Places less traveled ...

Below, Charlie stands in a wide expanse of Wild Ramps aka Leeks in the forest.

The location of this place won't be shared at all. I wouldn't want JohnQPublic coming in and digging them to sell. 

These plants take 5 to 7 years to mature from seed so they are slow growing. I have some in my forest and I generally just leave them alone. Their beautiful green provides me with joy. I may dig up one or two for an addition to a meal, but rarely any more than that.

They do actually flower and have seeds. In the fall animals walk through the area knocking the spindles of seeds which spreads the plants.

The hillsides were covered in them! In a few weeks the plants will disappear under the forest brush and they will be hidden from prying eyes.

I took a back trail along the river. I came upon some Canada Geese and their new little family. 

These geese were neat to watch ... the river was swift here and I was sure hoping all turned out okay for them in the end.

22 seconds of cuteness!

I assume they made it safely to wherever they were headed.

Below, my fearless leader. Since he has hiked with me since he was 10 weeks old, he knows the trails I take as well as I do. He bounds forward and turns to wait. At a junction he sometimes makes a choice and sometimes I follow his choice.

I finally did get a decent shot at a Red Wind Blackbird. There were several of them hanging out by the pond where I'd met the other photographer. I backtracked on the less muddy trails to the parking area.

I got home and the boys were having a good time chatting and solving all the world problems. I must give it to Jason, he can talk about anything to anyone and he does have a lot of experience and knowledge.

I'll leave you with a couple of shots that are a bit artsy. I have a Lensbaby lens and it has taken a lot of practice to work with this 'art' lens, but I am absolutely loving the challenge.

These were taken after my 'day' off when I went out to check the pasture and enjoy some more sunshine.

PS...we survived the storm, it went past us to the north.

Meanwhile in the Nuthouse...Spring signs?

Just some random stuff from this week.

Canada Geese 
protecting the nest

Wood ducks!

Fresh fern
Young fresh Sporophytes

Last year's leaves
Maidenhair Fern

A symbol of Purity
and
Innocence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been waiting to use this Minifigure for a while. I wanted to go out and look for 'Spring'. It hasn't really arrived in our forest yet, but I keep hoping to find a sign somewhere. The Virginia Pinks usually arrive by April 20th and carpet the forest floor for about 10 days.

So I took this Mushroom Sprite [I call her Flora] and Hammie out for a walk with me when I went to check on the forest fencing yesterday afternoon. Once more I decided to experiment with the Lensbaby lens. I'm finally getting the hang of it...I think.

Since there are no spring flowers blossoming yet, I thought I'd try something different.

I wanted to create some flying Lego folks so I used wire to put these two in the air. I love the smile on the green guy's face.

Sunday came and with storms predicted, Jason and I decided it wouldn't be fun for me to go hiking in thunderstorms. He stayed home and after getting inside stuff done, I turned to some creative things.

It is amazing what a little light and cardboard can do! Of course Dr. Cob and his dog, Gear are collecting gears!

The shot and the result.

Later ~~ they are working in his secret lab???

And since I was doing spooky settings... I thought this was funny...

"Dude, I think you are in
the wrong movie set!"

Lucky for us! The day ended with a rainbow in the East!

 

Motivation

Sunday was cold and windy. I had so much to get done in the morning which included electric fence repairs. 

My Grand Plan was to head out early to the Reserve and see if I could spot red wing black birds and maybe check out the ponds to see if any geese or swans had arrived.

All that went ka-put. After lunch I had to call my elder friend in Alabama. She was having a bad day so we talked for an hour. She is in her mid 80's and was telling me that she had not gone out to do anything in weeks. She forgets to eat, she is isolated she says, and depressed. She used to be a librarian, so I asked her where the nearest library was. Her answer was 3 blocks. I asked her if she'd go to the library and just go find a book and sit at a table and read. 
Why? She asked me. I told her...so she could be around other humans. 

I asked her to visit her meal site once this week and text me what she had to eat. I gave her two assignments or as I called them: Challenges for Motivation. 

I had to agree to let her set a Challenge for me too. She wanted me to send her a photo of me in Mobility Class. 

So today I was at CF and did Mobility Class afterwards. My coach Angie took these photos for me.
Mobility Class:

Shoulder Rotations

After class. 

One of my little pals, 
coach's daughter.

Am I going to be successful in helping someone a long distance away get Motivated? I sure don't know, but I like my Alabama friend. It is unfortunate that she has no immediate relatives to help her look out for herself. She is also fiercely independent so it is hard for her to ask for help.

This is the woman who was Captain of an Oil Rig in the Gulf when she was in her 30's. Mind you, that was over 50 years ago!

So. After my motivational talk. I packed my camera bag and headed out the door in the late afternoon to get myself moving.

I knocked off another section of the KVR Trail Challenge and enjoyed fresh cold air. I took what I think is a boring trail. It was so far from boring!

