Happy Friday!
Anyone who has followed my photography over the years realizes that I’m not an avid “birder.” I don’t study the critters migratory patterns or their habits. I just enjoy photographing any type of wildlife. In fact, I haven’t found anything that I don’t enjoy photographing whatever it is.
Remember you can click on any image to reveal a larger more detailed version of the image.
Wednesday I drove down to the river to see the rise in the river and was impressed by how high the river was. The people of Dubuque were smart so many years ago after a devastating flood of 1965 did a terrible amount of damage.
Many older residents of Dubuque remember the Flood of 1965 as one of the worst in the city’s history. Many areas of downtown Dubuque were under several feet of water, which resulted in damage or destruction of homes and businesses in the path of the floods. Only sandbagging efforts of local citizens kept the main highways open to keep traffic flowing.
Following the 1965 flood funds were sought from the Federal government for the installation of a flood-wall. This flood-wall was finally built-in the late 1960s. When the entire Midwest was prone to widespread floods in 1993 the flood-wall helped keep the city from experiencing serious flooding, while other cities – such as Davenport, Iowa – sustained major damage.
After that I decided it would be a nice drive down to Green Island. My last visit was less than productive and I had heard that a lot of the migrating birds were visiting the wild life preserve.
I was delighted to see many kinds of wild life in the preserve including the Buffalo Head in the top image.
I always enjoy photographing the Northern Shoveler. The canals at the preserve were full of water and many areas around the wetlands were flooded. The Preserve was full of wild life which I enjoyed the three and half hours I was there.
A pair of Northern Shovelers.
I’ll leave you with this Blue-Winged Teal. At first blush it looked like a small Canada Goose but once I got him in focus I could tell it was the Blue-Winged Teal.
I have many more images to share over the next few days if you’re interested.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
