which means she was hatched in the spring of 1989. That makes her over 20 years old now. I've seen her in quite a few areas at Crex, in fact I just saw her yesterday on Phantom Lake with her new uncollared mate swimming among the 100 or so other swans there. She has a green collar so is pretty easy to spot as there aren't too many other swans with this color collar in the area. An interesting side note is that P94 (yellow collar) is her daughter born in 2002. P94's mate is J90 (red collar) and they nest on Kylingstad Flowage.
Watch the video closely and you can see her pick the ice out of her feathers.

Kathy J.

I am starting to work on this fall's video footage and put this piece from September together a couple weeks ago. Autumn is usually thought of as the time for bird migration but amphibians also migrate and prepare for winter; however not quite as dramatic as the crane migration. By the way there are still thousands of sandhills on Grettum Flowage.

Dale