Four Big White Birds Again

 

This morning Travalon and I slept in, since we had already gone to Mass, then after breakfast at the hotel (plus half my lunch from yesterday) we went to Guth for coffee. On the way up yesterday we had stopped at the Schultz Cheese Haus so I could get one of their peanut butter cups with tiny M&Ms on top. (True story: on one of our road trips I was jonesin' for chocolate with tiny M&Ms because of these peanut butter cups, and we stopped into a Kwik Trip that had one container of chocolate bark with tiny M&Ms. The person who rang it up said, "What is this? I never knew we had this!" It's like it was there just for me!) Anyway, at the Cheese Haus they had told us these peanut butter cups were made at Guth, so this morning we each got one to go with our coffee. I wouldn't eat one every day, but whatever is in them makes me so happy! I'm just floating afterwards.

We went back to the auto tour in Horicon, and we walked on the boardwalk. Of course Blogspot decided to load this batch in opposite order, so I'll take you on a reverse voyage down the boardwalk. This starts after we got back in the car: a family of geese were crossing the road in front of us.

We saw this egret very close. The green around its eyes means it's ready to breed.

Here's what the boardwalk looks like from the road.

We saw lots of painted turtles.

We saw the same pair of trumpeter swans that were there yesterday too.

Here I am on the boardwalk.

We saw lots of red-winged blackbirds, but no yellow-headed blackbirds today.

More shots of the swans.

And we saw a number of egrets again today.

That fake duck is still there.

Then we drove to the nature center with the part that looks like a pagoda. (We should have taken a photo.) Today it was not open, but the whooping crane was in a nearby field. I guess he does hang out there all the time like the naturalist said yesterday.

We saw pelicans flying around nearby, so today we again saw all four Big White Birds.

Here's the whooping crane again.

As we drove along the road, the guy coming the opposite direction had stopped because this female ring-necked pheasant was just standing in his way. He didn't seem too upset - he was taking pictures of her. Every time we see a male (like Christmas Day in Ixonia), we never seem to have a camera handy.

At the nature center where we often see the white-headed goose, we saw this killdeer.

And lots of geese with babies, but not our buddy with the white head.

We saw more turtles too.

And of course more red-winged blackbirds.

We walked along the path where not one but two people had told us they had seen the white-headed goose this year, but we saw no sign of him. Still, it's good to know he's still with us. 

After that we drove to Theresa Marsh. We have seen lots of cool stuff there, sandpipers and herons and even a whooping crane once, but today we didn't even see the usual turtles. It had gotten very hot by then, so maybe that's why. Here's a view of the railroad track over the marsh.

Here's a view of the marsh.

We did see a coot, but no baby coots. I really want to see babies - they have bright orange-red feathers on their heads.

Then a train came by, and Travalon made a video, which I will try to edit and post at some point. This train had lots of double-decker shipping containers piled onto it. Travalon did take a photo of me in front of the engine at the back of the train.

On the way home, Travalon stopped at the Kwik Trip right by our house, because his gas light came on. And right across the street there was a blue heron in a tree!

That was a good way to end a great birding weekend. Now I am resting up before heading to band practice.

Famous Hat