Tag: Longbilled Curlew

I promised to tell you a little about the Sandhill Cranes traveling companions. When I looked at the shorter birds in the front I thought I was in the wrong state. They’re Ibis! White-faced ibis to be exact (although their faces aren’t white at the moment). The flock of brown speckled similar birds aren’t the females. They’re long billed curlew.

Any one of these birds would be a fairly amazing sighting, but a couple hundred of all three is a rare treat. They’ve stopped in a cornfield that has been cut down, so there’s lots of little loose kernals lying around for munching. I couldn’t tell which flock lead the way, but on this particular day the cranes had the best feeding ground, and when they moved out the ibis and curlew moved in. Amazingly, when I passed that way the same time the following day I didn’t see a single one. They were just passing through.

I just had to do a video for the event, but worked all day yesterday on a soundtrack that youtube deleted. Sigh. I actually like this better, but it was very frusterating to do it again. Must remember to pick famous songs recorded by unfamous people.