By Mike Busch
It seems like every week members of the Long Island Wildlife Photography group post rare or at least uncommon birds to our area. This week John Gaglione captured the image of the Sandhill Crane below. We have several posted over the years on Long Island but most of the sightings over the last few years have been in the Spring as they migrate north to breed. These large birds, related to the Great Blue Heron, typically spend their winters in huge flocks in New Mexico and Texas. Hopefully, this one finds its way south soon.
Sandhill Crane – John Gaglione
Sandhill Crane Range Map -Cornell Labs
By the way, the Long Island Wildlife Photography page on Facebook has a great search function. As I was checking out some other Sandhill Crane sightings by the group I came across a great shot by Janis Hurley of Sandhill Cranes migrating through Nebraska.
Sand Hill Crane Migration – Janis Hurley
Jim Botta helped me pick out another great collection of some of the best images of the week on the 7 pages below. Some notable finds include Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Yellow Breasted Chat, Harlequin Ducks, Snow Goose, American Bobwhite , Black-Bellied Plover, Red Head, and Horned Lark. This week’s cover goes to Sharon Dorsey with a fantastic photo of a Belted Kingfisher in the snow. Feel free to share and enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker – Jimmy Johnny
Yellow-Breasted Chat – Scott Whitmore
Fox – Matt Wasserman
Snow Bunting – Dan Fiore
Red-Bellied Woodpecker – Sharon Dorsey
Red Fox – Britni Ann
