Creamer's Field, Fairbanks, AK

Don spotted this "home made" sprinkler system as we drove in. It seems that the small wheel has water being sprayed up to it; gears inside the small wheel turn the wheel when it is hit by water, which in turn causes the top larger round wheel to rotate around and water comes out of it watering the lawn. A true "Rube Goldberg" was Don's comment, but he loved the system.

Creamer's Field was once the site of Creamer's Dairy Farm, the largest and most successful dairy in interior Alaska. Because migratory birds had been stopping each spring to feast on the fallow fields, when the dairy farm went up for sale the community of Fairbanks raised funds to secure the lands for migratory and local birds The farm today is known as Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge and owned by the State of Alaska--managed for the Department of Fish and Game.

The white building was the original Creamery and now houses exhibits of birds and their amazing migrations, teaching areas, and a nature store.

During my couple of visits geese and Sandhill Cranes were the dominate birds. A duck was seen here and there.

Sandhill Cranes cover over 4,000 miles annually in their migratory runs. These Lesser Sandhill Cranes of interior Alaska are about 3 feet tall with a wingspan of 6 feet and weigh 6-8 pounds. The central flyway they use during migration often has an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 birds flying the pathway.

Both sexes are gray however they "paint" their feathers with mud and rotting vegetation creating rusty highlights (above).

The red cap on the head of the crane comes after the first year and can increase or decrease depending on the birds mood.

Watch these cranes for awhile and you have to laugh at their antics. They fluff themselves to appear bigger and extend their wings in preparation to protect or fight, or stand beak to beak posturing. They are comical birds.

The cranes gather (staging) until there are perhaps 50 to several hundred. Taking off the cranes wheel and call while flying high overhead in great circling columns, or "kettles" as they fly over the norther foothills of the Alaska Range heading southward for the winter.


BBFN, Karen and Don