Cuteness Personified

Suffering from a serious case of "writers block" this morning, I am forced to rely on my faithful readers for inspiration with SICS. That's "Sudden Inspired Creativity Syndrome." If you would be so kind as to put in the comments section a caption for any or all of the following labeled pictures I would greatly appreciated your assistance. The winning nominee in each category will be given full credit. Thank you!

Troutbirder

Picture A: "Just Hangin Around" - MonaPicture B: Technical Difficulties

Picture C: "Panda Yoga Class" - Dog GeekPicture D: "Got Milk" - Mona

Picture E

Picture F: "Forgive me Father, For I Have Sinned" - Troutbirder

Picture G: "Push Harder" - Mona

Picture H

Picture I : "I Know I Shouldn't Have Had That One For The Road" - Joan

Remember this is a family oriented blog! :)

The Great Egret

Mr Science and I had decided on an outing in the backwaters of the Mississippi. He is not quite the devoted fisherman that I am so we usually combine a lot of exploring with a little fishing (unless they're really biting like crazy). On this particular day it was mostly poking about looking for shorebirds. Let's call it a Great Egret Day


The first one we spotted was high above a backwater shoreline.

Around the next bend it appeared that several had joined a flock of Canada Geese. More appeared as we drifted slowly along in the current.

Great egrets are found near water, salt or fresh, and feed in wetlands, streams, ponds, tidal flats, and other areas. They snare prey by walking slowly or standing still for long periods, waiting for an animal to come within range of their long necks and blade-like bills. The deathblow is delivered with a quick thrust of the sharp bill, and the prey is swallowed whole. Fish are a dietary staple, but great egrets use similar techniques to eat amphibians, reptiles, mice, and other small animals.

The Father of Waters is a busy waterway. The main channel a major economic artery and recreational boating area. And yet.... Off the beaten path in a maze of quiet channels you can almost forget train and motor traffic in the distance. The small towns along the river might have a "noon whistle" you can vaguely hear far away. Still, its easy to drift into the thought that you are in a remote wilderness. The call of the birds. Eagles and ospreys drift overhead. The splash of a hungry bass. A muskrat paddling hurriedly for shore. Water lilies blooming along the edge. Alone or with a good friend.

It's a place I like to spend a lazy summer day.

Eagle Quiz

Mrs T and I will be participating in something very interesting on Jan. 16th, through the National Eagle Center in Wabasha Minnesota. More on that later. For now, see if you can correctly answer the following question

Come on now. Don't be shy!

Neighbors Woods

It's not always easy to find places where a large and rambunctious dog can safely run free. Yes, I know people walking their dogs should have then well trained enough to stay at heel. Well, truth to tell, I have had neither the will nor the ambition to do that. All my Lab and Chesapeake hunting dogs were rigorously trained to hunt under control. They were also well behaved with friends, family and even visiting strangers. Baron is spoiled rotten. He has the basics of being housebroken, doesn’t jump on people, chase deer and tolerates the cat. Otherwise, I like and encourage his independent nature. Thus we head off to public places like State Parks or Wildlife Management Areas, only if the season and timing is right i.e. it’s deserted. Wildlife Management Areas (W.M.A's also qualify year round. Bike trails do not qualify for this list though.
The best places to go in the busy spring and summer seasons are some woodlots adjacent to our neighbors farms. Dick and Sharon, Rick and Gina have graciously granted permission for the Troutbirders to walk their overgrown puppy through the woods. Here is a short list of some of the wild (mostly birds) and not so wild creatures we have seen.

Click On Picture To Enlarge

Flicker

Blue Jay

White Throated Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

Female Cardinal

Red Headed Woodpecker

Wild Turkey

Catbird

Myrtle Warbler a.k.a. "butterbutt"

Towhee

Other birds seen: Swainsons Thrush, Black& White Warbler, Northern Harrier (Marsh Hawk), Troutfarm Eagle, American Redstart, House Wren, Tree Swallow, Great Horned Owl, Eastern Meadowlark, and Baltimore Oriole.

Whitetail Deer Fawn

Dangerous Woods Creatures

Ribbon Cutting

Several hundred people were gathered along a new overlook in Minnesota, near the Iowa border, south of Brownsville. Across the river, clouded in mist, lay Wisconsin.

A yellow ribbon lay across a corner of the turnout, behind which stood a number of dignitaries. They represented numerous conservation groups, government agencies and private corporations. All had been involved, one way or another, in the building of the overlook.. State Senator Sharon Ropes speaks of the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge and what it means for all of us.
As Mrs T, Loretta and I parked along the highway, under the direction of state troopers, we heard a rather loud and strange sound emanating from the river. I think it was some sort of excited yet friendly conversation among some visitors from the far north.
Here, we were to witness a world class event in the world of natures wonders. Coming from the arctic north, in their thousands, tundra swans had stopped to refuel and rest, before continuing their journey to Chesapeake Bay, far to the southeast.

With the construction of the lock and dam system on the river in the 1930's, many of the natural aspects of the river have changed. One of these is the wave action of the increased open spaces. Many islands have disappeared. Because of this, many of the plants and tubers the swans fed on also disappeared. Now man is undoing the damage and helping the birds, by using dredge material from the main channel to rebuild these islands. Here you can see one of the many artificial islands providing a resting place and shelter from the wind and renewed food supplies.

