We Are In This Together

Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I anthropomorphize animals. Attributing human emotions to animals can lead to awkward situations. (To be fair, sometimes I think some animals are more “human” than some humans are “human.”)

Early this morning, before the sun had burned away the fog and frost, I anthropomorphized a couple of trees. When I saw a conifer and deciduous tree standing watch in the frost and fog, I thought of them as if they were thinking they were in the situation together. There they stood, side-by-side, waiting and watching the world go by through vision-limiting fog and frost. It seemed like they could have been assuring each other they were in this together.

Obviously I know trees do not have emotions, or do they? Studies have shown that trees can

Keep Moving

As much as I enjoy seeing and photographing hooded mergansers, especially males, there comes a time each year when they need to be gone.

This fellow was…

Seeing Will Be Believing

Kristy and I have reason to believe we have been having a wild visitor or visitors during the dark of night. Clues around the ponderosa hint that whatever is passing through is large enough to carry away some weight - as in rabbits or turkey bones.

For the past few days I have had a trail cam set up in what should be a good spot to finally get a glimpse of our nighttime traveler, but so far I have missed the guest.

Today I expanded my investigative techniques to look for tracks or scat that might provide insight. No decent tracks were found, but I did find…

December is Done - Janesville Challenge

For more years than I can remember I have paddled during every month of the year. Most years the months of December and February have posed the greatest challenge for finding open water. As of this morning, paddling during December 2022 is complete after I found some partially open water in Janesville at the Dort Landing on the west side of the Cedar River, under the Pedestrian Bridge. The temperature was 10-degrees when I left home, but had warmed a few degrees to make for a pleasant winter paddle.

As I paddled I was thinking that the location might work well for our annual New Year’s Day Paddle. January 1, 2023 will be the 31st year my buddy and I have brought in the new year on the water. More years than not, finding open water has been challenging. For that reason I would like to suggest the “Janesville Challenge.”

The “Janesville Challenge” is extended to my many friends with Janesville addresses, their spouses, their family and their friends. The challenge is really quite simple. If just some of my friends…

Northeast Iowa Iceberg Patrol

From early this morning to early this evening our home was buzzing with activities as Kristy, her friends, our daughter-in-law, and our granddaughter baked Christmas goodies. The creativity and variety of sweets was amazing with enough to last through the holidays.

While the women were baking, my grandson and I…

Two Views

Today was another trip to one of the big cities up north with a family member. Now that the crops are out and the rut is on, the drive is as much a bald eagle counting trip as it is a process of moving from Point A to Point B. Along the way we saw many bald eagles. In fact, neither of us were counting. Then we found an adult bald eagle right along the road, feeding on fresh road kill.

As quickly as I could I turned the car around, prepped my Nikon, and moved us back to the deer death scene to shoot photos. As we approached…

Prepare Now, Enjoy Later!

With another day of blustery conditions filled with hours of work, I did not have time to get out with my camera. Instead, I used some minutes to do a review of my backpacking/wilderness paddling gear. I suppose a person could say I am getting anxious for warm weather to return and it is only the first day of December.

One item in my backpack I am studying is my stove. To date I have been using my trusty MSR Whisperlite Stove. That stove has never…

The Struggle Was and Is Real

Back in my younger days I had a paper route that had me out in the elements six out of seven days. Regardless of how pleasant or miserable the weather was, I had papers to deliver. And for the majority of the time, especially for the weekday afternoon papers, I walked my route on the north end of town.

In my younger days we did not have the fancy fabrics to keep a person warm. No, if you were cold you…

At Least Get Out of the Wind

Today’s abrupt changes in weather certainly posed challenges for those of us wanting to be outside. Very early this morning I took advantage of the 37-degrees we had , along with strong winds, to work more on a mounting system for sonar equipment I will use for missing person searches.

No Comparison to Yesterday

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is history and we are back to work, I have far less time to look around and document our natural world. In fact, if it hadn’t been for a quick peak this afternoon into a shallow area of water along a road, I may not have had an image to share tonight since I have a meeting to attend in a couple of hours. But, as luck would have it, I did find this gadwall close enough for my daily photo.

Found Today

Today Kristy and I drove through four counties in our travels. During that time on the road I was surprised to find and photograph a male and female Northern Bobwhite (members of the quail family). (Please do not ask the specific location.)

