Horicon Marsh Bird Festival

This weekend was the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival. G & I went up on Saturday with some friends and did a pontoon ride into the marsh as well as a tour around it. It was overcast and cool; we saw a lot more birders than birds. At the education center we sat in on a presentation about raptors, which was great because we got to see kestrels, a barred owl, a falcon and a snowy owl up close.

On the marsh watching white pelicans

Looking out onto the marsh from the Visitor Center

Found (The Missing)

G and some friends had a real treat today: Margaret Peterson Haddix, author of the Shadow Children series and books such as Running Out of Time and Just Ella, visited their book group. She was in the area promoting Found, the first book in her new series The Missing. Everyone had already read Found and had lots of questions for her. She was gracious and thorough in her responses. One interesting tidbit she passed on: She initially had a certain identity in mind for Jonah, one of the main characters in the book, but she's since come across some other possible identities for him. She hasn't decided yet who we'll find out he is, but it will most likely happen in the last book of the series (which will have at least four books in it). Unfortunately, the next book isn't going to be published for another year, so everyone will just have to wait to see how things unfold!

Margaret Peterson Haddix (back row, right) with G & her book group

Mystery Amphibian

Dan found a silver-white amphibian in the lawn today. I sent pictures to a guy I know who is a naturalist/guide in the Northwoods ... we're hoping he can tell us who our little interloper is. (Update: He says it is most likely an Eastern gray tree frog, which can change colors like a chameleon. Toads are variations of brown or red, and he can't see evidence of a paratoid gland, which toads have behind their eyes.)



Sunning in the grass

Close up

No-Sew Blankets

The women's group of a church we are nominally associated with gets together with two other ELCA churches on the first Saturday of May each year to make fleece blankets. This was the fourth year G & I spent the afternoon tying away with Lois, as nice a church lady as you will ever find, and Jan, the retired OB nurse who delivered G. The 120+ blankets are going to local EMS and fire departments, as well as women's shelters this year.


G works on our favorite pattern this year

Daisy Chain

Nine

Three more hatched over night. By late afternoon, there was no sign that any of the other eggs would hatch. We'll put a new set in tonight.

The newbies join the day-olds (photo taken while water was being changed)

Half a Dozen

At the end of the day, we have six chicks. The one who had the biggest hole first thing this morning had a hard time making any progress and it finally pushed itself out about a half an hour ago. (It seems exhausted.) We've moved them from the incubator to a box with a heat lamp, where we'll keep them for a few days. We're also going to put 42 more eggs in the incubator tomorrow. These are "fresher," so we should have a better yield in 21 days.





Our little brood

And Another!

Hatchling 3 was a fast worker and still had lots of energy when it freed itself from its shell. (The one I called "determined" in the first post has made no more progress from this morning than sticking its beak out.) It's going to be a beauty ... red with black stripes.

Feisty

Another!

A second chick has liberated itself from its egg. It seemed to take a lot of energy ... we wanted to help the poor thing out a few times. This second hatchling has huge black raptor-like feet. It's not as noisy as its clutch mate (yet anyway).

Cracking the shell

Pushing hard

Almost ...

Freedom!

Hatched!

The first chick is out of its shell! It's a hard-working little bugger, as a few of its mates have more shell broken away but haven't made their way out. (This one came out of the egg with the little white spot and crazing in the last picture.) It is making quite a racket. G & I are wondering if it will imprint on one of us!

Plucky

Incubation

Our "yard hens" lay eggs all over the place, and most of the time Maike finds the nests and eats them. But this year, Dan, Grandpa & G made an effort to find the nests before Maike did. Twenty-one days ago (the incubation period for a chicken egg) they put 42 eggs in an incubator to see what would happen. Lo and behold, this morning there are several eggs with evidence of chicks trying to break out. We are also hearing intermittant peeping. Stay tuned for "The Great Chick Hatch of 2008" news!

This chick is the most determined of the lot! (If you enlarge the photo, you can see a white dot and some crazing on the egg to the right where another one is starting to work its way out)

A Different Perspective

Props to Lying Down, Looking Up


House of Burgesses

Jamestown 350th Anniversary Memorial

Monticello

Day 5: Monticello

At Mr. Jefferson's home

A different view

Jefferson's grave. He wanted to be remembered for the Declaration, the Virginia religious freedom statute and UVA

Day 4: Yorktown & Shirley Plantation

Checking out Continental Army accommodations at the Victory Center

At the battlefield (James River in the background)

Shirley Plantation main house

Won't Do?

Class of 2018?

Day 3: Williamsburg Again

Our wonderful docent Miss Virginia laces G into a corset

At the Governor's Palace

Maze at the Governor's Palace (no blast-ended skrewts in sight)

G and Patrick Henry (a truly inspirational presentation)

Evening 2: African American Music

No cameras were allowed inside at this presentation in Williamsburg, but here's part of the group before this amazing event

Day 2: Williamsburg

Parlor dancing at the Wythe House

Group at the Magazine


Playing a colonial game

Sketching at the Governor's Palace lawn

Day 1: Jamestown

We visited Jamestown Settlement, the Glasshouse and Historic Jamestowne.

With our guide Hugh outside a Powhatan hut

Inside the hut


Aboard the Susan Constant

Memorial to John Smith

Something to do with Rev. Hunt, a figure G was familiar with because of a book she'd read

Class Trip

G and I just got back from a week-long class trip to Virginia. It was a dense itinerary, so we got to do a lot. Lots of walking, lots of fun.

We stayed at the 4-H camp in Jamestown

G's bunk

The camp was on the James River