A day trip....

We headed north to see Willow Slough and to go on to Jasper-Pulaski.

Willow slough on the right and private property on the left...you can see the mailbox on down the way if you click to expand the view.  Jasper-Pulaski is much the same type of place.

They are both fish and wildlife areas...we did not see much at Willow Slough except Roger spotted some turkeys...and Blue Jays were simply every where...I have never seen so many.  They were calling all around, and everywhere we went they were seen flitting across the road, or away from the road.

We did see several coots there..

They were mainly in this one spot...at first just slowly swimming around..

then they decided to get the heck out of Dodge!  They didn't go far, but far enough away till it was no fun to watch them any more.

Sumac was in full color there...

Over at Jasper-Pulaski the Sandhill Cranes were stopping over..

And filling their bellies...

and some were just resting as you can see if you look close in the photo below.

That is about it for our visit up there...oh, we did see a lot of these things on the way:

Thanks for visiting...I am sorry to be such and on/off blogger but it seems to be the best I can do lately.    Remember, I love your comments and love hearing from you.

Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife area

We went to Willow Slough just to see what it was like...we didn't really read anything about it. I have since found out that it is 9,956 acres of land which includes 1,800 acres of water.
I think I told earlier that the guys from the DNR that worked there said most of the water was about knee deep.
I am not sure how many duck hunters were on the water...I think we could see about 4 floating duck blinds. I have to admit that I didn't realize what they were at first. The first one I noticed honestly looked about like a beaver's house.
Then I saw the big ones and realized what they were. Why I didn't take a picture of one of them is more than I know.
Camping is allowed there, and there was lots of places to just fish from the bank. But I have a feeling the entire place is covered with moss in the warmer months. Hunting is allowed for most things if I remember correctly; you do have to sign in. One area is reserved for dog training. And there is a shooting range which is run on a first come first served basis.

I am anxious to go back there in the spring...cannot imagine all the bugs and stuff we would see. But I had fun Saturday...I kind of like seeing the place bare.

From Willow Slough

Remember the guy on top of the windmill yesterday? Well, these pictures were from that same day, so they give an idea of how cold it was. These are of Willow Slough, but I guess I should include that the DNR guy there said that for the most part it is knee deep. So, it will freeze sooner than a deeper lake.