The bad thing was lack of sun. I could not get any better photo than these with all the fog and mist. So they are marked off my "seen it" and "got any photo" lists, but are still on the "great photo" list.
One of the rest stops we stopped at in Iowa, on our way home from vacation, had about 20 Cedar Waxwings. Of course, I ran and got my camera and made the guys wait while I admired them. They were a little shy, but still so beautiful! This was the second time in month I got to admire the Waxwings, even though I had never seen them before.
I think they like the berries.
In fact, they get their name from their red wax-like wing tips and because they eat small blueberry-like cones of the cedar.
They’re mostly seen in flocks and will eat insects when berries can’t be found.
I love the splash of yellow on the tips of their tails amongst all their earth toned feathers. And their bandit-like black masks; they’re like tiny flying raccoons.
They are so majestic!
Another little treat at another Iowa rest stop - - - wait, no, I don’t “go” that much, but we were caching and while the guys ran to find the caches I looked for critters. I spotted this curious Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel.
Sometimes people call them striped gophers but they aren’t a gopher. They're also called Federation Squirrels because the spots and stripes resemble the stars and stripes of the American flag.
I feel a little zany today so lets just have a chaotic mix of photos. Yeah? Cool!
I used the fisheye lens on these shots. The neat thing about this lens is I was almost touching the dandelions yet there’s great focus and you are seeing 180 degrees. There were a whole field of dandelions, pretty really.
I used the macro lens for this Marsh Marigold. I’m not very fond of regular marigolds but I love the Marsh Marigolds. They are everywhere in Wisconsin in the spring. Well marshy areas mostly.
I know I already told you about the blankets of Trillium that can be found in the spring. I took this shot in May, I’m kinda missing them.
Remember how I told you that I take shots of birds, any shot I can get, when I see them, then I try for better shots. Well, I wasn’t sure what this one was but I got a few photos.
None of them very good, really. But they were good enough that now I know I saw a Yellow-rumped Warbler. I haven’t seen any since, and believe me I have been looking. I took these photos in April, just kept hoping I would get some better ones to share.
The red-winged blackbirds can be kinda pretty. I don’t normally bother with snapping them but I liked the look of this one.
There were several Great Egrets in the area, but this is the closest I could get. Again, I will keep trying.
I loved how these two Brown-headed Cowbirds have similar poses.
A Baltimore Oriole sips nectar from the flower blossoms.
Although the Cedar Waxwing lives in Wisconsin year-round, this was my first time seeing one. I’ve always wanted to see one, just wish I had more time to spend in this park and admire them.
Jack-in-the-pulpit is always fun to find but easy to overlook. It’s fairly short and usually mixed in with other wildflowers.
Hope you enjoyed the hodge podge which is the chaos of my life!
