MIGRANT BIRDS IN GRASS AND SHALLOWS

     Today, March 28, 2024, the live camera at Lake Onalaska, a back-water lake off the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, was, for a time, focused on several yards of tall grass on a small, mud flat island, and shallow water in front of that grassy island.  The migrant bird species in those grass and water niches, including flocks of tree swallows, several scattered red-winged blackbirds, a few lesser yellowlegs sandpipers, and a small group of regal ring-necked ducks, were beautiful and inspiring to see in their natural habitats, even when viewed on a computer screen.  All those species recently moved into those niches to rest and feed, but only the red-wings will stay there to raise young among the tall grasses.

     Flocks of American white pelicans, sandhill cranes, tundra swans, Canada geese, common goldeneye ducks and ring-billed gulls, plus several bald eagles, were on Lake Onalaska at that same time, but I was focused on the beauties and intrigues of the four bird species on, and by, that small, grassy island, at least for a little while.    

     Gatherings of striking tree swallows perched on the wind-swayed grass between their forays for flying insects.  When feeding, the swallows skim swiftly and low over the water, quickly turning this way, then that after airborne insects, without collision with each other.  Sometimes, all the swallows take flight at once, for no reason that I can see.  But I am not a tree swallow.  And the "spooked" swallows soon return to the high grasses to rest again before feeding.  

     Male red-winged blackbirds are handsome in their black feathering, with red shoulder patches that are most visible when those birds sing from swaying cattails and tall grasses.  I saw some of those lovely males raising their wings with each song, which showed off their scarlet epaulets.  Their mates, however, are a pretty brown, with darker streaking, which camouflages them among cattails and other tall vegetation.  Red-wings feed on seeds and invertebrates they pick off plants and mud flats.  

     A few migrant lesser yellowlegs waded in the shallows after aquatic invertebrates.  They have long, yellow legs that carry them into water where they poke their long beaks in mud under water to seize aquatic invertebrates.  This gray and white-speckled-feathered species nests by lakes and ponds in Canada's boreal forests.  

     A little group of elegant ring-necked ducks swam in the shallows under the high grass, tree swallows and red-wings.  These beautiful, black and gray drakes and brown hens dive underwater from the surface to ingest water snails, small crustaceans, and aquatic invertebrates and vegetation.  Like the yellowlegs, these lovely ducks raise ducklings on ponds in Canada's and Alaska's forests.

     All these kinds of migrating birds are attractive and intriguing in a beautiful niche.  Together they created a lovely, inspiring picture, however fleeting.  All of nature is inspiring beyond words.          

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