The new overlook provides a safe place for people to turn out to see and photograph the swans.

Mrs. T (a.k.a. Queen B) now successfully cruising around with a cane and camera.
Loretta spots some opportunistic eagles resting comfortably far out in the river on an artificial island.

Previously people would park along the shoulder endangering themselves and passing vehicles.
Way to go DNR and Army Corps of Engineers. We make an annual trip along the river to see this amazing sight. It never grows old.

Thanks Mother Nature!

Pheasant Hunting

I went pheasant hunting today with my longtime hunting partner Rick. Well, to tell the truth, he had his shotgun and I was carrying my camera. It had been a long time since we tramped the fields together in search of the elusive ringneck Let’s go back to the beginning.

I grew up in the city and hunting was not part of my youthful experience. My father had hunted a little back in thirties and then lost interest. When I got my first teaching job and moved to rural small town Minnesota, he gave me his double barreled sixteen gauge shotgun. Mrs T and I decided on getting a dog. Kids would come later. The dog was Max. He was half golden retriever and half German shorthaired pointer. If the book Marley hadn’t already been written, I could have done it myself, based on Max’s exploits. He looked just like a big golden lab. And later proved, among other things. to be an amazing hunter.

Max The Wonder Dog

I tried upland game hunting a few times but had indifferent success at best. Then Rick joined the staff as our American History teacher. He was a pro when it came to hunting and I learned a lot. Thirty some years of successful pheasant and grouse hunting followed.

Back from grouse hunting.

Later, when my old football knee became so bad that I couldn’t walk safely anymore on uneven ground, I had to give it up. I then took up duck and goose hunting from a blind for a while and enjoyed that as well. Seeing a flock of honkers turn and come in to the decoys, as you called for them, was always fun.

The best memories though and the stories that go with them usually involve, somehow, my hunting dogs. Max The Wonder Dog, then Chessie and Muffy, the Chesapeake Bay retrievers.

Chessie von Milville

Pheasant hunting with gun or camera Nov. 9, 2009

Eighty acres of public hunting, restored wildlife habitat provided by the organization Pheasants Forever and the Minnesota DNR

As the sun set and it was time to call it a day, I reflected on the fact that a few years ago, after my knee replacement, I had decided to go in a different direction. A friend introduced me to birding, I got a digital camera, some binoculars and a non hunting GSD - Baron. You can find me afield year around now. Tramping the trails and woods, the parks and prairies, still hunting birds or whatever of Mother Natures bounty catches my fancy. Today, I went pheasant hunting with Rick again. A hike through the nostalgia of great memories and my younger years. But I am just as fond today of the new memories being created each time I grab my camera and round up my big puppy saying "hey Baron, let’s go for a walk."

We Got Skunked

We got skunked....literally that is. It all started innocently enough last week. The Baron & I decided to do a serious hike. We had been cooped up by cold and rainy weather for far to long. The sun had peeked through that morning and off we went.

These say that dogs often reflect their masters. Well Baron and I both like to explore. He follows me through the woods and pastures. Sometimes I follow him because he has the nose and finds interesting things. That proved to be a bad plan on this day.

Of course, he loves romping in the water. That usually is pretty safe, except when he runs up to me and does that shaking thing.

Heading into the woods might turn up some deer or turkeys. Chasing turkeys or squirrels is ok but running after deer is a no no.

We were heading across a grassy field where Baron got his nose down and began tracking seriously. Then the "pronking" started. For those unfamiliar with the term, African antelopes are most famous for the technique. All my hunting dogs did this in the field, especially when they were trying to spot a pheasant in the tall grass. Apparently Baron, the GSD, also had a use for it. I figured he was on the trail of a mouse or something akin. Wrong!!!

It was ugly. I never saw the stripped pussy cat in the tall grass, but when Baron came rushing back to me and then rolled over and over on the ground, I knew what he had found. Phew!!!

We trudged back to the truck and loaded him up. A minor plus was, that for the first time, I wasn't totally sorry that a few years back a virus had taken away some of my sense of smell. Later, Mrs T pointed out that besides the dog, the truck, the garage, the kennel, me and my clothes all reeked. I barely escaped being banished from the house. What to do? Actually I already knew from a previous experience with Max (my first lab hunting dog) that the tomato juice remedy was highly ineffective. Calling ahead on my cell phone and warning my spouse of our immenent arrival, she did an internet search for a cure. Here it is -

1 Qt 3% hydrogen peroxide 1/4 cup baking soda 1 tsp. liquid soap

All you need to do is wet down the dog with a hose, mix the ingredients together in a container, and then slowly pour the mixture over the dog while rubbing it into the fur.

After the dog has been bathed in this solution rinse it down with the hose and the dog will be odor free.

My dog weighed 100 lbs so I doubled the amounts shown above, but if you have a small to medium size animal, the recipe listed should do just fine.

Although the ingredients are not dangerous, care should obviously be taken to keep the solution out of your dog's eyes, ears and mouth. Credit for this remedy goes to chemist, Paul Krebaum, of Molex Inc. in Lisle, Illinois. The above listed ingredients were published in the August 1995 issue of Popluar Science.

It worked great. Here's hoping you don't have to try it!