After dropping Birk off at the Minneapolis airport for his senior trip to Washington DC, I decide to take a detour on my way home to northern Minnesota. This is my favorite “long cut” to Wrenshall, and avoids a couple hours of freeway driving.

Crex Meadows is one of Wisconsin’s premiere State Wildlife Areas, and is most famous for being a major staging area for Sandhill Cranes in late fall.

It was too early for returning cranes since the marshy lakes were still frozen, but that doesn’t deter Trumpeter Swans! They return crazy early just to get the best nesting spots.

And that is what stopped me along a dirt road in the refuge. A pair of Trumpeters on a snowy point surrounded by slushy blue ice in perfect light. And as I was photographing them, an adult Bald Eagle flew right at me and landed a hundred feet away. That doesn’t happen every day!

The Eagle “caught” (really plucked) a couple dead winter-kill Bullheads from the slush. Interestingly, it seemed to prefer the skin of the fish, and stripped that first. That is one of the fattier and more nutrient-rich parts of any fish.

Other bird highlights included a small flock of Redpolls, American Tree Sparrow, Ring-necked Pheasant and Wild Turkeys.

A near-miss possible lowlight was almost getting stuck in the mucky, muddy roads THREE times! But I barely made it out.

A Serendipitous day of birding and bird photography!