Loony Easter and 4 BWB

 

Saturday Travalon and I went to Horicon Marsh for the first time this season, and it was everything I could have hoped for. We saw all four Big White Birds! First we stopped at Patrick Marsh, where we saw lots of ruddy ducks and some red-breasted mergansers. I love how the ruddy ducks' tails stick up.

This is the female red-breasted merganser.

This is the male.

Here he is doing a mating dance.

Here are a couple of swallows hanging around the nest box.

We even heard a loon calling on Patrick Marsh, and I think I saw it briefly. Then we drove to Horicon, and the first thing we saw was a pair of swans.

Not much further down the road, we saw a whooping crane!

We heard lots of sandhill cranes bugling, and then suddenly the whooping crane bugled! After a moment, it flew off, and later we saw it flying in the distance with another whooping crane.

As we walked along the boardwalk, we saw a fake duck!

What the hey? I assume it's not a hunter's decoy, but something scientists have set up to study ducks at Horicon. Then we saw another one!

And then tragedy struck - Travalon's camera suddenly stopped working. As if the birds knew, they were suddenly hard to find. We went to the area where we have seen all sorts of ducks before, but there were only a few Canada geese. Then we went to the place where we often see the white-headed goose, but there were hardly any geese there at all. We did see a swan in the distance and several pelicans flying around. Then, as we were leaving, a large white bird flew over our car. It was an egret! So we saw 4 BWB - all four Big White Birds! In one day!!

Our next stop was to visit Travalon's mother, and to our surprise, as we were talking to her, his youngest older brother and his wife stopped in too. So it was a wonderful visit. Then we had to hurry back to Madison to go to the Vigil Mass at St. Patrick's. One of the brunch regulars was being baptized and welcomed into the Church. It was a very beautiful Mass, but very long. Travalon and I snuck in the side door so that we wouldn't miss the Exsultet. That's what I'm there for, and the random part where the deacon says, "Bishop, I bring you good news - news of alleluia!" and then he sings a really long alleluia three times, going up a step each time. I love that part.

Yesterday morning I left Travalon at home and went to Mass, and the quartet that includes my OTHER choir director and Kathbert sang the Victimae Pascali Laudes, which is what I was there for. Afterwards a bunch of us went to Fair Trade Coffee, and I asked one of the guys who got baptized at the Vigil about his conversion story. To my surprise, he started praying the rosary on his own and then thought, "Huh, maybe I should look into becoming Catholic." Imagine being attracted to the rosary when you aren't even baptized! I know people who have been Catholic for years who still aren't into it. 

Travalon and I headed back to Okee with his older camera, and we saw the loon again and heard it sounding off. He took some photos with the other camera, which I will post tomorrow. We went to the causeway and saw wigeons, northern shovelers, red-breasted mergansers, pelicans, scaups, ring-necked ducks, and of course coots, mallards, and gulls. Then we saw another loon! 

Back in Madison, we drove by Brittingham Bay on the way to Rich's house, and we saw red-breasted mergansers doing a mating dance, and further along, about a thousand coots. It was a gorgeous day, so before dinner Kathbert, our Slow Food buddy, and I walked to where there had been a huge fire and checked out the damage. Kathbert was the only one who was familiar with the place, and she was stunned at the extent of it. There were about sixteen people at Rich's; I sat by Travalon, his classic rock buddy, and two Korean women. Someone made beer bread that was so good, and Cecil Markovitch made olive bread, so I was bemoaning eating so many carbs, and then the two other women took up the chorus too, even though they are both very thin. There were about eight desserts, but I only tried one I liked and one I didn't, so I didn't finish it. Travalon was even better - he went for a walk during the dessert course so that he wouldn't be tempted. We are both going to seriously try to cut back on bad food now.

Famous Hat