Wrapping It Up

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Today, we're wrapping up our trip to Cheyenne Bottoms.  (If you need to get caught up, click here, here, and here.)  Let's get serious now, get down to business, and take a look at what else we saw ...

This is my serious face

Here's the entrance to the road through the refuge:

Mom got one of her more remarkable shots early in the drive:

Left to right:  Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, and another Great Egret!

She took multiple shots of those railings, but the Cattle Egrets were only in that shot.  They must have thought high water was coming or something, because ...

Cattle Egrets!

She did get this Cattle Egret, posing by some cattails.

Cattle Egret

Am I the only one who thinks cattails look like corn dogs?  Hmm...

Mom was focusing on a Snowy Egret who was fishing, then this guy photo-bombed them:

Snowy Egret - photo-bombing another Snowy Egret

That guy went past, then another one came in for a landing:

And another Snowy Egret photo-bomb!

Eventually, that Snowy by the water flew up onto this post and struck a nice pose for Mom:

Snowy Egret

Now THAT'S a cooperative birdie!

Mom took this shot up in an observation tower:

Green Heron!

She was very excited!  Green Herons are not overly common here and have been known to be fairly reclusive.

Speaking of herons ... this Great Blue zoomed right by Mom:

Great Blue Heron

And Mom liked this Cormorant flying against the sunflowers:

Double Crested Cormorant

A lot of the area looked like this:

Mom said she likes the way the light is hitting the corndogs.  I mean cattails.

While Mom was shooting something else, these guys surprised her:

American Avocets

She got a couple shots of some Coots before they took off:

American Coot, on the run!

We saw some Pelicans do a fly-by:

American White Pelicans

And though we didn't see as many as we did at Quivira, we did see some Ibises:

White-Faced Ibis

When we got back around to the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, this guy was hanging out right by the parking lot!

Cattle Egret

I hadn't realized they were fellow redheads!  How cool!

That's a wrap for the trip.  Dad said he knew how to get home, and Mom was still riding shotgun, so I took a little siesta as we headed back.

"I still think it would have been fun to play Othello, Maggie!"
"Zzzz...."

Thanks for coming with us!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

PS: If you'd like to see more photos from Cheyenne Bottoms, please click here to visit our FlickR album.

DUCK!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie, here to tell you more about our adventure to Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area!  We were driving through the refuge, when Mom called out, "DUCK!"

"OK, Mom!  How's this?"
"What is it, Mom?  More submarines?!?"

Oh.  Right.  We forgot.  She meant this:

Redhead Duck!

Mom was excited to start seeing some of the migrating ducks!  Dad spotted this group for her:

Northern Shoveler and more Redhead Ducks

This tiny duck was far away, but Mom was happy to be able to get a photo:

Ruddy Duck

And Mom was beyond thrilled to spot a couple of these:

Wood Duck in eclipse plumage

If I understand this right, "eclipse plumage" means he's done impressing the lady ducks for the season and has changed into sweats and a tee shirt.  Or the duck equivalent.

Further into Cheyenne Bottoms, Mom spotted this group:

Lots of ducks!

It was a relatively large group of ducks, and other than bobbing up and down with the water, they were holding relatively still!  Mom was so happy!  She stood there taking shot after shot ... then she started looking around to see who else might be in the area, when ...

"Should we break it to her?"
"Nah. Let's see how long she stands there shooting them."

It would seem it was something called the opening day of Teal Season for that area.

"Ooooh!  Is 'decoy' a special kind of duck, Mom?!!?  I think I see more!"
"Seriously?  Seriously, Mom?"
"How was I to know?"
"This has to go on your blog ..."

That's all for our adventure for now! Please tune in again tomorrow for lots of birdie pictures!

Cammie!

Kansas Wetlands Education Center

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  Today, I'll tell you more about our adventure from Saturday.  As Maggie mentioned, our first stop was the Kansas Wetlands Education Center.  It's a beautiful facility and is sort of the gateway into Cheyenne Bottoms, the largest inland marsh in the US!  (That was our ultimate destination; more on that later!)

Maggie and me watching Dad go into the Kansas Wetlands Ed Center

There's a "bipeds only" rule at the center, so Mom and Dad took turns going in.  The Center is a very clean facility, run by very friendly people!  In addition to lots of exhibits, they have maps and pamphlets to help you learn more about what you'll see in the wetlands area -- and they even helped Mom download an iPhone app that has a virtual tour of Cheyenne Bottoms!

