Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

Rick and I have only seen a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker once before, in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  This is our first time spotting one in Iowa.

Barred Owl

This Barred Owl lives in the woods behind my parents house. We normally only hear it at night, but someone nearby had a large fire going and the we think the smoke bothered it enough to get it moving around during the day.  

Happy Birthday Erin!

Sarah decorated this beautiful cake for Erin's birthday!

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper

This little guy spends the winter hanging out in the midwest with gangs of Nuthatch and Downy Woodpeckers. They're so well camouflaged we only ever spot them when they move.

Ada Hayden

Ada Hayden Heritage Park is not far from our apartment, so Rick and I spend a lot of our free time walking and exploring the trails there.

Rick and I accidentally startled this flock of Canvasbacks. 

We also flushed out this beautiful male Ring-necked Pheasant.  Last summer's drought was apparently very good for the pheasants and we're seeing a lot more of them this year. 

This is a small part of the herd of White-tailed Deer we stumbled upon while hiking around the park.

Saulsbury Bridge: Engagement

 After our weekend with Matt and Alex in Backbone, Rick and I headed home to spend the rest of Spring Break with his family.

We took a day trip to the Saulsbury Bridge Recreation Area where we spotted this male Wood Duck,

This Red-headed Woodpecker,

and this Red-tailed Hawk.

Saulsbury Bridge is also the place Rick proposed. We were stalking a Downy Woodpecker when he kneeled down in the snow to pop the question. I turned around and saw him kneeling with the ring and started crying and said "Yes! Yes!" he responded with "You didn't let me ask the question."
His new favorite joke is that he was just going to ask what I wanted for lunch. 

He did, eventually, get to ask me to marry him.

Spring Break

For Spring Break, Rick and I rented a cabin for a weekend at Backbone State Park with Matt and Alex. 

We stayed in Cabin C, Eagle View, overlooking Backbone Lake.

We spotted this white-tailed deer near the Backbone trailhead.

This male Eastern Bluebird greeted us our first morning in the park.

 

(left) Matt and Rick test the ice on a flooded picnic area. (right) Rick walks across a fallen tree to explore a sandbar in the middle of the creek.

Rick and Alex prove you're never too old to play on the swings.