A thick cloud deck rolled in sometime overnight, here at Kohler-Andrae State Park, so it was a pretty dark morning, and I gave the cordwalk through the Kohler Dunes State Natural Area a try.
I hadn’t even stepped off the pavement yet when I spotted three wild turkeys, who did their best to ignore me and focus on finding their breakfast.
Once I did reach the cordwalk, things were quiet for a while, and I never did see any deer or coyotes today, but I eventually came across a trio of sandhill cranes crossing the path, and this was the slow one.
The most colorful sight this morning, despite the dark skies, was this goldfinch amidst some knapweed blossoms.
This female bluebird did her best to brighten things up, as well, but the gray sky really worked against her.
This field sparrow, on the other hand, was far more in line with the prevailing color scheme.
This Cooper’s hawk at least let me position some evergreens behind it to take the edge off that bright-white sky.
With rain threatening, I headed back towards our campsite, but I couldn’t help myself from taking one more look on the Black River, and my reward was getting to see the sora again but from a lot closer this time.
Finally, I tried to clean up this picture from early yesterday morning as much as I could, and it is still terrible, but I believe you can make out a family of raccoons climbing the dead tree in the middle anyway. They never got much higher than that when one of them must have asked “what the heck are we hoping to find up here,” and they slowly climbed back down.
The weather is supposed to improve by tomorrow, and we’re supposed to go for a bike ride in the morning, so I’m not sure if and when I’ll get to go looking for wildlife, but if and when I do, I’ll try to show you what I found.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 