Anyway, while Dad checked the place out, Mags and I walked all over the grounds with Mom.  They have pretty signs leading into the place:

It bears images of some of the birds that we eventually saw -- I guess it's so the birdies know where to go, don't you think?

We saw this nice trail marker:

Let's go in for a close-up!

Isn't that pretty?  Oh.  And leashed puppies are allowed on the trail!  Yay!  Maybe after the mosquitoes die down a bit!  (Did we mention the marsh?)

The wetlands are also home not just to all kinds of birdies, but to mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and insects of all kinds -- to include BUTTERFLIES!  Look at the beautiful signage over a picnic shelter:

And they even have a Butterfly Garden right outside the Ed Center:

We enjoyed looking at all their beautiful flowers and watching the butterflies while Dad was inside.  Oh!  Here he comes now!

"Hello, Daddy.  We've been very good girls!  And we kept Mom out of trouble."
"Boooooo!"

Maggie likes to "boo" at people if she really likes them.

Then it was Mom's turn to go inside.  We walked around a bit with Dad, sat on this bench for a while ...

... and had some water.  And a snack.  Dad gave us crackers.  I like crackers.

We greeted Mom when she came out:

"YAY, it's Mom!  Mom, I had CRACKERS!"
"Boooooooo!"
"You gave them crackers?!?"
"Cam, that was supposed to be our secret!"

The adventure was just getting started, and already I was having SUCH a great time!

More to come, so please stay tuned!

Cammie!

PS:  I had CRACKERS!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Cammie!

Saturday's Adventure

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  As Cam mentioned yesterday, we went on another big adventure this past weekend.  I thought I'd at least start telling you about it today.  Ready to get in the Husky Recreational Vehicle (HR-V) and get going?  OK, I've got ...

"Hey, wait a minute!  I was going to call shotgun!"
"Oh, this will be fun, Maggie!  We can play travel games together!"

"... at least I thought it was going to be fun..."
"Yeah, well, you aren't gonna let Mom navigate, are you, Dad?!?"
"No, Mags."
"Hey, c'mon.  I'm not THAT directionally impaired!"

"I'm not going to touch that one."
"Yeah, so if Mom says to turn left, turn right -- right, Dad?"
"Something like that!"
"Funny, you two."

Since my job of navigator was taken, I thought I'd spot interesting things out the window instead.

My game face

Before too long, we saw one of Mom's favorite billboards:

"2nd friendliest yarn store in the universe."  Makes you wonder what #1 is!
(Very effective advertisement!)

Then I saw this:

"I wish you'd play travel Othello or something with me, Maggie!"
"We aren't going to Quivira again, are we?  Are you sure you don't need me to navigate?!?"

Mom and Dad said no, we weren't.  I decided to keep watching out the window - in case anything was amiss out there.

We all liked this sign:

Sign for the town of Claflin.  "If you can't stop, smile as you go by."

You can't help but smile!

But then ... I saw it.

Actually, there were several.

All over the place.

Like an invasion or something.

I knew I was paying attention for a reason!

LOOK!

A SUBMARINE!!!

"Do you see what I have to put up with?!?"
"Great Dane in the morning!  It's a SUBMARINE!  And they're all OVER the place!  
We're being INVADED!  HIT THE DECK, EVERYBODY!!!"

"That's it.  Why don't you just stay down there for a while, Mags?"
"Fine. But if they had been real submarines and not oil storage tankers, you all would be thanking me!"

Anyway, despite the submarine attack, we arrived safely at our first destination:

"Wowzers!  This looks like a cool place!"
"What an adventure!"

It WAS a cool adventure - and we were just getting started! More to come, so stay tuned!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Busy Weekend

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam.  Maggie and I had a very busy weekend (a new adventure we'll tell you all about!) and a busy morning and early afternoon watching Mom weed and water, so we're just going to do this for a while:

Mags and me

Normal business will resume tomorrow.

Cammie!

9/11/2016

We here at Ao4 Headquarters will never forget ...

Islamic terrorists flying planes into the Twin Towers in New York City ...

... and into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia ...

... and the terrorists' plans for Flight 93 being thwarted by some brave passengers over a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

We will never forget these acts of war.

"God bless America!"
"Always."

This September 11th, we went back through our archives to review our other 9/11 posts.  In 2007, our great sister Stormy posted all the words to a very special poem and song; we think it's especially relevant this year.  We give you our National Anthem:

The Star Spangled Banner

LyricsBy Francis Scott Key 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

We will never surrender. We will never stop thanking those who continue to fight to keep us free.  We stand strong.