Answer: To get to the Crossbills feeding on seeds.
The Wenlock section of Ferdinand is a most interesting section of the Middle of Nowhere. This area is a state deer yard -- it's a critical over-wintering area for deer -- and the area is also good for spotting White-winged Crossbills. I never did find the trail into Moose Bog (what a creative name), but the roadway offers some nice views of wetlands and woods, and sometimes of interesting birds as well.
On this one day, I could hear Crossbills up in the trees but couldn't get a good view of them. Continuing along the highway, I was soon joined by this lovely Gray Jay, who followed me for many tens of yards; he was very curious and not at all afraid of me... as you can see from these photos. Eventually 'we' came around a slight bend in the road, and there were 2 crossbills and a Pine Siskin, pecking seeds out of the cracks in the center of the highway. Fortunately there weren't any logging trucks roaring thru, and I was able to snap this photo of the 3 before they flew off.
On an earlier section of the same road, I heard a strange rumbling from a bridge up ahead. It was a low bridge over a creek, and I'd planned to survey the wetlands on either side to search for raptors or even moose. But this strange rumbling kept coming from the bridge and from its surroundings. It got louder as I approached. It was starting to give me the creeps. Finally, when a truck came over the bridge, out flew about two dozen pigeons!! It was their coo-ing, amplified by the acoustics of the chamber under the bridge, that was so eerie. Hah! Once I knew what was the source of the creepy sound, everything fell in place. Imagine it in your own mind.... The sound of two dozen pigeons talking in uni amongst themselves, in a 20-foot wide box culvert under the highway, with a fast-flowing creek providing just enough distortion to hide the true sound of the cooing yet reflecting and amplifying the collective cooing. Then put yourself in late afternoon as the sun is getting low, you're out on an empty stretch of highway, you've just been followed by a Gray jay and startled by a Sage Grouse, and then you hear this ever-growing "Whooo?" "Whoooo?" Can't help but laugh, in retrospect!
My checklist for a not-so-boring afternoon in Ferdinand:
Sage Grouse
Rock Pigeon
Gray Jay
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Belted Kingfisher
Pine Siskin
White-winged Crossbill
The Wenlock section of Ferdinand is a most interesting section of the Middle of Nowhere. This area is a state deer yard -- it's a critical over-wintering area for deer -- and the area is also good for spotting White-winged Crossbills. I never did find the trail into Moose Bog (what a creative name), but the roadway offers some nice views of wetlands and woods, and sometimes of interesting birds as well.
On this one day, I could hear Crossbills up in the trees but couldn't get a good view of them. Continuing along the highway, I was soon joined by this lovely Gray Jay, who followed me for many tens of yards; he was very curious and not at all afraid of me... as you can see from these photos. Eventually 'we' came around a slight bend in the road, and there were 2 crossbills and a Pine Siskin, pecking seeds out of the cracks in the center of the highway. Fortunately there weren't any logging trucks roaring thru, and I was able to snap this photo of the 3 before they flew off.
On an earlier section of the same road, I heard a strange rumbling from a bridge up ahead. It was a low bridge over a creek, and I'd planned to survey the wetlands on either side to search for raptors or even moose. But this strange rumbling kept coming from the bridge and from its surroundings. It got louder as I approached. It was starting to give me the creeps. Finally, when a truck came over the bridge, out flew about two dozen pigeons!! It was their coo-ing, amplified by the acoustics of the chamber under the bridge, that was so eerie. Hah! Once I knew what was the source of the creepy sound, everything fell in place. Imagine it in your own mind.... The sound of two dozen pigeons talking in uni amongst themselves, in a 20-foot wide box culvert under the highway, with a fast-flowing creek providing just enough distortion to hide the true sound of the cooing yet reflecting and amplifying the collective cooing. Then put yourself in late afternoon as the sun is getting low, you're out on an empty stretch of highway, you've just been followed by a Gray jay and startled by a Sage Grouse, and then you hear this ever-growing "Whooo?" "Whoooo?" Can't help but laugh, in retrospect!
My checklist for a not-so-boring afternoon in Ferdinand:
Sage Grouse
Rock Pigeon
Gray Jay
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Belted Kingfisher
Pine Siskin
White-winged Crossbill
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