White refuge day!

Kurt and I visited the refuge today under low clouds that were quite white. Very hard to capture auto focus on birds, especially the white (pelicans and tundra swans) and grey (sandhill cranes and northern harriers). Nevertheless we persisted and enjoyed the visit immensely.  Any time you can have Sandhill cranes and Tundra swans flying over you is a good time.
The DNR was cleaning out the elevated birds nests and putting in new hay. The airboats they were working from got the swans flying as well as a number of GBH's. A couple of kestrels added to the day and a juvenile red-tailed hawk chasing an older red-tailed hawk was the final picture as we left.

Sandhill Crane - flew by making his gurgling sound.

Posing for the shot.

Grey ghost Harrier came back for his photo op!

Pelicans down the stream.

Tundra swans in the distance.

Pelicans made us smile.

Juvy redtail beginning his dive on the adult that is in a tree.