Subject: [Tweeters] evening crane flight Corfu Unit Columbia NWR, Grant Co,
Date: Apr 8 07:28:51 2005
From: Bob Flores - rflores at smwireless.net


The flight began about 5:00pm with cranes moving in, the geese came in shortly after (5:30) the wind was howling and the birds, even the geese, came in very low. I was parked at the end of Rd C-se and surveyed the cranes as they came in from the east and ended up with 14,500 as my count, I did not survey those coming from the west. The birds started working the disked portion and this brought them close to the vehicle so stay it yours and use it as a blind. The closest crane lastnight was about 50 yards from me but light conditions were low and pictures did not turn out well!

Had a awesome experience a long-tailed weasel attacked and killed a young cottontail about 25 yards from me. I attempted to take a picture, had to scramble for the camera and it was off of course!, through the front windshield of the vehicle and got only blurs. The weasel moved so fast and after the kill he must have detected my movement and dropped the cottontail then raced from cover grabbed it ran under my vehicle then out the back and ran down the road for atleast 100 yards before leaving. This with a cottontail in it's mouth that was much bigger that it is!

Be thankful they are as small as they are!

Bob Flores
Othello, WA