Another Amazing Bird-Watching Day

 

Today was an amazing day. I got to sleep in until nine, and then Travalon and I went to Ancora and tried other flavors of donuts besides lemon lavender; I had blackberry mint, and he had chocolate peanut butter. It was a cold, drizzly day so we decided to go to Lake Wisconsin via Sauk. We went to the antiques shop in Sauk, and I found this cutie that I named Katie Kitty. 

I also saw this beautiful rosary from the 1930's. The beads are glass and the crucifix is Bakelite.

See the little windows in the crucifix? Years ago Rosa Peligrosa had a rosary with a crucifix that had a window you looked into, and you could see a picture of Our Lady. This one has seven tiny windows, and when you look into them, you can see each of the Seven Sorrows of Mary beautifully illustrated. I tried to take a picture, and this is the best of the sorry lot - you can kind of see part of the Flight into Egypt.

On a related note, the other day my new story icon of the Mysteries of the Rosary arrived.

I was floating on air after finding such an incredible rosary, but the best was yet to come! We went to the dam, and we saw an immature bald eagle.

Then we took the Merrimac Ferry to the south side of Lake Wisconsin, and a pelican flew over us!

I was so excited! Spring is here!! But then the wayside was closed, and I really had to powder my nose, so we decided to go to Fitz's on the Lake for a drink. From the parking lot we could see the best ever bird party: seagulls, pelicans, and loons!! Travalon took a ton of photos.

Here Travalon caught the loon about to dive.

We heard the loons sounding off now and then, but we were never quite quick enough to catch the sound in a video. Then we drove to Sunset Bay, where we saw buffleheads and a loon.

We headed home and stopped at Governor Nelson State Park. They have this interesting statue on top of the shelter that neither of us had ever noticed before, so perhaps it's new?

We saw a muskrat - maybe the one we swam with there last summer?

And I think these are buffleheads too. We could see them in the distance.

Here is one of them swimming alongside a much larger mallard duck.

We also saw a kingfisher fly by, but it was too fast for Travalon to get a photo of it. Finally, once we got home, we went out on our dock. Here's a bird party: sandhill crane, mallard ducks, and Canada geese.

And off to the left we could see a whole lot more buffleheads.

The sandhill crane appears to be nesting!

And we saw this male canvasback duck. I didn't know what he was - I had to google "gray duck with brown head." No sign of a female one.

If you listen closely, the crane sounds like it is purring.

Travalon wanted to watch more March Madness games, and then at halftime we took another walk in our neighborhood, and we saw the two cranes chasing two Canada geese. So far the teams he wanted to win (Loyola and Villanova) both lost. Right now he is rooting for Oral Roberts, and they are winning, but not by much.

Famous Hat