Yesterday I worked from home, and my neighbor is back, so we walked together. Travalon got some baby crane photos that I will post soon, but there will already be a lot of photos on this post just from today. Because Travalon booked so many hotels in Florida, he got a free night at a hotel, but it had to be used before Memorial Day Weekend, so tonight we are staying at a hotel in Waupun. On the way up we stopped at Patrick Marsh and saw lots of pelicans.
In Waupun we met a friend who lives here for lunch, then we went to Horicon Marsh. Our first stop was the boardwalk on the auto tour. I was bummed that the Old Marsh Road is closed until the beginning of June, since that's where we saw the yellow-headed blackbirds before, but as soon as I stepped on the boardwalk, the magic began. I saw a whooping crane flying away, and I heard what sounded like someone playing jazz trumpet, which seemed like a strange thing to do in the marsh. Then I realized it was two swans flying around, trumpeting to each other. They landed, and everyone was looking at them because they were so close to us. They were HUGE!
We saw a lot of egrets too, and in the distance we saw a whooping crane - the one I had seen flying away. Then we heard it bugling! Here is an egret with the green around its eye showing. That means it's in breeding season.
Here is a male blue-winged teal.
Then the whooping crane flew by us!
And there were lots of baby Canada geese. This family only had one gosling.
The trilliums (trillia?) were in full bloom.
And this tree looks like it has a secret door in it. Who lives in there?
We saw pelicans flying by, and then we had seen all four Big White Birds at Horicon.
As we drove along the highway, we saw a yellow-headed blackbird sitting by the side of the road, so we parked the car and crossed the road. By then he had flown away, but I heard his call... and then we saw him!
There were also a lot of coots, and I had always hoped to see a baby coot with its bright red feathers on its head, but we didn't see any babies. We did see ruddy ducks with their turned-up tails and bright blue bills.
Sadly, we also saw a dead beaver by the side of the road. Here is a much larger goose family.
And this is either a red-headed duck or a canvasback.
When we drove by another nature center that never seems to be open, we saw another whooping crane!
The nature center was actually open today, but when I told the naturalist that there was a whooping crane outside, she just said, "Yeah, he's always there." She also had no idea where to see baby coots.
Here is a photo of the marsh from an overlook.
And yet another goose family.
We went to the nature center where we often see the white-headed goose, but we didn't see him again. People say he has been around this year. But look what we did see - a snow goose! He's much smaller than the Canada geese.
This pelican and cormorant seem to be best buddies.
Here is the pelican in a silly pose.
And four sandhill cranes flew right by us.
We were planning to go to Mass in Fox Lake at six, but just after five we passed the church in Horicon, which has Mass at five, so we snuck in during the first reading. There were five first communicants (although seven were listed in the program, so what the hey?), and the priest had one of those mustaches with the waxed curly ends like people had at the turn of the last century. He was young and seemed kind of hipster, but he did talk about Theresa of Avila's
Interior Castle during his homily, so I liked that. Then we got to Fox Lake about halfway through their Mass, and the church was a lovely old one, so we decided to peek inside. Only, they lock the doors during Mass. (Did something happen once?) A guy saw us and let us in, and we tried to explain that we had just gone to Mass and only wanted to see the church, but he seemed so eager to have us come in that we felt bad for just peeking in and then leaving. I think they would have appreciated our presence a lot more than the big, modern church we went to!
Our friend works at a restaurant in Fox Lake, so we went there and saw her, but they had a forty-five minute wait, so we went to another restaurant we like there, but they were closed for a wedding. We ended up going to an old-fashioned diner and having deep-fried food and kiddie malts that were served in adorable cups with sea creatures on them, so we kept ours. Even that place had a bit of a wait, so we entertained ourselves drawing on an old Mallards ticket with "crayangles," triangle crayons provided by the diner, and a pen I had in my purse. For example, I drew a horse and noted that he was "out standing in his field," and Travalon drew a bunch of turtles racing and called it the "Okeefenokee Grand Prix." The only color crayons we had were Bluebird Blue, Gator Green, and Duckling Yellow. Then we came back to the hotel, swam in the pool, and hung out in the hot tub. I had to call Rich for technical support with New Boethius, but it was an ID10T error on my part. As usual. Otherwise, what a magical day!
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