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Birdwatcher's Paradise
Today was clear and mild, so Norm and I avoided housework and took a drive to one of our favorite places, Riverlands Bird Sanctuary near Alton. We also went on to the Confluence, as I described in the post before this one. The Riverlands is on the Missouri side of the Clark bridge across the Mississippi at Alton. It is a Corp of Engineers project that was established when the Alton Lock and Dam on the Mississippi was relocated a few years ago.
This calm bay is on the west side of Ellis Island, separated from the main river channel. We had heard this past week that the White Pelicans had arrived, so we went to see them for ourselves. These guys breed in the northern plains up into Canada, and they winter on the Gulf coast, including Florida. This flock of about two dozen was one of three or four that we saw as we drove around the refuge. The American White Pelican is a huge bird, larger even than the Brown Pelican that is a year-round Gulf resident. They can be over 5 feet long and have a wing spread of 9 feet. We saw groups of three or four drop out of the sky, circle, and then come in to land like miniature fighter planes. Unlike the Brown Pelicans, they don't dive; they dip their bills and dine on fish while swimming. Sometimes we have seen them here as late as January if the winter is mild, in flocks of several hundred.
Along the shore we found these flowers blooming. As near as I can tell, they are some variety of daisy or aster, commonly called Sneezeweed. Except for the occasional dandelion, I haven't seen any other wildflowers in bloom in November in the Midwest before!
Today was clear and mild, so Norm and I avoided housework and took a drive to one of our favorite places, Riverlands Bird Sanctuary near Alton. We also went on to the Confluence, as I described in the post before this one. The Riverlands is on the Missouri side of the Clark bridge across the Mississippi at Alton. It is a Corp of Engineers project that was established when the Alton Lock and Dam on the Mississippi was relocated a few years ago.
This calm bay is on the west side of Ellis Island, separated from the main river channel. We had heard this past week that the White Pelicans had arrived, so we went to see them for ourselves. These guys breed in the northern plains up into Canada, and they winter on the Gulf coast, including Florida. This flock of about two dozen was one of three or four that we saw as we drove around the refuge. The American White Pelican is a huge bird, larger even than the Brown Pelican that is a year-round Gulf resident. They can be over 5 feet long and have a wing spread of 9 feet. We saw groups of three or four drop out of the sky, circle, and then come in to land like miniature fighter planes. Unlike the Brown Pelicans, they don't dive; they dip their bills and dine on fish while swimming. Sometimes we have seen them here as late as January if the winter is mild, in flocks of several hundred.
Along the shore we found these flowers blooming. As near as I can tell, they are some variety of daisy or aster, commonly called Sneezeweed. Except for the occasional dandelion, I haven't seen any other wildflowers in bloom in November in the Midwest before!
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