Five years ago there was a totally black flamingo spotted in Cyprus - you can see pictures of it on the internet. It has melanism, which is the opposite of albinism - an excess of melanin, often seen in leopards but rarer than albinism in most animals. The pure black flamingo was seen and photographed several times, and then this year in February someone filmed a flamingo with a pink head and neck and black body. Was it the same flamingo? But why would its head and neck have changed color? I think it is something more wonderful: that one of the regular flamingos loved the black flamingo, and they had a baby flamingo together. I love to think that the black flamingo was totally accepted, as it seemed to be in all the photos and footage showing it frolicking with its pink companions.
Today Travalon and I went to Horicon Marsh, and we realized that we really need tripods, because it is so hard to zoom in on birds and hold our hands steady enough to take the pictures. We started by the boardwalk, where we saw a pond with some egrets on it.
I took this picture of a mallard on a muskrat lodge, which is not very exciting, but it turned out well.
Then, as we headed to the part of the marsh where the white-headed goose lives, we passed a field where I spotted a big white bird. It was a whooping crane!! The same one as last week? We aren't sure. He seems to have the same leg bands. We pulled off onto a small road and took some photos of him, then we followed the road to the end and found a short path down to part of the marsh, and when we returned, he was flirting with a sandhill crane that was half his size. He danced around, but she was unimpressed and flew away, so he made some mournful sounds. Poor thing! It's so hard to find a mate when you are a rare creature like that. Travalon got some footage of his dance, and some is awesome, but some is... well, you can imagine how it is without a tripod, plus the wind is very noisy so you can barely hear the crane's plaintive calls. I have edited it and added Compay Segundo singing "Chan Chan."
At the part of the marsh where the white-headed goose lives, by the Visitors' Center, there is this statue of a wooly mammoth.
And here - you could see this coming - are photos of my favorite white-headed goose. Sadly, his mate is still sitting on the nest, but the eggs should have hatched by now, so I have to conclude our hybrid friend is sterile.
At the Visitors' Center we saw a couple of killdeer.
And we also saw lots of goslings! I accidentally cut their parents' heads off in this photo - this is why we need tripods! Travalon got some footage that needs editing for the same reason.
Then we went to Theresa Marsh, where we didn't see any sandpipers like last time, but we did see lots of killdeer, and some bloodroot. (At least, I think that's what this is.)
And we also saw turtles on rocks!
And a very beautiful blue heron.
We saw this pair of sandhill cranes where one is brown and one is gray. They were just hanging out on the ground, and then a whole bunch of cranes flew overhead, but they didn't join them or even seem to notice.
Did you notice what is missing from this week's marsh post? That's right, if you had more than your fill of pelican pictures last weekend, you are in luck because we didn't see a single pelican today. Where did they all go? They must be hanging out with the swans, who have also disappeared.
Famous Hat
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