Spotted Towhee

Yesterday, while highlighting the Dickcissel,  I mentioned the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary near Kearny, Nebraska, and that it is a prime birding area. I am not over emphasizing this place, when I say you will see a dozen of different types of wild birds within minutes of being there. At least that is what happened to Val and me. We weren't walking their trails for more than two hours and identified at least 30 different birds within the first hour. And this was in the middle of summer, not a prime migrating time. Of the 30 birds I identified, five were first timers for me: Dickcissel, Red-headed Woodpecker, Orchard Oriole, Western Kingbird, and the Spotted Towhee (Below, 7-11-10).

I spotted a Spotted Towhee at Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary, Nebraska, 7-11-10.

Rowe Sanctuary is world famous for it being the prime stopping area for the majority of the Sandhill Crane population migration route.  In October and March of each year thousands of Sandhill Cranes can be seen here.  Val says she has seen the large flocks several times while making her annual spring break ski trip to Colorado.  I for one, would love to witness this. I have seen photos of this spectacle at the Rowe website: http://www.rowesanctuary.org/ and urge you to take a look. It's an awesome sight and site. Someday I will make this trip.  It seems that both the peak of Fall and Spring migrations are always the busiest time of my school year and can never get away for such events.

Deer running across the Platte River, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

The Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary boundary runs along the Platte River, and not long after I took one of the trails that led to the river, I heard splashing and saw three deer crossing the river. I didn't get very clear shots of them, but it was a fun sight to see. Having grown up in Wisconsin and living adjacent to a Forest Preserve, I have seen way more than my share of deer in my life, but not often running across a river. I kind of liked the moment and snapped a couple of blurry photos.  Val would laugh at me because I always complain about other people who hold up traffic when they stop in the middle of the road to take a picture of a deer, I scold them, "It's a deer! There's millions of them all over the world! Why do you need a picture?" My photography code seems to be if you're going to hold up traffic to take a picture of wildlife, it had better be of something that isn't seen very often - like a moose or a bear or a wolf (or a bird - ha!), something of that nature - but not a deer or a bunny! So there's my deer picture.  At least I didn't hold up any traffic.