Travalon's Rainy Half-Birthday in the Marshes

 

Sorry that I haven't blogged in several days. Thursday I worked on campus and walked with my colleague, then in the evening Jilly Moose, two other ladies, and I had a wonderful dinner sitting outside at the Globe while discussing the Church Fathers. I did take this photo of a tiger swallowtail on campus, to make up for all the ones we missed at the George W. Mead Wildlife Preserve.

Friday I worked at home and didn't walk with my neighbor, who is out of town. Travalon and I had dinner on the dock, and a neighbor came and joined us. We watched the parade of boats coming in for the evening, and one had purple lights along the side.

Usually we forget about Travalon's half-birthday until June is half over, but this time I remembered it. I asked what he'd like to do, and he said go to Horicon. Today was very rainy, but Travalon and I headed to Horicon with great optimism that it would let up. We did stop at the Schultz Cheese Haus for the Platonic ideal of a peanut butter cup, and we ran on that all afternoon. By the time we got to the boardwalk, it was raining softly enough that we decided to take a walk in it. On the drive we saw a young buck who crossed the road in front of us.

On the boardwalk we saw two male blue-winged teals chasing each other around.

Then they landed in different areas. Here is the one that landed close to us.

We saw a patch of swamp irises.

And this tree that looks like a portal to another dimension.

And we saw vetch in bloom. It is much prettier than its name implies.

On the auto tour, we saw an egret being harassed by a red-winged blackbird. You can see them both in this photo.

I love this photo of an egret we saw on the auto tour.

We also saw a lone swan.

Then we went to the path that is only open June-August. We saw this massive snapping turtle on the path.

We saw - and heard - a lot of yellow-headed blackbirds. They sound like a squeaky gate.

We saw a pair of red-headed ducks.

And we saw black-necked stilts.

We saw a pair of goldfinches. Travalon got a photo of the female, but the male was too quick.

This kingbird was posing so nicely for us.

We didn't eat lunch until almost four, and then we went to the nature center where we sometimes see the white-headed goose. We didn't see him today, but they have purple martin houses, and we saw lots of purple martins.

The lupins there were a much deeper purple than the lavender ones we saw on Monday.

This is a red-winged blackbird sitting on what looks like a wood duck nesting box.

Here is a mammoth statue.

I saw a robin singing on top of another statue, and barn swallows were dive-bombing him. What was with all the birds fighting today? Two male teals, the red-winged blackbird dive-bombing the egret, and then that? I think it's because they'e all nesting.

We drove to the hill from which you can see most of the marsh, and we saw two more huge snapping turtles. Here is one of them. I think they're females coming out of the water to lay their eggs.

We saw a pair of swans with some cygnets that you can't see in the photo.

Here is a view of the marsh.

We weren't sure what this contraption was but guessed it was for clearing weeds.

We saw a pair of sandhill cranes, but no whooping cranes today.

There were also purple martin houses there, with lots of occupants. I think the darker birds are the parents, and the ones that are lighter below are juveniles.

This sparrow that had caught a dragonfly was hanging out with them.

We stopped by Patrick Marsh, because we hadn't seen pelicans at Horicon. Along the path we saw a couple of common yellowthroats.

And there were pelicans!

Suddenly they flew away.

Isn't this tree swallow pretty? It's so blue and shiny!

I suggested we drive the road along Patrick Marsh, because sometimes we see great blue herons there. We did see two, but they flew away before Travalon could get a photo. He did get this action shot of a wood duck and her babies fleeing from us.

After our successful birdwatching day, and walking six miles, we just came home and hung out. Travalon really wanted Mariner's clam chowder, so he went over and got some for both of us. I think he had a really good half-birthday, now that we remembered it for the first time.

Famous Hat