Sunday, we took a ride to Lake Itasca. On the drive over we saw Sandhill Cranes, Deer, Magpies, Turkeys, and 2 Bears!! We only got pictures of the Magpies, everything else was non photogenic.
We walked across the Mississippi River, did some trail walks, and drove around the Wildlife Loop.
There was more wildlife on the trails than on the driving tour.
We climbed the 100-foot Fire Tower and survived. Walking around in the muck at Necedah NWR the last few months has got us in better shape than when we got here.
When we checked out the bog at Lake Bemidji, we had an impromptu guided tour from a local. It was quite enjoyable.
On our walk back from the bog, we saw our first Golden-winged Warbler. Cha-Ching!
We dined at Applebee's then called it a night.
Monday we traveled a different route for our 400 mile trip home. We saw a lot of pretty country for the first half of the trip then hit the interstate.
We were greeted by a deer family when we returned to the refuge.
Tuesday morning we had an unhappy porcupine in the trap. We loaded it up and took it to Quill Hill . This is the first porcupine that we have released, that climbed a tree. So fun to watch.
We finally saw our first Great Egrets on the refuge.
When we got back, we took the Kubota to check out the Boghaunter Trail and Harvey's Pond trail for soapwort. We also cleared a tree on Boghaunter trail.
All of this on our day off. But it's not work when we are having this much fun!
Wednesday, we left at 4 am to meet the ICF crew for a sandhill crane capture. Six people were laying in the soybean fields waiting on a family with twins, the target cranes. We sat in the ICF van with the other spotters. After a couple of hours, the family appeared, and it was on. The field crew jumped up and caught one of the colts. The other colt got away. Oh well, better one than none. The 6-week old colt was banded, measured, and released.
When we returned, we had a Porcupine in the trap. Two nights in a row we caught porcupines in the same trap. It was very talkative and by far the cutest one yet. This was one of those, if we could have a porcupine as a pet, this was it!
We had a fabulous bee ID training after returning from the sandhill crane capture. It was a lot of fun catching and identifying the bees.
We released the youngster after the training. Hopefully, it will live a long, happy life in Quill Hill!
We were happy to find Thursday morning there was no porcupine to start to the day. Whew!
We spent most of the day doing Karner Blue Butterfly surveys. We went to Unit 30 to only do the good transects. Most of the time we were in great Karner habitat. But every now and then, we got in briars above our knees and thick vegetation. We had an enjoyable time for the most part.
Before we started, we saw a fledgling near one of the Red-headed Woodpecker nests we found on our survey a few weeks ago. So Cool!
We got a good talking to from the Eagle fledglings, then got to see them soar above us. A spectacular show.
We also saw one of the Eagle fledglings' parents in a tree. He was chirping back to it's youngsters.
We saw lots and lots of Karners and a few other critters as well.
We wrapped up and are relaxing at Camp Chewy for the evening.
Friday, a couple of ICF folks joined us for the Karner Blue Butterfly survey. We spent most of the day looking for these gems. After finding a bunch in Unit 5, we were disappointed only to find a few in Unit 6. Oh well, it was a great day to be out and about.
Saturday, we went to the Tomah Famer's Market, Wally World, and the customer appreciation day at Cranberry Market. Afterwards, we spent time catching up on our pictures. It was a laid back, no picture taking, kind of day.
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