Birdy Birdy...Migration and not...

 I have a phone app that sent me a message over the weekend telling me that the BIG Migration was on! I was so excited, I told hubby that on Sunday morning I'd drive the Reserve and watch birds and photograph them!

He pointed out the window at a bunch of little birds that were flitting about our south yard.

They were so many of them! Yellow Rumped Warblers! 

I thought: "Great, I'll see so many birds it will be crazy!"

Sunday morning I'd intended to be at the Reserve by dawn. However the fog was so intense in the morning I decided to wait until about 9am. Even then, the fog in the valley was very thick in many places.

What surprised me most was not the fog but the drivers who didn't have their lights turned on.

I pulled over on a wide shoulder to take this shot not far from the Kickapoo River. The sun was trying to shine through but the fog was so thick it cast everything into a murky scene.

When I got to the Reserve, and parked it was sunny out and warming up fast.

I chose a trail that goes along the river in the woods to get down to the ponds. This is a shot looking to the east through the trees. 

I only had my 100-400m lens with me which limited me to a narrower view of the mix of sunbeams, and fog. But it was still there, just very faint.

Further down the trail I got a wider angle with my cellphone looking down on the river...with the sun and fog combined.

The trail goes down a steep embankment that the Reserve made into a sort of stairway with logs and I shot this through the branches and trees towards the river. 

Not a fabulous photo, but it does define how the fog hangs over the water. You can see a faint outline of the far side of the valley through the fog.

This is a spot that I often get a glimpse of a Kingfisher bird in the spring. No such luck this day!

I took another secondary trail that comes up on one of the more popular ponds for waterfowl. Guess what I found? 
One solitary Mallard.

One Canada Goose flew over and kept going.

Before I left home I'd checked the DNR site to see what was migrating through our area. The Yellow Warbler [check!], Wood Ducks, Swans, Pelicans, and Geese.

Cellphone shot of the pond.... empty.

Bummer. Last year I did get to see quite a variety of ducks along with Sandhill Cranes in this same area. 

Mental note. 
The best spots to see waterfowl are along the Mississippi River which is 40 miles west of me and the Wisconsin River which in an hour east of me. So close and yet so far!

I was bummed. I mean really bummed out. 

So I decided to see what I could find just walking along the paths and making a loop back to the parking area.

Yellow wet leaves.

Spider Webs! The one in the tree was a surprise for me. You might have to click on the photo to actually see it.

And.... while coming back up the Harrison Trail I heard a rather loud ruckus in the brush. It sounded like a deer. So I waited and waited and then...

this red squirrel popped out with a mouthful of nuts. I grabbed a shot and then ... he/she was gone being chased by another red squirrel.

So my Bird Migration plans were pretty much a huge flop. When I got home I was greeted by more Yellow Warblers. This one on the porch...seeming to say...

"Howdy! Why'd you go looking for birds when I was right here posing for you?"

Well. So much for that. But it was still a great morning.

Billings Creek

This is rated as a fairly difficult trail on KVR by Wisconsin Explorer. Though to be truthful, the guy who rated it, did it from one end to the other and did it when the trails had not had straight wind damage and a lot of down trees. I did it out and back without crossing the large stream. 

This is not a trail to take Grandma on. 

It resembles a deer trail at times or a one track that is narrow and packed with roots, rocks, holes, and steep terrain.

Oh boy did I love that! It was just like hiking at the neighbor's land who has two valleys and steep difficult terrain.

The first time I wanted to do this trail I couldn't find the trail head. It was literally hidden in tall grasses and brush.

 

They've painted the markers bright orange now so it is more obvious.

The trail is easy to follow ~~  but as one gets to the ridge above Billings Creek [after some very mean climbs in and out of steep areas and around some windfalls...] there are a few more markers to let a person know they are on the right trail. Because the trail and game trails look pretty much the same in this section.

We stopped where we did because I'd need a day without a dog to figure out how to get around the huge piles of downed trees to continue down into the valley from the ridge.
I'd heard the noon whistle from Ontario and so my time was running out.

I'd taken an hour and 22 minutes to get to the spot we turned around. Mostly because I'd wandered off trail to explore old equine trails and peer down bluffs.

We were tired, warm, and thirsty. Charlie tried drinking right out of my bottle as I poured his water in a tiny lid for him.

I will be coming back here often because I found some places to explore when the light was different.

It was fun to sit on top of a bluff and watch school kids canoeing below us.

I need to go back and visit this again:

And this....

I fell in love with the bluffs and the pines. 

Someone was draggin' tail by the time we got back to the car, so I took him down to the river and 'beach' where we sat on a log and shared an apple.

I think we could have spent the rest of the day next to the river gazing at the rocks.

He slept while I drove home.

I'll be back.

Looking for ice

We had sunshine on Wednesday and it was cold as a Well Diggers ____________, you can fill in the blank.

My friend Bill wanted to go and the winds were absolutely wicked so I picked a hike that would get us out of the wind and next to the Kickapoo River.

These first photos are from that hike. We had Yak Traks but should have had snowshoes as we were 'off' trail and the snow was icy crunchy and pretty tough to walk in. Bill was okay with that as he said the effort was a good test to see if his hip and knee were feeling better.

Bill's commentary was constant, telling me about adventures with his grand kids and then he'd stop and wonder where we were and I'd assure him we were not lost. Next he'd stand still and say, "Wow...Oh Wow!"

This one is my favorite from the ice bluffs and the last one I did with my 'normal' camera.

Note the slight colors in the ice. Pretty cool right? Well I also brought my little pocket camera that is a Full Spectrum Infrared camera. That means I can use different filters for different light spectrums. I chose the 665nm filter. 

The first shot is 'channel swapped'. With the 665nm filter blue skies are orange and green is bluish-white while rocks reflect a blue-grey. It all depends on your subject for white balance for the filter and how you want your colors to appear.  

These last two are not color edited. I simply de-saturated the blues. And let the ice reflection that appears orange come through.

Most IR photographers put their cameras away during the winter months, but I think it is fun to see winter in a different light.

Part II is coming.

I went out Friday to clear my head. Wind chills were -15, but I was prepared and I wanted to go visit the Wiester Creek Ice formations and hike up over the ridge on the old horse trail.