In Wabasha, which is in southeastern MN, there is another area in the river that stays open year around, and there you can find eagles.
This year there doesn't seem to be any problem with the river being open anywhere. We just live a couple blocks away from the Mississippi, and I don't remember it ever not having ice. Scary! We don't have any swans here, but we have our share of ducks and geese, it must be a tad too cold for swans.
I've been hearing people talk about the swans in Monticello for the past couple of years, so yesterday after church, we took advantage of the beautiful clear blue sky and the 40+ degree weather and took a drive up to Monticello to see for ourselves. We saw a few swans through the trees as we were driving, but no Swan Park, so we got out our trusty smart phones and relied on Google: swans in monticello mn. This is what we found. A woman dubbed The Swan Lady lives right on the river, and feeds them nearly 900 lbs of food everyday, she has a huge deck that people are encouraged to use for picture taking. We got there a little after feeding time and the swans were all gone, but tons of ducks and geese were still there, making just a huge racket. We got back in our car, drove back to where we had spotted them through the trees, found a parking spot across the street, waded through the brush to get to the river bank, and were greeted with this...
They were everywhere, honking and quacking, flying and soaring, taking off and landing. It was pretty cool.
I took so many photos...good thing too, because most of them were completely washed out. I'll have to go back and try again. I even had it set on auto, so I wouldn't have to futz around with settings. hmmm, I apparently did something wrong.
I took a bunch of non-wildlife photos too...
Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day for a drive and some sightseeing.
On the way home, David suggested we stop for some ice cream, I suggested pie. Try to find a little shop that has either of those anymore that isn't a chain. Ha! We ended up at Perkin's. Apple pie ala mode for him and Cherry pie ala mode for me, along with some excellent coffee. Yum!!
2 comments:
Janet, those flit shots are terrific! I haven't visited Monticello yet this winter. I had better hurry up!
These photos have just such peacefullness---the colors are great! I pass a swan area on one of my routes to visit consumers in SE MN---you inspired me to bring my camera along next time on route there!
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