I got to play outside today, for the first time since last Fall. I raked an area where some bulbs will be coming up shortly, and then went to clean the flower gardens along the sidewalk. I cut back ornamental grass and spent plants, and hacked back part of the vinca that's trying to take over the garden. I have crocus in bloom, and lilies, tulips and daffodils are pushing their way up through the soil. The iris are greening up, and I've moved the plants I wintered over to rest at the edge of the sidewalk.
I rested for a moment as I finished loading up the wheelbarrow, and a noise caught my attention. A flock of birds were passing over the house. I watched until they were out of sight and then went looking for the bird books because I don't have the faintest idea what they were!
The birds were flying in a V, but just north of the house, they circled around and then soared over the subdivision in confusion. A second skein of birds joined them, and they circled some more before they headed west, toward a wetland that has been created for the egrets and herons that visit in the summer.
The birds were LARGE. They were flying higher than Canada geese usually fly. They talked to each other with a sound that was half way between a croak and a coo. I couldn't see any detail on the birds, but they looked dark, and they resembled the profile of a cormorant in flight (according to the bird book), widespread wings....long trailing feet, long neck leading.
I've seen them once before in the Fall when they are going south. Dear Husband told me they were buzzards, but I can't find that in the bird book, and vultures don't look like they would have a long enough neck.
So, my birding friends, what did I see??
Comments (5)
Could you have seen cranes flying over? The long necks and trailing legs suggests sandhills heading north to the Canadian plains. My wife and I saw flock after flock of snow geese in southern Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota two weeks ago but I think there were also a few flocks of cranes mixed in with the rest.
Posted by joated | March 21, 2005 9:57 PM
Posted on March 21, 2005 21:57
I'm with joated. Sounds like sandhill cranes to me. They make an unforgettable sound. I'm trying to picture cormorants in flight and can't picture feet hanging back. Their tails are about as long as their necks, though, and those stick aft, of course. I can't recall for sure, but I think it's about time the cranes came to Kansas--Quivera National Wildlife Refuge and Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Refuge.
Posted by Cop Car | March 21, 2005 10:36 PM
Posted on March 21, 2005 22:36
Ohhhhhhhhh KEWL!! Those birds were huge. You could tell they were flying a lot higher than geese fly, and even at that height they looked bigger than geese. The neck and feet were slender looking and stuck out quite far from the body. I bet the two of you are right. Thanks for the help!
CC....these birds certainly had a memorable sound. It was a very rough coo, or a coo crossed with a gargle. It was almost as though they cooed and clicked.
Posted by Buffy | March 22, 2005 12:58 AM
Posted on March 22, 2005 00:58
I think of cranes as "clacking"; but, for the life of me I can't conjure up the sound in my head. I certainly know it when I hear it, though! Nice sighting. You were paying attention!
Posted by Cop Car | March 23, 2005 8:55 AM
Posted on March 23, 2005 08:55
I was desperate to get all the detail down before I forgot something, or was persuaded by the bird book that I had seen something else.
Yes..."clacking" might describe their sound. You were right when you said that once heard it would never be forgotten, but I can't reproduce or describe it.
Posted by Buffy | March 23, 2005 1:39 PM
Posted on March 23, 2005 13:39