In Another Country

 [Common Redpolls love to feed on weed seeds. These are at Wisconsin's Crex Meadows Wildlife Area, a place I didn't even know existed a few weeks ago - and a place I will be returning to. Click to enlarge photos.]

Business had me traveling to the Great Lakes states last week - from the Rio Grande Valley, no less, where I visited friends, saw the wall (ugh) at Santa Ana, and shared my son Tim's excitement with all his  lower Valley lifers, my old friends. By the way, White-collared Seedeaters were easy at Salineno. Just saying.

After notching my last two U.S. states (Oklahoma and Iowa), we arrived in far northwestern Wisconsin, we being me and Boone. It really felt like a different country: nice people, no traffic, wonderful woods and meadows, and a few northern birds despite the fact the land there is still snow covered and at night our frozen breath coated the inside of the truck cap. Birds like Northern Shrike, and the species pictured.

[Trumpeter Swans, also at Crex Meadows. Waiting for the thaw. Trumpeter swans were extirpated from Wisconsin in the late 1800's but were re-introduced in  the late 1980's, with great success.]