Hiking and doggos...

We were brave souls. Since it was so cool out, I packed up the dogs and we headed to the Reserve to walk/hike along the paved old 131 trail.

My reasoning was that it was nice enough to take a drive and a hike with the dogs and it would be a good way to work with Hannah on some more leash work on a somewhat busy path where we could see horses, bicyclists, walkers, and runners.

The dogs can be off leash now at the Reserve and are only required to be on leash during the nesting season for birds that have ground nests.

I chose to let Charlie drag his leash even though he never chases a bike or horse but will decide to visit hikers with a waggy tail. His recall is excellent while Hannah is still learning so much. Both dogs wear a training collar.

If they get loose and for some reason run off, I can locate them and use the buzzer or the vibration mode to distract them from the chase. They know if the collar vibrates, they should come to me and get a treat. This works so well!

I may have explained before that I got a collar for Charlie after he scented something when he was just a year old and took off through our forest. I spent 45 frightening minutes looking for a 7 inch tall young dog, calling and crying. When the foliage grows up past his height he can literally disappear.

At 8 years old he still is a 'hunter', but he is more reserved about chasing too far. The collar reminds him to come back to me.

The walk started out wonderfully. We were hiking when a heard a voice call out....

Bicycles coming!

Two ladies on bikes came up behind us. I told the dogs to sit. I knelt next to Hannah who always barked alarmingly at any stranger and asked her to sit. I held her 'sit' treat [a Cheerio] above her nose and she glanced at the bikes and at me and at the bikes and me...

and held her sit!

She got 3 Cheerios as did Charlie and a lot of praise. 

The next distraction we ran into was an older couple on some horses. Now, Hannah is more used to the Mules at home. She has been exposed to the Mini Donkeys, mini Goats, and Horses at Kristi's farm so they aren't as alarming to her as they used to be.

I made her sit once more and she did. The couple on the horses said, "Oh what nice pups. You don't have to do that, our horses are okay with dogs." 

I explained that I was training Hannah and she needed to understand that she should be quiet on the trails and not bark like she used to.

They stopped and asked what kind of dogs I had and said nice things about how I was working with my little dogs. 

What I did expect was that we would get attacked by mosquitoes and deer flies as we were hiking a paved trail next to the Kickapoo River. I had sprayed well before taking the trail, but man those bugs were insane! 

All the horses we saw had fantastic riding fly masks which made them look like Medieval Mounts.

Hmm. I like summer, hate bugs. 
So I like winter so much more!

We finally made it to the pond with the floating dock and bench. There was a nice breeze and surprisingly NO bugs!

The View

Water and snack break.

Another view from the bench.

Dogs under the bench in the shade.

See that scummy green water? Guess who decided to go for a little swim? Yes. Hannah. She got covered in duckweed and mud. Hmmm, so smelly and so wonderful! She was sooo happy!

So much for keeping her little seroma dry! [I cleaned that spot off]. That spot is almost perfectly healed at this point!

I decided that we would turn around at this point and call it a good day. The temps were warming up in the valley with no breeze and I didn't want Charlie to get overheated.

Hannah pranced, Charlie hiked like a trooper. The deer flies zoomed in and the skeeters, attacked often until we got out of the valley.

Next week, I'll let the dogs stay home while I take my bike and do the 9 mile paved trail. I usually do that when the weather is hot and buggy because I'm going fast enough to avoid insects, yet can still enjoy the outside and the wild flowers.

Found these on our walk, but stopping for any length of time was asking to be covered with Bitey Insects....

I see that the weather for this weekend is going to be very steamy and dangerously hot again. I guess this afternoon I'll be scrubbing water tanks and refilling them along with making sure the mules and pony have access to good shade.

Thank goodness I spent yesterday afternoon mowing most of the yard. 

I think I'll pick up some items to make a noodle salad and some cold meals for this weekend.

Birds and roots

 I wanted to go see if any Swans, ducks, or other birds had shown up near the KVR Ponds so Charlie and I took a little trip to walk the trails around the ponds.

We saw geese. A lot of geese! 

The water in the foreground is still frozen on this pond. 

On the large pond though, the geese were lined up on the shore where the winds weren't blowing. At first glance it looked like they were turtles all lined up.

