Horicon Marsh, Wheeler Road, and Irish Fiddling

 

This morning Travalon and I got going relatively early (for us, on a Saturday) and headed to Horicon Marsh. I really wanted to see a gallinule and a yellow-headed blackbird, but we almost always see those on Old Marsh Road, which isn't open until June. (Though we found out it was open for a few days around Earth Day.) In the first pond on the auto tour, where we often see egrets, we saw a pair of swans.

From the boardwalk, we saw lots of nesting Canada geese, often on top of muskrat lodges.

We even saw a nesting pelican! Why is it ignoring that egg in front of it?

We also saw turtles.

And blue-winged teals.

We saw barn swallows and tree swallows, but Travalon only got photos of barn swallows. He has taken photos of tree swallows in the past. They're more of a greenish-blue up top and white below.

Lots of trilliums were blooming.

I did see something sad - one may apple had both of its leaves missing! The bud was still there. How will it survive? None of them are in bloom yet.

We saw the nesting pelican from another angle.

As we drove along the auto tour, we saw a cute little gallinule.

And a pair of blue-winged teals.

I wanted to drive along Highway 49 because we often see coots there, and decades ago when I was in college, a roommate told me her class had gone to Horicon Marsh and seen baby coots, and that they are bright red and fluffy. I have seen photos online, and the fluffy redness is only around their heads - the rest of them is black. Still, I'd love to see one, but they hide in the reeds. We were, however, pleasantly surprised to see (and hear!) several yellow-headed blackbirds.

 

And on a tree on an island, we could see a cormorant rookery!

And we also saw baby Canada geese.

And a pair of red-headed ducks.

We saw plenty of adult coots, but no babies, alas.

And we saw a pied-billed grebe.

And three northern shovelers just chillaxin.'

More shots of the yellow-headed blackbirds.

Here he is "singing" - it sounds like he's being strangled.

We had a quick lunch at Taco Bell in Waupun and drove home so I could go to the red-headed flute player's house to play Irish tunes with her and Famie. My brain wasn't running on all cylinders today, but we did know a lot of the same tunes, so it was easy to play together. The flute player has a beautiful white German shepherd, and she was also watching her sister's whippet, so we had an audience. Were they appreciative? Hard to say.

Since we had already missed the Union picnic and the Kentucky Derby parties happening around town, Travalon and I went to the ponds on Wheeler Road and saw more wood ducks.

There was also a pair of blue-winged teals. I don't know why the female has her head at such an odd angle. At first I thought she didn't have a head!

Wood ducks and teals peaceably sharing a branch.

Two pairs together!

And a female hooded merganser was hanging around them. She was hard to photograph because she kept diving - this was the best of the three photos Travalon took of her.

A guy saw us looking at the pond, and he asked if we were looking at the beavers, but we saw no beavers, nor even signs of beaver occupation. Then we checked out the place I believe they are moving my park and ride to, which is not nearly so convenient because I have to go south to leave - you can't make a lefthand turn from there - and there isn't a bus stop right there like there is at our current parking lot. After that we checked out the rail yard, and that was pretty cool. There was an engine that was running its motor, but it wasn't moving. Then we came home, and I did DuoLingo for an hour. I actually got this little movie yesterday morning but forgot to post it.

Even though we had an early evening, I am still blogging late at night. Nobody is better at wasting time in the evenings than I am.

Famous Hat