Springtime on the St. Croix Flowage

The first Saturday in May is the date for the Wisconsin fishing opener.  Opening weekend weather can be a little dicey.  Once, in my 34 years of record-keeping, there was even a bit of snow that fell on that date.  But there has never been anything like this:




Yes, that is ice on the lake!  And what is that little black spot under the red arrow?  Let's take a closer look.


Oh, just an eagle.

We headed down to the boat landing to see if there were lots of fishermen putting their boats in.  Nope.  In fact the "municipal dock" wasn't even in the water.


So there is a first.  Opening weekend without a single fishing boat on the lake.


So, what should we do?  How about just watching the birds.  Those eagles, for starters.  They seem to have all the young ones with them.


And the migratory birds were all passing through this weekend.  Ringneck ducks, Morganzers. Wood ducks, they were all there.


Some birds were very cooperative, like this Flicker, showing us side and rear views.



But this little guy, just wouldn't hold still for a picture.  It was constantly on the move, jump, jump, jump.  And it was hard to identify.  Fortunately, our next-door neighbor has a big book of Wisconsin birds.  We finally decided it was a Palm Warbler.