Alex using my binoculars and actually seeing things in them for the first time.
Alex collecting leaves as usual.
A shot of sunset with lots of ducks in the foreground.
Some of the many, many cranes which came in to roost for the night.
Daddy and Alex after two hours watching the birds. Ready to go and warm up.
After an illness (hope you are feeling better Tessa) changed our plans for Thanksgiving, we decided to take a less traditional route and go out and spend the evening with the birds in Lodi. The Sandhill cranes and lots of waterfowl are back for the winter and we thought it would be a great opportunity to check them out again. We packed up a picnic of fruit, bread and cheese and headed out to get there about an hour before sunset.
We were some of the first people to arrive at the Isenberg Crane Reserve, which is a well known spot for migratory birds roosting at night. Alex was quite excited and of course wanted to check out everything with the binoculars like I was doing. This time, he actually did see the birds in the binos though, because he said "I see them", and then proceeded to say, "it makes them BIGGER!" He was also quite intrigued by some sort of fire down the road, which sent fire trucks and an ambulance whizzing by, so of course, he had to keep an eye on the smoke and try to hypothesize as to what may be happening.
An interesting part of the whole night was that our two and a half year old was perhaps the most patient person there. I have never seen so many impatient people in my life! It was chilly, I admit. When we got in the car to leave, the temperature was 32 degrees, but I figured that if people made their way out there, they wouldn't expect that it was like a video online where you just press start and you can watch it and then leave after five minutes. Quite a few people came up and asked if it really was that great and where the birds were and if we truly thought that they would see any birds that night. Clearly, these people were not die-hard birders....oh ye of little faith. I did at one point tell a lady that she just needed to be "patient, patient, patient". I felt like I was talking to Alex, instead of a grown woman. The birds always do come back at night, and with the Sandhill cranes, it does seem that they really wait until the sun is setting or practically until it has already set. Needless to say, many impatient people left before they got to see the spectacular flocking of the birds. Oh, what we can learn from a two year old. Two hours after we arrived, Alex was still happily hanging out and enjoying the experience, watching everything that was happening, exploring leaves, watching the birds and drinking some hot pear cider, which I was happy that I had decided to bring.
All in all, a very fun Thanksgiving activity. After all of that, we were pretty cold though and the cold picnic lunch in the car, in the dark didn't sound all that appealing, so guess where we ended up for Thanksgiving dinner? Yep, you guessed it, about the only thing open around there....McDonald's! Alex has only been to McDonald's once, in Minnesota, during the Thanksgiving trip last year, so maybe that is the tradition now. McDonald's once a year, around Thanksgiving. He happily ate some chicken strips, rejected the fries and supplemented it with his grapes and Mandarins and milk. Hope that you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend. The long weekend was so nice!