I will let these photos speak for themselves. This is along what is called the Old Harrison Trail. It leaves the Visitor Center and heads down towards the valley. It was a road once upon a time. On one side, it is marshy and wet, on the other side there are rocks and trees.
The huge surprise was the icicles on the rocks.

With the recent alternating snows and rains water has been seeping from the rocks around pines clinging to the rocks...

I found two pairs of Canada Geese:

I saw red dogwood, the pussy willows are starting to blossom, and there were some other trees budding that I couldn't ID.

I even took a photo of myself next to the Kickapoo River and sent it to my friend to make her day a little happier?

I do wonder how I can help my friend and motivate her to go to the meal site and interact with others. 

I know motivation has to come from within and cannot be forced. 

Sigh.

I am a curious person who likes to explore and be social too. I cannot imagine losing something so precious as motivation. It would crush my life.

I got cold!

I totally misjudged the temperatures last night! 

When I left home it was 60 degrees. I was warm and toasty. When I arrived at the Reserve, it was 50. I'd only brought a light sweatshirt and a windbreaker. 

Note to self. Next time, add some jackets to a bag and leave it in the back of the Subaru. I thought I was getting good at figuring the weather out. Obviously, I forgot it was October.

I did get there just before sundown and enjoyed watching the sky and listening to Red Wing Blackbirds as they settled into the branches around me on their migration route. I didn't get any photos of them, but I could identify them by their song and the songs of Robins too.

Just as the sun dropped another flock of Canada Geese went overhead to the east. I think I was enjoying the sounds and songs of the birds more than anything else. 

To stay warm, I hiked around the pond trails and finally settled on a spot to watch the moon come up. I had 20 minutes to wait for moonrise and at least another 10 minutes before it would appear over the bluff to the east.

As the light faded, I watched some beavers -- or muskrats -- swimming in the east side pond. I think it would have been beavers because when they swam closer to where I was standing, they alarmed by slapping their tails against the water.

Oh, the sounds of nature when you can be right in it!

When I got to Bridge 18 I stopped to glance at the moon on the river. It was so beautiful. It seemed to glow orange.

I wanted to stay longer but my hands were freezing.

And as I put away my camera I heard a Hoot Owl calling out. I smiled, I love the sound of those owls.

Then I heard a blood curdling screech. I actually stopped a moment because it did actually sound like a scream.

It raised the hair on the back of my neck until I recognized the call of a Barn Owl. Yes, they do screech and it sounds pretty awful at first.

Another terrifying night sound is a fox screaming. But I haven't heard that in a long time. I did hear the coyotes calling out to each other when I reached the car.

It seems that all the creatures were enjoying the beautiful moonlight with me.

Enough about my night time wanderings.

Looks like the weather will change for the cooler and perhaps I'll be smarter about what I wear!

The Subaru said it was 39 degrees when I left for home. 

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.

All in a Sunday

All week the weather has been pretty darned yucky. Perhaps I got the March blahs?

That beautiful weather we had last weekend spoiled me for the weather we had this past week. Sure I went out and played in the rain one day, but snow and sleet mixed on and off for the rest of the week was just too much bleh for me. The winds howled and icky stuff came down from the grey sky. [How's that for a weather summary?]

I thought a quick trip on Sunday morning to the KVR Ponds would be a great way to chill out after crummy weather.

It was 15 degrees when I walked from the Visitor Center down the steps and over the rock blocks to the valley. I didn't hear much noise. Last time I'd visited during the warm weather, every bird was making a racket. The red wing black birds had been swarming the area.

It was pretty quiet considering that the KVR website had said things were picking up at the ponds early this week. After the past two days of freezing temps the ponds had ice on them again.

Pond Ice:

However, I did find signs of the coming spring.

Pussy Willows:

I found a couple of new spots to 'spy' on the birds, but still was far enough off not to bother them. 

Geese and Sandhill Cranes:

I heard some cranes coming and tried to do a panning motion to catch them in flight. I didn't do so well, but I tried.

Flying Cranes:

Next I saw a group of 10 soaring Turkey Buzzards. Uffdah, they are back which means they will compete with the Eagles for food. 

I was so tickled to see and then get a decent shot of a female cardinal on the way back to the car. I like this shot better than the photos I've gotten of them at our feeder and pine trees.

Female Cardinal:

The biggest surprise was when I thought I saw a Bluejay then I realized it was a Kingfisher! This is the second time in my life I've seen these guys, but I've never really looked before.

Kingfisher:

I did see Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese and they were hiding on the far side of the pond in the marsh grasses.

Charlie was happy to see me when I got home....and the other half was doing his morning nap. He says he has to nap to have energy to have lunch.

Charlie was a nag all afternoon. He wanted to get out and hike.

I finally relented and off we went. Charlie was tracking something in the woods and kept stopping to sniff and then chase the scent on the ground as if he were some sort of tracking dog. I only wish I could share in his sense of smell and figure out what it was he was chasing.

He had a lot of pent up energy and I just followed him through the woods.

He did end up leading me to a neat spot with some mossy logs that had more cool lichen on them.

But that is for another time.

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.