The Red-Winged Blackbirds
Last week, I was hiking at the Crane Trust Nature Center near Wood River, just off I-80 at mile marker 305. I know it's too late to see any Sandhill Cranes, but the Crane Trust, with its broad paths and arching footbridges, is still a remarkable place to hike along the Platte River. That cool, blustery day, I was surprised to find myself surrounded by flocks of red-winged blackbirds, flitting around too fast for me to zoom in for a good picture. They seemed to be rather leery of me--or, maybe they were darting after a swarm of insects that I couldn't see. (Flying insects are their preferred source of food.) The day was overcast and dreary, so my camera failed to pick up the red stripes on each bird's wings, but you can trust me when I tell you they were red-winged blackbirds. After all, red-winged blackbirds were the first wild birds I can remember watching. I was probably three or four years old when Mom would load my baby brother and me into our sky blue Ford so we could