And then I wrote...
by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"
... that National Geographic recently devoted a large part of an issue to the habits and routes of migratory birds. I was disappointed in the amount of attention it paid to the Mississippi River flyway. Some of the birds brilliantly photographed for the article are very familiar to eastern Iowans, and presentation of the map of flyway routes was very detailed. But somehow, this area seemed to be underplayed in the magazine.
I was reminded of that when I was treated to a recent afternoon’s tour of the highway from Lansing to New Albin, and then down what we always called the Army Post road through the wildlife refuge to the Minnesota (I think) slough boat landing.
Along the state highway, we saw hundreds, perhaps thousands, of ducks, including many of the mallards prized by hunters, and an equal number of Canadian geese, including a group large enough and contiguous enough to resemble a low-head dam across the Upper Iowa River.
And in a shallow cut between the road and the Mississippi sloughs, we saw a pair of tundra swans.
Eagles were omni-present, some near and some sitting on nests.
Off the post road, we were treated to flyovers of Canada geese too numerous to even estimate a number, and they were noisy. And some mallards only 20 or so feet from our passing vehicle paid us no attention.
An added treat was the spotting of a pair of Sand Hill Cranes standing, and another pair in flight. The cranes are not a pretty bird standing still, but in flight they reminded me of Navy jets with a leader and wingman, moving in concert with each other.
To those who pull every weed from a flower garden and who keep their lawns fertilized and close cut all summer, the wildlife refuge must look like an untidy mess. But to the birds which pass by twice a year on their migratory routes, it must resemble a five-star hotel!
But even on the Mississippi right in Lansing, we saw a flight of five or six small, mostly white ducks performing close air drills that would be the envy of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team.
A couple nights before that, I heard in my own neighborhood an owl, who seemed to be having no luck at finding another owl to give a hoot.
And a couple mornings later, when I went to get the dailies, there was a cacophony of sounds from birds of several varieties, probably claiming territory and doing so early, because maybe the early bird gets the mate as well as the worm.
I was reminded of a joke a comedian told years ago about the Umac bird ... the Macaw who flew from tree to tree, looking for a mate, and asking every possible choice “is it you, Mac?”
