Visiting Wolf Park Indianna

Most of you have probably already seen these photos on our Facebook page, but as this blog is a sort of journal to our lives I wanted to make sure I included a post about visiting this amazing sanctuary!

Zach gifted me with the most amazing early birthday present! I've wanted to visit Wolf Park, Indiana since I was in High School and I finally got to go yesterday! It was incredible! It's a wolf sanctuary that is home to both Grey and Timber wolves that have been deemed unfit to re-enter the wild. It is also home to Coyotes, Grey Fox, Red Fox and Bison. Such an amazing educational experience! I will be sharing some of my favorite photos from the day.

Later in the evening we attended Howl Night where we got to hear and see the wolves and coyotes howl. It was eerily beautiful.

Birding at the Tobico Marsh

Zach and I made sort of a spur-of-the-moment trip Tuesday afternoon. Spring is coming and it's the best time of year to go birding. The migratory birds are heading north again to their breeding grounds in Canada and it's a great opportunity to spot some otherwise rare birds as they stop over.

I've noticed that the Sandhill Cranes, Mute Swans and other summertime birds have returned from their winter break. I also noticed that the Common Mergansers who usually stop over on a local lake for a few weeks before continuing north have arrived. This gave me the cue that other birds like the Snowy Owl, the Tundra Swan and many others would be stopping over in the Bay City area.

The Bay of Michigan is the area between the east side of the "Mitten" and the web of the "Thumb". The bay forms a nice little nook in Lake Huron filled with marshes, inland lakes and the Saginaw River. A perfect place for birds, especially waterfowl to take a rest.

The coast is bordered with several state parks, wildlife preserves and sanctuaries that provide miles of beautiful hiking trails, boardwalks and lookout towers. The area has an active birding community and there is a lot of information about local sightings, and signs and directories for helping visitors to see the most birds.

The park we visited Tuesday night was the Tobico Marsh. It's about an hour 10 minutes away, and not something that we'd usually do on a Tuesday afternoon, but it was supposed to be the warmest day of the week before the temperatures go back down below freezing. We have Evelyn now, our 5 month old daughter, and I didn't want to take her out in the cold for long periods of time. So off we went.

Tobico Marsh is a beautiful place with interesting trails that include several footbridges that wander over the marshiest marsh spots.

Red Winged Blackbird on Cattail

The marsh runs in miniature streams above and below the dead grasses and reeds

Pussy Willow just starting to bloom

Red Dogwood

It was a dreary day and the lime green moss seemed to glow on the forest floor.

Most likely a patch of Violet Toothed Mushrooms

Puffballs

One of the many footbridges

This might be Sheep of the Woods mushroom but much of it has broken off.

One of the lookout towers. We found a geocache near it!

These are the Bufflehead ducks. New species for me! They were really far away but the park provided high powered binocular viewers and you could clearly see that they were Buffleheads. 

 

Here is a closer image from birdinginformation.org

Springtime at Iron Oak Farm

Everything is starting to blossom in the warmer weather.

Purple Phlox

Dandelion gone to seed

The whole yard smells of sweet honeysuckle. This is the pink variety.

And here is the white variety of Honey Suckle.

Lilacs

The turkeys, chickens, geese, guineas and ducks enjoying the new run. We still have the other half to build.

We had a successful hatch of Buff Orpington chicks. 5 out of 7 eggs.

I can't believe how big these guys have grown! Khaki Campbell ducks

Little Man-Abrahm is also getting big. He's enjoying cuddles on the porch after his bottle while Oliver licks his face clean of milk.

Local Birding

One of my favorite things to do is travel around looking for wildlife to photograph, particularly birds.

There's a dirt road a few miles from our house that borders a long lake/slow river. Each spring this body of water is always brimming with birds. Some returning from the long migration, some stopping temporarily before moving even farther north to their breeding grounds.  As in the case of these Common Mergansers.

Pair Common Mergansers

We usually visit the lake earlier in the year when there are upwards to 50 Common Mergansers stopping for a short rest before heading north. At this time in the year, there were only a few pairs left.

Pair Common Mergansers

While I always aim to take the best photos possible,... often when I'm birding, I will simply settle for a recognizable documentation. As was the case with many of these images. The birds were simply too far away to get a quality image with the lens I have.

Female Common Merganser has a brick red/orange-y brown head with a crest of feathers that flail backwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male Common Merganser

Pied Billed Grebe

 We also saw a Pied-Billed Grebe. I find them to be adorable. They're a tiny duck-shaped bird with a stubby little bill and huge eyes. 

Pied-Billed Grebe

 

They have an incredible ability to dive and are mostly silent birds. 

Canada Goose

 We saw many Canada Geese. 

Canada Goose

 This one is sitting on a well built nest. 

Belted Kingfisher

 We also saw a beautiful belted King Fisher. 

Pair Mute Swans (Nesting Canada Goose)

 And a pair of Mute Swans. See the Canada Goose in the background sitting on the nest? 

I have a swan goal this year. I want to see a Trumpeter Swan. I've been reading that they are making a comeback in our area. I've done some research and spoken with a few birders who told me where there are some good areas to find them. 

Red-Tailed Hawk

 This Red Tailed Hawk dove in front of the Jeep trying to escape the packing of two very upset Crows. Most likely this hawk was trying to rob the Crow's nest and the pair attacked, chasing the hawk away.

Crows = Orange Circle, Hawk = Yellow Circle