Cool birds

[dean nelson]

For the past week now these three have been hanging out south east of town near the gun range. Even though I've gone by them on multiple occasion I still end up stopping to watch them almost every time. I'm little surprised as long as they have been in one spot that the bird watchers haven't descended in mass but would guess with this cold combined with length of stay that they will be heading south at any time but it's been cool to see such rare birds with such regularity. Although these pictures look similar they were taking in two different fields 4 days apart.

 

[ndlongshot]

Awesome! Hopefully reported to appropriate agency as they request. Any leg bands?!

 

[emerald]

whoopers! wow, drag out the telephoto lens, rare as bigfoot,would be neat,, back during the big crane days,we saw 5 near goodrich, awesome sight.

 

[dean nelson]

ndlongshot
Oh for damn sure I was on the horn with the boys within 30 seconds of spotting them the first time... well That's not actually true it was more like a minute and a half. The birds had me slightly screwed up there for a second or two as I was pulling into one of my duck hunting spots when I noticed a 3 pack of pelicans flying 4 feet over a pasture 500 yards from the roost not to mention 100 feet higher then the marsh itselfs which quickly caught my attention and thoroughly confused the f*** out of me for a moment or two till the conscious part of my brain caught up to the rest and said you do know those are probably not Pelicans at all dumbass and perhaps you should slow your roll and take a closer look ...... At which point it took my brain a second or two to catch up going on and to accept the knowledge that you know those are probably not Pelicans. But yes I most definitely did phone them in immediately.

And with all that said I'm sure they're time here is very short if not possibly already over but if there is anybody who would like to take their wife and kids or perhaps just themselves up to see them on a birdwatchin mission to see them just hit me up. they been extraordinarily consistent the past 4 days but obviously cant guarantee anything with the weather but if your like me and live and breath waterfowl of all types they're definitely one to check off the bucket list. So with all that said if any of you want a shot at seeing them please just let me know and I'll gladly give you the exact coordinates of where they were the last few times I saw them. Needless to say with the weather changing obviously theres no guarantees but they're certainly worth seeing for any bird lover!

- - - Updated - - -

whoopers! wow, drag out the telephoto lens, rare as bigfoot,would be neat,, back during the big crane days,we saw 5 near goodrich, awesome sight.

Well does it count that these shots were taken from a cell phone shooting through a window mounted spotting scope? LOL AKA the Western redneck telephoto lens.

 

[LBrandt]

Whoop-Whoop-Whooping cranes. Good for you.

 

[Allen]

I haven't seen whoopers in a few years, but had pretty good luck running across them in the early 2000s. I had a flock of 3 or 4 within 3 ft of my windshield one time in a fog on I-29. Lucky for my windshield we escaped contact!

 

[MSA]

Been a good year for rare bird sightings around sakakawea, osprey, snowy egrets, loons, and ibis are all firsts for me.

 

[Buckmaster81]

Been a good year for rare bird sightings around sakakawea, osprey, snowy egrets, loons, and ibis are all firsts for me.

Eastern ND ibis are literally all over 15 years ago I didnt know they existed in ND and one day poof everywhere

 

[Rowdie]

MMMMMmmmmmm.................MMMMMMMmmmmmmm..............goooood eats

 

[NDSportsman]

Albino sandhill cranes.......taste just as good as the normal ones.

 

[Wags2.0]

If you want to make all the snow goose hunters very mad - call the game and fish with a whooping crane sighting

 

[espringers]

i am trying to figure out why wags... bit slow today. hope you got your whooping cough vaccine dean!

 

[Wags2.0]

i am trying to figure out why wags... bit slow today. hope you got your whooping cough vaccine dean!

in the spring anyway, they will shut down an area to hunting if they confirm a report of whoopers

 

[dean nelson]

in the spring anyway, they will shut down an area to hunting if they confirm a report of whoopers

Seen that in Canada but not around here. I know they do it on some refuges but privet land is at least from what I've encountered another thing. That's said I could totally see Nebraska doing it the way they baby there cranes.

 

[snow]

Same in nebraska in the spring,we were hunting snow geese near grand island nebraska when the massive sandhill crane migration fired up handful of whoopers showed up in the mix and "Poof" gfp's shut the hunting down for 100 square miles to let them pass in peace as they headed north, crane migration in nebraska is spectactular folks from around the world come to view,small towns are busting at the seems with tourist,met a couple from china that come every year to view them cranes mating (dance) this happens between the towns of grand island and kearny nebraska like clock work in early april.