On Monday, August 21, 2017 the Yellowstone Teton Territory area will experience a Full Solar Eclipse resulting in great memories with this once in a lifetime opportunity!
Grays Lake – Home of the World’s Largest Sandhill Crane Nesting Population
Description
By Bill Schiess
Songbirds like the Mountain bluebird has also benefitted with the creation of the Grays Lake NWR. |
They usually arrive in early April where they dance and carry on as the young ones try to attract a mate. While the old ones usually already have mated for life, they still dance and sing letting their mate know how lucky they are to have them as a companion.
Grays Lake is not a lake at all, but is a large shallow marsh that has very little open water. In the center of the marsh is a large island called “Bear Island” with no land access. Human entry is prohibited on the refuge from March 31 until September 20, with the northern half of the refuge available for hiking from September 21 through March 30.
The best times to visit the refuge are spring, early summer and fall as by mid-summer the vegetation is too high to observe much and the winters are usually bitter cold with few species available to observe.
Raptors roost on any high point looking for careless prey to show themselves. |
Large colonies of Franklin’s gulls, grebes, White-faced ibis along with the elusive American bitterns and rails nest in the marsh grasses. At the edge of the marsh songbirds like the Mountain Bluebird, the Idaho State Bird, can be seen nesting and raising their young during the summer. Raptors hunt the marsh for careless birds and rodents. Moose, elk, deer and coyotes are just some of the wild animals that can be observed.
The arable land on the refuge is farmed for the benefit of the wildlife. Fields of grain are raised as food for migrating birds with hay cutting and pasturing utilized to control the tall grass. In the spring controlled burning of the tall bulrushes and cattails allows better nesting and food habitat for all wildlife.
Travelers should be aware that there are no services at Grays Lake. The nearest services are at Freedom, Wyoming (20 miles away) and Soda Springs, Idaho (30 miles away).
But to many people, Grays Lake means the Greater Sandhill cranes. With their mating shows, that may include chucking dried cow pies at each other, to their conditioning early fall flights high in the air, these intriguing birds are as entertaining as anything one can find.
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