I wished that the viewing blind that the Reserve put up wasn't facing the sun. However, it is fun to sit there with binoculars and watch these characters chatter and flap their wings. After all, I felt good getting out and enjoying the sunshine. 

The ponds were a bit of a dud but that didn't matter much. We wanted the fresh air and anytime getting off the farm feels like a bit of a vacation.

We wondered around Harrison Trail and down a little known footpath that encircles one of the smaller ponds. On a good year it is really quite wet and muddy. Only a few places required some leaping from log to log and grass clump to keep from getting my feet wet.

We found cool tree roots...of course...

Now that tree grew sideways and UP!

Charlie had the best time, he chased a family of red squirrels around and around on the base of this bluff before they took off and climbed a pine tree.

Ahhhh! We did find some birds!

I found 3 little ones hiding alongside a bluff out of the wind. I didn't know that Cardinals, Bluebirds, and Sparrows hung out together.

Wild things

 My pal couldn't make it on Sunday morning, so I packed up my long lens and headed out to the ponds at the Reserve.

I know. I go there a LOT. It is 20 minutes or so by car and has nice trails along with nice access to a river.

The serious bird photographers this time of year are wandering up and down Highway 35 along the Mississippi or taking trips along the Wisconsin River where the wildlife is truly amazing and abundant.

I have to stay closer to home on my excursions. Hubby gets uncomfortable if I head out too.

When I got to the Reserve there was one vehicle parked in the Visitor's Center Parking lot. Usually people don't show up early to explore the Reserve. I could hear Sandhill Cranes, Redwing Blackbirds, and Canada Geese from the lot.

But motion in the tree ahead of me captured my attention.

Hubby says it was a pine squirrel. Around our home and in the forest we have quite a few grey squirrels but I rarely see the ones colored like this.

I stood for a long time and watched him/her, then moved on quietly. It was such a pretty and cute squirrel.

I went down the railroad tie stairs and along the Visitor Trail to another muddy trail that went between the two ponds. 

March 17th last year I spotted a pair of Trumpeter swans in the western pond. To my great surprise and delight, I found Swans again.

March 26th and I found the swans again!

I sat still and watched them for a while. I was able to observe a bunch of ducks too. I could see a wood duck paddling around the swans and I didn't want to spook any of them.

A gent with a dog came up the trail and he was trying to be quiet, but the movement of them set the whole pond off and birds started to take off.

Of course the Sandhill Cranes couldn't let just the geese make all the noise so they joined in too. But they didn't leave. They were on the far side of the ponds.

I decided to walk down another muddy trail on my way back to the parking lot when I heard a bird and saw a flash of blue across another pond.

It was far away, but I tried to catch a shot or two anyway.

A Belted Kingfisher.

I sure was pleased.

On the way back to the car I thought how nice it would be to arrive predawn and sit quietly by the ponds in a more remote spot and just watch all of the water fowl. 

It doesn't look like the weather will be good enough during this week though. Another Thursday sleet and snowish event. Yuck.

However a beautiful Bluebird stopped by as we were eating supper. So Spring is coming, right?

Waking up early

 

I haven't always been an early riser, but now I am. It is frustrating to have your eyeballs blast open while it is still dark outside and your body tells you "Get UP"!

I even try for a few moments to lull myself back to sleep. But it doesn't come.

So I decided to make good use of my early wake up time. I made some decafe coffee [yeah, decafe...but I am used to it now] and decided to go watch the sunrise over the ponds at Kickapoo Valley Reserve. 

The skies were brilliantly clear and beautiful with stars twinkling merrily.

Yeah.

Until I got into the river valley, that is.

Then.

Fog.

Dense fog.

But that was fine too. Not what I planned but not unexpected for this area especially near the Kickapoo River. 

I parked by the dam site and got out to look up. I guess I wasn't going to see a brilliant sunrise with the colors and clouds reflecting off the ponds as planned. It was murky and dark. I thought about getting back in the 'Ru and driving to another spot where I could climb a bluff. But tossed that aside.

After all, the dense fog was a challenge. What could I do with it?

The first thing I wanted to try was to catch the 'essence' of the predawn morning with a photo of Bridge 18. I had to use my headlamp to light up the bridge. But with a timed exposure, it didn't look very dark!

