Well, it’s finally spring at chez mousey.  Although with the global warming it sometimes feels like summer.  We’ve already had several days with temps over 85º and humidity that seriously threatens the structural integrity of the underarms of our shirts.  We ran the air conditioner in April.  Sorry, Mr. Gore.  I’ll buy some organic lettuce to offset that indulgence.  Or maybe some organic chocolate.  They make organic chocolate, right?

 

But, anyway, Jay and I have decided to start a new tradition.  We both have spiffy digital cameras.  There are 260 parks in Madison.  So, instead of sitting on our tushes all day each Sunday, we’re picking one a week and doing some shooting.  We’ve got enough parks to last us five years.  Okay, more like ten, because when the lightning and hail strikes, and the snow blows, and the temperatures start hovering around “sauté”, my tush is getting re-parked on the couch.  But on days like today, we take a field trip.

 

Last week we went to Lake Farm Park and saw mud turtles, ducklings, and a Green Heron.  This week we got a bit more ambitious and hit the Arboretum.  We putt-putted along Arboretum drive at a staid 20mph until we finally found the area my parents used to take me when I was a kid.  (Mom loves lilacs.  They have a whole wad of them.)  Then we parked and hiked and hiked some more.  We took a lot of pictures.  Well, Jay did.  I managed eleven before the batteries died.

 

We saw azaleas and droopy beech trees and four huge wild turkeys.  We wandered through the woods.  Jay said he felt like he was on “Lost”.  That was funny, since later we saw a map that said we were in the “Lost Forest”.  And right at the end, when we were headed back to the car, we saw some weird stork-like birds.  We got some good shots of them so we could look them up in the bird book when we got home.  I joked that they were probably “red-headed herons” or some obvious name.

 

They weren’t.  They were Sandhill Cranes.

 

 

I didn’t recognize them without the fire coming out of their butts.