Always a Gamble

Blaubeere was bringing her kids over and we had decided we wanted to go do something while they were here. Ahead of time we had looked at the weather and it looked like it was going to be a pretty decent weekend.  It was after the Spring Equinox, the official beginning of spring, after all.  It is supposed to be getting warmer.  And, considering how cold it gets around here in the middle of winter, anything above freezing is definitely warmer than its been. So we had our plans and were ready to go.  However, maybe it was a bad omen that as I went out to the car I looked at our driveway and there, in the ice was a leaf.  It attracted my attention because it had melted down into the ice a good inch.  Like it had attracted the heat and melted down into the ice.  It doesn't show very well in the picture, maybe I should have taken it from a side angle.  Anyway, I thought it was unusual so I took a picture and continued our preparations. 

The trip was a collection of "maybes".  We were going to an area where snowy owls had been spotted quite frequently during the last several weeks in the hopes of seeing one or more.  It was a ways away and we knew it was a gamble, there might not be any there when we got there.  And, unfortunately, there weren't that morning.  I had seen one while driving around a couple of weeks ago but on this morning we didn't see any. Bummer. But the area we were looking was near a prairie chicken reserve so we thought we'd stop and check it out.

The whole area we were looking was along the edge of the reserve but there was a little shelter that has some informational displays off in a part of the reserve so we stopped there to look around.

It was pretty interesting.  They even had a little gadget powered by a crank.  You crank the handle a minute and a narrative starts that tells you about prairie chickens and even has some of the sounds they make.  The kids had a good time with that.

So we read the displays and looked at the murals and pictures.

It was an interesting place.

After looking at the displays we wandered out into the prairie grass. This was a very flat area.  Prairie grass stretching for a great distance in every direction.

The snow was pretty much gone but the grass hadn't yet greened up.  It was still recovering from having been under snow all winter.

But there were trails here and there through the grass so we went walking out into the grass.  Alas, we did not see any prairie chickens.  I suppose we didn't really expect to see any.  You can't really expect to arrive and have them conveniently waiting there, all on display and ready to look at. But it was still a good stop, even without seeing any prairie chickens.  Interesting to learn about them, their habitat, and their mating rituals, which generate all the noise they're famous for.

Our next stop was quite a ways away from the prairie chicken reserve.  We had picked it because it had a nesting tower where osprey frequently nest in the spring.  So, hoping to see some osprey, we made the trek.  Unfortunately, we did not see any osprey. I think it was still a bit early in the spring.  The entire lake at the park was still totally frozen over.  No open water at all.  That makes it hard to fish. Osprey migrate during the winter so they can still have open water to hunt during the winter.

It was a small park but even without any osprey being around it was still an interesting place.  They had a unique bench at the picnic shelter.

They also had a dock down by the lake, still totally locked in by ice.  But still worth a visit to check it out.

The ice made the dock a little funner to play at.  No chance of getting wet.

It was windier at the park than it had been at the reserve so we didn't stay a long time. Even though the temperature was above freezing, the wind added a windchill factor that put the effective temperature below freezing.  It got cold pretty quick.

But even though all the trees, grass, and other vegetation was still "winter dead",  you could tell it was a pretty little park.  We thought it might be worth a trip back when spring was a little more established in the area.

After freezing our buns off in the cold out-doors all morning we decided to hit a nearby ice cream place.  Ice cream is good no matter how cold it gets.

Apparently we weren't the only ones that felt that way.  We actually had to wait in line for several minutes to get our ice cream.

So all bundled up, we waited in line and got our ice cream.   Then we beat it home to play some games and continue the fun.

It was a good time.  Some times you go on these sight-seeing trips and its a gamble as to whether or not you're going to see anything.  I "collect" places around where we might reasonably have a chance of visiting some day or another but you never know if the places will live up to expectations or not.  When you go gallivanting like this to places you've never been you always have to be prepared for it to not turn out.  That was part way true this time, but it was still a good, fun time, albeit a bit cold.  We will definitely take a chance again and continue to go sight-seeing!