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.