Joseph & Johnny

Joseph (with his coat of many colors) has been coming to feed in the backyard for a year now. We recognize him from the broad white stripes on his crown.

Johnny (as in Johnny come lately, the new kid in town) has no white crown stripes and joined us for dinner this winter.
The wiser Joseph feeds and stays close to the protection of the tree line but Johnny is adventureous and will feed under the satellite gazebo as well as on spilled birdseed under the feeders.
In Saturday's sunshine his colors reflected the rainbow with pinks, purples, blues and greens.






I was doing the happy dance too after he allowed me to shoot away even though he saw me at the window.

after the snow...

Saturday morning the feeders were very active with hungry birds who had to work a lttle harder to find the seeds following Friday's snow. The redpoll needed to dig for the sunflower kernels and the chickadee patiently waited his turn.
The junco got a huge mouthfull of snow with each kernel he found in the tray feeder...
while a bluejay waited his turn. I have noticed bluejays, goldfinches, juncos and chickadees lift up one foot at a time when perching on cold metal. They must feel the cold in their feet which is another argument for wood or plastic feeders in the winter months. I do have metal ones out but I always notice they are the last to be emptied.
Finding the peanuts under the snow took a little more effort and this jay dropped his before getting a better grip on it.
These two looked like identical twins as they waited their turn at the peanut feeder...
until one of them spotted me at the window.
He was caught off balance by a wind gust and I was thrilled to capture it before he uprighted himself.
This was the next shot, he was upright and acting like nothing happened...too cool!
Soon the peanuts were getting harder to find just by pecking around in the snow so here is the windup...
that sent the snow flying!
A sad face after no more peanuts were to be found.
Even Johnny had to send snow flying as he dug for corn.
More photos of Joseph and Johnny in the next post.

The last of the river road trip...

I took lots of photos in the Buffalo City, WI area. This part of the river has a road right next to the river rather than up on a bluff or property between the road and river. The river was both frozen and open here. There were lots of ducks out in the open water and when I stepped out of the car for a closer shot, they gave me a :walking on water" takeoff shot.
There were many fish houses out on the frozen part of the river and this one had moons & stars painted with that greenish glow in the dark paint.
The bare trees were full of surprises including this oriole nest...
and this mud hive.
There were dozens of eagles in this area, soaring high above us...
and perching in trees on the many river islands.

We watched this one as he watched the ducks...
his head turning side to side constantly.

Across the river was one of my favorite sites of the trip, these two actually holed up in their "love nest" on Valentine's Day.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into our Valentine's weekend eagle watching trip. Though there are some eagles year round in this area, late winter is the best time to view them. There is a large population that overwinters at Wabasha because of open water as a second river flows into Mississippi and this open water entices lots of migrating eagles to stop, rest and feed awhile. We had several inches of fresh snow last night so as I worked on this blog I had the camera handy and stopped to take lots of photos of the birds at the feeders digging through the snow. Look for those in the next post.

Great River Road cont...

As promised we continue on our eagle watch down Hwy 61 on the MN side until we see Sugar Loaf...

Since this was only a 2 day tour (suddenly Gilligan's 2 hour tour tune is buzzing in my head) we crossed the river at Winona, MN to head up the Wisconsin side of the Great River Road. We could see eagles soaring along the bluffs as I was driving across the bridge so as soon as we were across I pulled into a parking lot and got out and tried to capture a few inflight shots. Jeff laid back in his seat and watched them through the sunroof :-)



There are many small towns on the Wisconsin side and though I took no photos Fountain City advertises itself as the most picturesque town. All these towns had lots of historic old buildings which we enjoyed looking at as we drove through. Fountain City is famous these days for the Rock in the House, we saw the signs but didn't take the time to visit. I guess this is a risk if you live under a bluff. I did take a photo of the rock sculptures at Prairie Moon Garden near Cochrane.
On the road from Cochrane to Buffalo City we admired the view of MN's bluff country across the river. I stopped to take a photo of the bluffs with the eagle's nest in the tree across the river.
When I zoomed in, I was surprised to see this pair in the tree to the far left. See why I showed the close up eagles on the post the first day? We saw over 100 eagles in the two days but most were the little white spots in the distance that admired through binoculars and zoom lenes.
I'm skipping over the town of Buffalo City until tomorrow because this post is too long and I took lots of pics there so now we are to the town of Alma. Alma has a great organization called Wings over Alma. We visited their center and talked for a long time with the volunteer working that day. My family will understand why I had to buy a t-shirt with the Wings over Alma logo and why I took a photo of the welcome sign. Alma was our mother's name and she passed away at 54 when I was barely 20.

Our last views of the WI countryside are near Nelson which is where we crossed the river back over into Wabasha. There was an elk farm along the road...with a very patriotic pasture.
Tomorrow, Buffalo City and the last of the eagle watching.

the five R's...

1. Rural
On a cloud filled Friday we drove east across rural MN to get to the Mississippi. I was inspired by Jalynn's post on the rural PA countryside so I had the camera on my lap and took a couple photos of barns from the moving car.

2. Red Hat Society
No offense to any of my readers that belong to these clubs, but I thought painting your house & silo purple (and red) was taking it a little to the extreme!
3. Redwing
Redwing, MN is known for Redwing Pottery and Stoneware (which I collect) & Redwing Shoes (which are Jeff's favorite workshoes). It is also the town where we met the river and started down the Great River Road to look for eagles. Our first stop was at Colvill Park on the SE edge of town. Here water stays open because of the nearby power plant and we spotted 6 eagles but I only got 4 in a shot.
4. Romance
Redwing is also the start of the wider part of the river known as Lake Pepin which according to this sign as early as 1848 it was known as the place for romantic solitude. Good thing we picked this area to celebrate Valentine's day ;-)

Lake Pepin was still covered in ice and we would see eagles sitting out near open cracks fishing.
6. Reed's Landing
A very small village along the river at the base of Lake Pepin was the beginning of open water and lots more eagles. This is the first spot we saw eagles perching right along the road and not viewed from accross the river through zoom lenses and binoculars.

Of course, they didn't enjoy the close company so off they flew back across the ice before I got decent shots
Reed's Landing was our last stop before heading into Wabasha to the eagle center and to spend the night. Next stop...Winona & Wisconsin.