It was a full day here at the Wisconsin Master Naturalist Summit, and my first scheduled event was on leading educational hikes at Willow River State Park, so that’s where I went for sunrise to see who I could see before class began. There is a dam in the Willow River, originally built to harness the water power, and recently restored to maintain Little Falls Lake for recreation.
As you can imagine, kayakers and beach goers are not the only ones to make use of the lake, and here are a pair of bald eagles surveying part of their realm. My car thermometer said 37°F this morning, and the skies were clear so there was even frost on the grass from radiant cooling. But the lake water is still relatively warm, which generated a huge cloud of mist, but I couldn’t wait around for it to clear, so here’s your moody picture of the day.
It’s a state park in Wisconsin, and it’s not in Lake Michigan off of downtown Milwaukee, so it would be surprising if I didn’t see deer.
What I did find pleasantly surprising was finding an osprey at this late date. We haven’t seen one for a while in Estabrook, but clearly, they haven’t all flown south already.
The biggest surprise of the morning, however, was spotting this albino grey squirrel mining a maple tree for seeds along with a couple of its grey buddies.
Lastly, I hit another trifecta today, and our third raptor was this gorgeous red-tailed hawk.
Tomorrow, I get to go learn how to host an “Early Morning Bird Hike” at the Carpenter Nature Center in Hastings, MN. I don’t doubt that there are birds in Minnesota, but I’ve never recorded one there before, so this will be a first for me. Wish me luck!
