Walk at Ada Hayden!

It was SUPER NICE OUT today! So Ricky and I went for a walk around Ada Hayden.

The Great Blue Herons are back!

The larger geese are all Canada Geese, and the two smaller ones are actually a subspecies of Canada Goose called the "Cackling Goose" it was fun to get them all in the same shot for the size comparison.

White tailed deer

When we walked past this I poked Rick and told him "look, the lake has a question" but he hadn't noticed the stick so he just looked confused and ruined my funny moment...

The Song Sparrows are back too!

COOTS!!

This Crow was super noisy.

Pretty little female Mallards

BIRDWATCHING!!!

Finally a warm enough day to do some birdwatching! Rick and I took Frank out Lake McBride to do some sightseeing with us!  I probably shouldn't have been, but I was really kind of surprised to see so much of the lake was still frozen. I think it's a weird sort of amnesia that sets in whenever we get a nice day that fools me every year into staying in Iowa past October...

This goose came charging across the ice honking incessantly at another goose (who was swimming the 2 feet of open water near the shore) this goose chased goose #2 for like 2 feet before turning around and going back out across the ice. Apparently the intruder had been "chased" out of it territory. I think it's tongue is so funny! 

Chipping Sparrow!

This is a lousy picture (taken straight at sun) but it's our first bluebird of the year!!

I loved this White breasted Nuthatch! He was so photogenic!

Black-capped Chickadee!

Tree Swallow! Rick and I couldn't believe it. We hadn't expected to see any of these until much later.

Super FUZZY Deer!

Downy Woodpecker (male) He was super busy!

ALL of the gulls were sitting out on the ice eating fish from the winter kill. The winter kill is apparently supposed to be pretty bad this year because the ice froze so much thicker than it usually does.

Apparently when you have cabin fever you go out and hit golf balls across a frozen lake.
I played around with the saturation and contrast a lot on this pic (hence the weird sky color) to get the golf balls to show up more. There were so many, this guy (or group) must have had a whole bucket to whack.

Gathering of the Green

 

Today we went to "Gathering of the Green" with Bob and Janice

Apparently it's a biennial event that celebrates a widespread love affair with John Deere

It was held at the River Center in Davenport

Inside the event we met Mr. Mumm, a friend of Bob and Janice, who built a 12' by 20' replica silo for GotG

Mr. Mumm's silo - complete with pigeons sitting on the top

The sign explaining the silo

And the possum he put in it. I guess because all silos have possum problems.

I don't know what this thing is, it looked like a  tiny elevator leg, but I liked the logo

There were A LOT of restored tractors

There was also this 1960's replica machine shed, it was pretty neat

This is a TERRIFYING farm implement - I assume it's for hay or something, or for those days when the Grim Reaper means business - like during a plague or something

It even came complete with this raccoon

 

And apparently, back in the day... John Deere made Bikes?

Rick liked this lamp

1970's little tractors

I loved the treads on this tractor! This tractor is not screwing around, and also probably not street legal.

then I decided - because I had NO IDEA what I was taking pictures of all day - that I would just take artsy pictures of fun shapes and shadows while Rick rolled his eyes at me.

I really liked this thing because it reminded me of the game "Mouse Trap" 

This was super funny. Apparently only the backs of horses were used in farm work. Horse heads were only necessary in "The Godfather"

Some of the old advertisements were really pretty.

John Deere Bicycles again!

Here Rick made fun of me for "being the only person who'd take pictures of a swap meet" but I thought the piles of parts were kinda neat.

After Gathering of the Green we all went out for lunch!