Greetings everyone! Brad and Jan are out visiting one of our favorite editors at our satellite facility in Colorado. Always good to see our employees when we can…and I hear the view from that facility is magnificent! While they enjoy their trip, going to jump our typical alternating schedule and bring you another series of shots from our Texas Gulf Coast trip back in 2023.
Hit the jump to read more about our brightly colored and slightly devilish feathered friend.
Today’s topic originated courtesy of our current trip to Chain O’ Lakes State Park (link here). I’ve mentioned this park in a number of previous posts as it happens to be one of our favorite SPs in Illinois. The Chain is located about 4 hours north of us in a small town named Spring Grove. I joke that the route between Spring Grove and nearby Richmond is the weekend evacuation path for all of Chicago – if you do not arrive early enough you’ll get gridlocked in these small towns as the intersections struggle to keep up with the traffic.
Chain pretty much offers all the summertime activities we enjoy – camping, hiking, biking, birding, trail running, picnicking and plenty of water for fun in the sun. The park is actually named after the network of large lakes that are connected by the Fox River. Chain is directly adjacent to three of the lakes, Grass, Marie and the Nippersink (my favorite name of all the lakes). The Fox River provides access to an additional 7 lakes (Bluff, Catherine, Channel, Fox, Pistakee and Redhead). To be completely honest, we have only seen Grass and parts of Nippersink – those lakes are spread out over a large area (link here).
This park happens to be our “sure thing” to get the Sandhill Crane checked off for the year. It should not take you long to spot one (more likely several) once in the park. Even if you are struggling to get eyes on one, just let your ears do the walking. Those guttural calls of the cranes will carry from one end of the park to the other. Now, as you probably already know, you are NOT going to find any Roseate Spoonbills taking a bath in those waterways.
Nope, you will need to head to the coasts for these red-eyed paddle-bills. In actuality, the idea to go with this series of shots came out of today’s kayak outing – well, more from the enjoyment I was having using the paddle to splash Linda. Sometimes you just have to live in the moment and hmmm, how does the saying going “…worth it” hehehe. Linda gave me a two-person inflatable kayak as my 2022 Christmas gift. We managed to use it once before I broke my elbow last year forcing me to put it up on the shelf and stare at it until now. This was the first test to see if I’ve recovered enough to row. I was shocked to learn the reconstructed joint was now strong enough to withstand the strain and the resulting pain was bearable. What was even more surprising is at random times the elbow would “twitch” uncontrollably causing the paddle to send a large amount of water right on Linda sitting behind me…oddest thing I’ve ever witnessed hehehe.
I have to wonder if this Spoon has a similar infliction. All of a sudden it would lower itself in the water and start spraying the other Spoons in the area. Surely uncontrollable, non-intentional, involuntary and devoid of intention. I can truly feel for Pinky as twitch afflictions can often be misunderstood as deliberate, antagonistic acts designed to produce laughter at their expense. I can only imagine other Spoons maliciously retaliating and whacking the back of its head with their paddle …bills.
Hmmmm, I get the feeling this Spoon just smirked and said “worth it”….INDEED hehehe.
Well, should leave it there while I go add more ice to the bag on my head. Take care and if you happen to be in the area, take a run through Chain O’ Lakes State Park. I think you’ll enjoy it as much as we do. Warning, one downside, as a general rule, IL state park bathroom facilities are not the best and glad we no longer have to rely on those with the new RV.
Life Intrigued 