How or why these birds were present where I found them I am unable to explain. The birds were located…

More Energy Than Space

As our weekend with four of the five grandkids continues, we hit a clear point today where we had more kid energy than we had space. Compounding the calmness challenge was that we had the tree and house partially decorated for the season and the 3-year old to 7-year old activities did not integrate well into the process of transforming the house from autumn to Christmas. So, Kristy and I split the kids. She got the oldest and youngest while I was tasked with wearing off the energy for the two with the most.

The three of us explored some of my favorite areas to look for wildlife

A “Day After Thanksgiving Tradition” Continues

Once again this morning there was getting up early, but not getting up early to go shopping. Instead, our troupe called “family” headed for an area Christmas tree farm to pick out the perfect tree. Not only did we find two perfect trees for two homes, but we played some of out best “Hide and Seek”

Thanksgiving Morning Study

Happy Thanksgiving! (Really, everyday can be a day of “thanks giving.”)

Holiday or not, conditions this morning were ideal for me to test some new equipment for work use. Too many times during my emergency management career I have been a part of search teams looking for missing persons. One facet of the search process often includes water searches. Technological developments in recent years have dramatically improved the quality of sonar equipment, as well as contributing to bringing the price down to practical ranges.

Recently I acquired sonar equipment for use in searches. The timing of receiving the equipment coincided

Junior Visited Today

As I was heading out the door today to be productive, I did what I always do - I scanned our tall spruce trees to see if we had any feathered visitors. As happens often we did have company, a sub-adult bald eagle I thought may have been Junior - one of the offspring from the nest near our home. Junior was watching our house area very intently, almost with hunger in his (her) posture. If the eagle was willing to somehow remove one or more of our moles that are devastating

This Might Not End Well

During a late afternoon walk to check on trumpeter swans with Canada geese, I was surprised to find a mature Eastern comma butterfly doing a poor job of flying around in the brush along my path. I was unable to determine if the butterfly was doing its first flights or if maybe the butterfly was struggling to do its best to take advantage of today’s “warm” conditions. Regardless, I suspect that overnight temperatures in the low 20’s might doom this butterfly.

Even if the cold tonight does not end it for this butterfly, the calen

Thanksgiving Pigeon - Not One, But Two

While driving along the Wapsipinicon River today I noticed two dark silhouettes in separate trees that I did not immediately recognize. After stopping and studying the birds using my long Nikon lens I realized I was just looking at rock pigeons.

I know that pigeons are not that big of a deal compared to bald eagles and swans and you name the special birds. But the fact that these two birds captured my attention is testament to their size. In fact, as I was slowing my truck I wondered what species of hawk I was looking at. These birds were big enough to become a part of the upcoming Thanksgiving meal - assuming there is also pecan pie and tators!

Snow Goose Hunters Be Careful

This afternoon at Sweet Marsh, not far from where hunters had set up decoys near the edge of the refuge, I noticed this lone juvenile trumpeter swan hanging out with Canada geese. At first quick glance, before I stopped and studied the bird, I thought - “What a large snow goose!” Then I looked closer at the bird.

Knowing snow goose hunting seasons are liberal, I want to encourage snow goose hunters - especially younger or less experienced hunters - to be very careful of what white birds you attempt to bring down. Trumpeter swans are protected and this one was really taking a chance by hanging with the geese. And yes, I know Canada geese cannot be hunted at Sweet Marsh, but geese and swans move around.

Redeeming Myself

Geez…apparently I need to invest more effort into getting out and looking for wildlife. This afternoon I drove by a very small area of open water, saw ducks, backed up as slowly as possible to not spook the birds, only to realize I had seen decoys when I got close. The fact that not one bird took flight or changed its behavior gave them away. I’ll be honest, my concentration was focused on the drake that looked very realistic when driving by. Good job guys who were in the woods a short distance away. You fooled me!

Deceiving Background Warmth

As my day came to an end I headed to our cabin to check on the status of the river - specifically wondering if it had frozen solid or if open water remained to paddle this weekend. I suppose I could paddle in the small amount of open water, but won’t bother. With ice nearly across the pond, and likely to complete overnight, it looks like I am done paddling at the river until spring. Dang…I hate that thought.

Even with the river freezing over, the scene along the Wapsipinicon was quite pretty. I had to document the beauty with this picture.