This is one of the things with fog, it throws the camera sensors into a frenzy of confusion. After an 8 second exposure it looked as if I'd just taken it on a cloudy day.

I tried a shot of the river but it looked weirdly bluish and strange. This was a 77 second shot.

I was tickled with the outcome though, because it was so strange looking and at least you could see how thick the fog was.

I walked down to the ponds and the fog got even more intense. 

In one photography class I'd taken, I was criticized for not planning far enough ahead. I was told that I should never depend on serendipity for a good photo. But here I was just having a fun time playing in the fog when I hadn't meant to.

I couldn't help myself but to be enchanted by the terrible conditions. So I thought Minimalism! How could I do that?

Easy, Nature was showing me how to do it. 
I didn't achieve true Minimalism though until I shot the middle of the pond like this:

Full version of the same scene:

I spent some time waiting to see if the sun would penetrate the fog. 

It felt weird to be this close to the Visitor Center and not see another soul. However it was still before 6AM, so I guess I was the weird one.

So I walked around the other little ponds to see if I could come up with something interesting. The western pond that has the blind in it was totally obscured by river fog. 

Eventually the fog started to brighten up and I decided to head home.

Parting shot of Bridge 18:

I didn't get out of fog until I got home. I had to leave the river valley. 

So I think .... hmmm, next time get up on the bluff and look down on the fog and gaze at the sky!

I was home before hubby woke up and all was good.

Whew. 

Guess I'll go to bed early again tonight!

The Southeast Trails are done!

Map of the hike highlighted

in pinkish color.

 

Canada Geese

Bill watching Geese.

Another stunning shot of a Canada Goose. :-O 👀

Charlie leads the way around the Dam Trail which is segment #5. It was a rather easy hike and the weather was beautiful.

Dam Tower

We hiked back to look at pussy willows and admired this tree which had something that looked like pine cones and also had catkins growing on the same branch! The catkins were not on this tree last Sunday.

Alder Tree

Color me tickled, I figure out one more tree to identify!

Sections 2,3, and 5 finished.

This morning we woke up to a heavy snow fall. It was beautiful. By evening chore time the snow had disappeared and the sun was shining brightly.

Birds of all kinds

I'm not much of a 'birder' but I am beginning to understand the fun in it. Taking photographs of birds in their natural environment is harder than it seems. 

Grackles~~ Correction!
These are Starlings!

As annoying as these birds are, I found out that they eat insects and all sorts of bugs. So maybe they aren't as bad as all that. I wish they'd stay out of the shed though.

These were on our dead pine tree this morning.

We have a lot of crows around here and I've started to observe them. This bunch is making a new nest.

One landed on a locust tree near our house and I watched it as it tried to literally yank a branch off the tree.

Not sure if you can see that it is still hanging on to the branch above and is doing this maneuver in an upside down fashion yet still maintaining its balance.

Interesting. Can they tell which twigs are dead? The crow took three tries at it and then flew off.

I thought I'd take a chance and head out to Kickapoo Valley Reserve to see if any birds had come to the ponds since last week. 

I was rewarded by Redwing Black birds singing and the echo of swans, Sandhill Cranes, and geese from down in the ponds. 

It was a muddy trek, but worth it. 

Canada Geese

They sure can make noise! And I got to practice shooting them in flight and panning at the same time. 

11 seconds of angry birds...

I headed around the back way to the second pond. I was hoping to be able to find a good spot to watch the birds.

Midway across the pond there were Geese, Swans, Sandhill Cranes, and some crows walking about on the ice [not in the photo].

This pair of swans were building a nest.

Thanks for that link Aurora!
Their bills were all black when I blew up the photo. I think that means they are Trumpeter Swans.

Below is the swan building her nest. I was watching from the blind and trying to hold that long lens perfectly still was a bit hard.

She picks up sticks and whatnot from around her and drops it on her nest!
How cool is that?

16 seconds of nest building

On my way back to the car I found this guy serenading me on a tree next to old 131 trail.

Redwing Blackbird

This evening while doing chores, I saw a Blue Bird again. I sure hope they build their nest in the cavity by Sven's pen.

And tomorrow? We could get snow and rain. No one is quite sure where it will happen yet.