Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge

...allmost 8000 acres of swamp, mud, and creepy crawlies filled with river otters and muskrats, and beaver. In winter Muscatatuck and the surounding farmland of the entire river system fill up with sandhill cranes, making it one of the noisiest quiet places I know. At dawn you cannot hear a car but the cries of birds fill the air.




















An eagle looks out over the early morning swamp





Small critters like muskrats and beavers brave the frost



I wore rubber knee high boots because it seems every inch of this place has some sort of water on it














The redwings have decided springs here even if its still cold and sing over their newly claimed territories











A river otter, its amazing how graceful they are in the water. Otters seem allmost comical on land then become something else altogethor when they slip in the water, executing beautiful turns and spins as they dive for fish.









The music of sandhills is everywhere this time of year. Nearby Ewing bottoms has sometimes ten thousand of these five foot tall cranes in winter












Redtails and redshouldered hawks, eagles and otters abound here, hunting in this smorgasboard provided by the swamp













an eagle hunting ducks, I saw wood ducks, mergansers, ring billed ducks, mallards, black ducks, grebes, wigeon, scaup, and the ever present geese.