Necedah Wildlife Refuge

This morning I met Richard Bonomo at the Schoenstatt Shrine to pray a rosary with the Pope, then we went with Travalon down to State Street and had lunch sitting outside at Dubai, a Mideastern restaurant. As we were waiting for our lunch to arrive, Ma Hat called to tell me about the protests in Minnesota, and just then a big protest group came marching down State Street, chanting, "I can't breathe!" I wanted to join them, but my instinct was to avoid it because in so many other cities, outside groups have infiltrated the peaceful protests and turned things violent. Sure enough, there is a riot going on downtown now, but we didn't know anything about it, because Travalon and I went back to the Necedah Wildlife Refuge.

I think there is a "whooping crane sighting or your money back" guarantee at the refuge, because the first thing we saw when we got there was the pair of whooping cranes we saw last time. Sadly, they do not have any babies, and they were also being harassed by a red-winged blackbird.

Then we walked on the boardwalk and saw lots of swans.

All the other swans were sitting or swimming sedately, but this one was acting so crazy!

We saw this pair of swans with two cygnets.

We walked along a woodland trail and saw lots of blooming lupines.

There were a lot of young oak trees with pink leaves.

There were ferns that were as tall as I am!

And other interesting plants which I do not know what they are.

And we saw this beautiful view of the moon.

Then we went to the observation tower we hadn't gotten to last time, and we saw another whooping crane by itself.

Or was it? Because we also saw this sandhill crane, seemingly also by itself, on a nest. Don't tell the Crane Foundation, or they will split them up!

We also saw a pair of swans with seven silver cygnets.

Then we went back to where the pair of whooping cranes were again.

As we were leaving the wildlife refuge, we saw people slowing down as if a deer was crossing the road... but it was actually a big, black bear! Unfortunately since we were driving, we didn't get a chance to take a picture of it.

In Necedah we saw this abandoned building which used to be the church hall of the old St. Francis Church, and oddly the steeple from the old church is now on top of the entrance. Travalon found an old photo of it from the 50's, so that's how we know. Of course there is now a big new St. Francis Church on the outskirts of town.

We went to the carwash again, and here is a video of the tri-colored wash:

When we were almost home, we passed this patch of poppies on River Road:

And we saw a stunning sunset!

Here are the adorable crane babies in our neighborhood:

So we don't even have to go all the way to Necedah to see amazing birds!

Famous Hat