Ring-billed Gulls often hang out on the larger lakes in Minnesota, especially when there are fishermen around. With their long wings and compact bodies, they seem perfectly designed to ride the air currents, while they search the water below.
The gulls on the St. Croix river weren’t diving for fish or pestering the fishermen on this day, but just soaring along the river enjoying the sun and breeze. What could be more fun than to be a bird, able to effortlessly glide through the air?
Even though the gulls weren’t doing a lot of flapping, they were moving rapidly through airspace, and it was tough to keep them in focus. For these photos, I followed the recommendations of Sparky Stensaas at The PhotoNaturalist blog for shooting fast moving raptors (see “Attracting Hawks with a Feather Duster“), using the Tv setting on my camera, at 1/2000 of a second, f5.6-6.7, ISO at 200. I can’t find the birds fast enough to focus on them with the 400 mm lens, so I used my 18-270 mm lens instead.
I saw this hawk land on a tree when I was driving back roads at Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area last week. But even with binoculars I couldn’t really tell what species it was from a distance.
Doing its “head on backwards” pose prior to taking off.
But once the bird took off from the perch and began to soar overhead, I could get a look at its tail, and its ID was obvious.
There is a little hint of red on the tail there.
Backlighting illuminates the red tail, and shows how every secondary feather in the wing overlaps its neighbor to provide a smooth airfoil.
Notice how the primary feathers at the tip of the wing are rotated and widely separated from each other. This rotation reduces the resistance to moving the feathers through the air mass as the wing is raised after the powerful downward thrust. The smooth plane of the secondaries provides lift and allows the bird to rise in the air column.
We visited Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge on a cold, windy day this past weekend, hoping to see Sandhill Cranes that nest there. Driving the wildlife loop, we got a glimpse of these stately birds.
Three Sandhill Cranes foraged in a grassy wetland area about 1/4 mile from us. This was as close as we got (with max telephoto).
Up to 40 pairs of Sandhill Cranes nest at Sherburne NWR each spring, migrating from their wintering area in Florida. Sandhills that nest in northwestern Minnesota migrate there from Texas, so there are two subpopulations nesting in Minnesota. In the fall, the refuge may host thousands of cranes as they return south for the winter, feeding on the remains of fall crops on nearby agricultural land.
Sandhill Cranes are large-bodied birds, weighing 5-8 lb and standing about 4 feet tall. Their sharp bill enables them to grab and eat just about anything they can find: small mammals, frogs, insects, snails, seeds, and berries. Photo by Ken Thomas (Wikimedia Commons)
Cranes are highly social and may congregate in the thousands during migration. In fact, their name “Sandhill” comes from one of their stopover points on the Platte River near the sandhills of Nebraska.
Sandhill Cranes congregating at lake Andes in South Dakota. Photo by Gary Zahm
With their 6 foot wingspan, cranes are expert soarers and once they get altitude, their flight is fairly effortless. Their long wings make them graceful dancers as well, as they jump and flap around their partner in their own “pas de deux” that, as in the ballet, showcases the virtuosity of each of the partners. We caught just a glimpse of this action at the wildlife refuge.
Cranes can become airborne with the slightest effort and easily jump over and around their partners.
Dancing, bowing, and posturing between cranes is important for development and maintenance of their social relationships. Indigenous people are thought to have copied some of the actions of dancing cranes in marriage ceremonies or other rituals, perhaps for the same reasons.
Below is an illustration of the “pas de deux” of the cranes from YouTube. (Click on “skip ad” after a couple of seconds to play the crane dance.) The rattling call that goes along with the dancing carries over amazingly long distances.
Back Yard Biology 