For our anniversary weekend this year, Travalon and I decided to stay in a hotel right by Horicon Marsh so we could get up bright and early and see what the kids these days are calling "aminals," if by kids you mean the under-four crowd. More specifically, we wanted to see what they call in New Jersey "boids," although we did end up seeing some cute, furry mammals too. Our first stop was the boardwalk, and at that hour we were basically alone. We could hear a lot of birdcalls, including one that sounded almost like a kookaburra - I sure wanted to see what made that sound! After some internet research, I believe it was a pileated woodpecker, so that would have been incredible to see. I saw one once years ago, at Wyalusing State Park, but I didn't have a camera at the time. Imagine Woody Woodpecker come to life, and you've basically got it. Here are some of the birds we did see. First, this almost looked like a two-headed goose.
We saw some pelicans soaring gracefully overhead.
And we saw lots of blue-winged teals.
I think these are called black-winged terns. They squeaked at us loudly.
As promised, here is one of the muskrats we saw.
And we saw lots of these beautiful swallows flitting about.
In the distance we saw a whooping crane flying.
Then we realized it was flying with a sandhill crane. A mated pair?
Don't let the International Crane Foundation know! They'll split them up.
Right in our path we saw Canada geese with adorable goslings.
Fortunately they got in the water and swam away, so we could pass.
As we drove along the three-mile loop, we saw this sandpiper pondering its reflection.
It came to a decision about what it saw.
I love this photo of a blue-winged teal standing on one foot.
We drove to the place where we had seen a whooping crane fly right overhead, but all we saw were pelicans in the distance and this teeny little nest. I wonder whose nest it is?
And look at this crazy bird we saw!
Then we went to a part of the marsh we had never seen before, on Dam Road. We hiked along a path and saw this pair of canvasback ducks. The male seems very amused.
Isn't he a handsome duck?
There sure seem to be a lot of blue-winged teals this year, not just in this marsh but in the one we live in as well.
Here a sandpiper is very well disguised. They have a loud cry, and when they fly you can see that their tails are white, but Travalon couldn't get them in flight.
He also couldn't get the tern in flight. It was white with a black head, and it would hover over the water and suddenly dive. We saw two of them one day this past week off our dock back home.
Travalon did get a good shot of this Northern shoveler laughing... at the pelicans?
The pelicans didn't seem disturbed by it.
But then they did fly away from the duck (or, more likely, us).
As we walked back, a bunch of pelicans returned.
I thought this lesser scaup was a handsome duck too.
And here is one of the sandpipers not flying around and yelling at us.
As this blue-winged teal is grooming his wing, you can see the blue and green patch on it.
I like this photo of him, with the reflection.
As he and his mate flew away from us, you could see the blue patches on their wings.
In this photo, he looks like someone just asked him a question while his mouth was full.
And we saw coots too, which aren't ducks but often hang around them.
As we continued down Dam Road, the geese would sit by the side of the road until we got closer, then they would decide to walk right in front of us. See illustration below.
I think this pretty duck is a green-winged teal, but of course he turned his back on us as soon as Travalon pulled out his camera.
We stopped for lunch at a family restaurant instead of Subway as usual, and I had a chicken chimichanga. Is it weird to eat bird after looking at birds? Then we continued on to the spot where we always see the white-headed goose, except for the time we came with the Rosary Ladies. Sure enough, he was front and center.
There were lots of purple martins twittering and flying around.
We walked along the boardwalk in that section and saw lots of red-winged blackbirds.
This blind looks like something from a Louisiana bayou.
We saw more pelicans flying overhead.
I love this photo of Big and Little Goose.
There was a family in the water, and one gosling kept striking out on its own.
Here is another red-winged blackbird.
When we got back to the center, the white-headed goose was still there. Where was he when we wanted to show him off to our friends? Who knows? I think he is a gander, but my bandmate thinks he is a swoose, as in a swan-goose hybrid, and a male swan is a cob, so would he be a cander or a gob?
We went to the top of the hill from which you can see almost the whole marsh, and we saw egrets.
And more pelicans. The only large, white bird I didn't see today was a swan.
Here is a view of the marsh from the hill.
We drove up the west side of the marsh and poked our noses back into a bunch of little viewing areas. This one seems to have an island in the middle of the marsh. It might have been the one on Island Road - hence the name?
At one stop we found these signs about various duck breeds.
And at another stop we saw this pair of sandhill cranes. They really are barely updated dinosaurs.
After we got back, we swam in the wonderful, warm pool and the also wonderful not-too-hot hot tub. (We did that last night too, right after we got here.) Then we went to a pizza place in town, and Travalon hung out with his high school buddy while I did Night Prayer and blogged. He just got back, so it must be time for me to wrap this up.
Famous Hat
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