The shallow channels, mud flats and beds of emergent grasses in Lake Analaska, which is bordered by steep, wooded hills and is located along the Mississippi River in northwestern Wisconsin, are habitats of wonderful mixes of southbound water birds, at least during October and November. I "have been" to that lovely lake several times in those two months via a live camera and our home computer. Watching the gatherings of large water birds on the lake, which is a backwater off the Mississippi, has been enjoyable and inspiring to me, just as viewing some of those same birds, in the flesh and feathers, along my home Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
Not all the birds were along that lake in Wisconsin at once, and some didn't stay there long before pushing farther south for the winter. American white pelicans, in their thousands, dominated this backwater off the Mississippi during a few weeks in October. Big and bulky, pelicans plod stoically, but majestically, on mud flats and in the shallows. Pelicans have boat-like bodies for floating on water, and long beaks and large lower mandible pouches for snaring fish from the water's surface.
The pelicans in this species work together on the water's surface to snare fish. Groups of them swim in a line, and daintily dip their beaks in the water at the same time to scoop up the confused and frantic fish.
American white pelicans fly strongly, and gracefully, in lines and V's. They often flap in unison, then glide for several seconds before flapping together again. When landing on the water, they ski to a stop on their broad, webbed feet.
During the latter part of October and into mid-November, flocks of noisy, southbound sandhill cranes settle on the flats and shallows of this backwater off the Mississippi. They are tundra nesters heading for their wintering grounds in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.
Stately sandhill cranes stand about four feet tall, have gray feathering all over, except a red spot on each bird's forehead. They are elegantly long-necked and long-legged, and wade in shallow water after aquatic invertebrates and vegetation. They also walk through harvested corn fields to pick up and ingest corn kernels on the ground. And sometimes in autumn, these magnificent cranes engage in graceful courtship dances; pairs of them leaping and flapping as the partners face each other.
Each late afternoon for a few weeks, many sandhills converged on Lake Analaska for the night. But their flocks in fall are nowhere near the size of the northbound hordes of these cranes in March and April along the Platte River in Nebraska.
Flocks of noisy Canada geese and tundra swans converge in numbers on Lake Analaska in November. These species of large, elegant waterfowl rest on flats and in the shallows, but fly out, group after group, to harvested corn fields where they scoop up corn kernels on the ground. These geese and swans are majestic on the wing when flying to and from corn fields and the bodies of water where they rest between feeding forays. These two kinds of large birds also graze on short grass and green blades of winter rye.
In fall, a variety of puddle ducks, including loose flocks of mallards, pintails, American wigeons and gadwalls, "tip-up" among protective emergent grasses and extend their beaks down to water plants on the shallow bottoms of this lake along the Mississippi. They use their beaks to tear loose that vegetation and bring it to the surface to swallow it and get a breath of air. These puddlers also shovel up corn kernels in fields. And wigeons graze on short grass, as do Canada geese.
Certain kinds of diving ducks, particularly thousands of buffleheads, and lesser numbers of common goldeneyes, ring-necked ducks and lesser scaup, dove into open, deeper waters to dredge up aquatic vegetation, invertebrates and small mollusks and crustaceans. It was interesting to see mixed rafts of these diving ducks floating and bobbing on deeper water, while some individuals dove under and others popped to the surface to swallow and get a breath.
Little gangs of ring-billed gulls, a common, inland kind of gull, fluttered lightly over the flats and shallows each late afternoon as those birds prepared to spend the night roosting on the flats. They had spent each day searching for anything edible along the lake shores, the nearby Mississippi and on fields between those large bodies of water. Ring-bills will also eat edible scraps from dumpsters and landfills.
Up to 60 majestic bald eagles, of every age, formed groups of themselves on flats, large trees fallen into the shallows and standing trees in woods along the lake's shores. These stately eagles catch fish from larger bodies of water, and scavenge dead animals, including fish washed up on shores.
These attractive and migrating water birds on Lake Analaska at the same time were exciting and inspiring to experience in the air, and on the water and mud flats. There was much to see and hear at once, including flocks of large water birds flying before a sunset, or standing still and silhouetted in water and on the flats at dusk. It was also neat to hear the birds calling, or splashing water as they fluttered their wings during bath times.
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