Another Road Trip

On Saturday we went driving around with Jimmy's parents in our Highlander.  First we went through Claremore and picked up some breakfast at Carl's Jr.  Then we made our way through Salina and around some roads out that way.  I had no idea where we were.  We eventually made our way to the Illinois River Ranch.   

Of course we had to stop so Kiera could throw some rocks. 

We saw some bald eagle fledglings in two different sections.  All together we saw 3 fledglings and 1 adult!!  We absolutely love seeing them sitting in the trees along the river.  They are beautiful animals.  It makes me happy to see the young eagles knowing they were once on the verge of extinction.

 

There was still snow on the road to get to the property. 
We made a fire to stay warm, burnt off a huge brush pile and went walking  around, oh and I read.  I already finished "Awakened" last weekend so I was in the middle of a book called "Linger" which I am also now finished with.  

You can't see her in this picture but Kiera is already all the way on the other ledge.  The girl just took off down one up hill and up the other (you can't really tell the steepness of the hills in this picture either).  Our camp building is all the way to the left of the picture. 

This little boy moves too dang fast for me to ever get a clear picture of him.

After we were finished hangin' we went on the J5 drive.  I have no idea why the road is called J5 but it is a wildlife preserve.  Every time we are at the IRR we go through the preserve and about half the time we see wildlife.  We came across this guy about half way through.

Since I had all my camera gear(except my tripod) I whipped out my telephoto lens and went to town.  I actually walked about 50 feet away from the truck to get some closer pics.  From where I was standing I was zoomed in all 300mm. 

 

I was slightly afraid of being out of the truck because of a previous near death experience.  About 4 years ago I was taking some pictures of elk and was told to "RUN!!!"  while I was walking back to the vehicle.  I should have seen the look on my face, so I hear.  Of course I wasted no time turning to check until I had already bolted and saw that the elk were looking at me like I was crazy, and Jimmy, his mom and dad were laughing.  Bastards.   

So we left and had this beautiful sight to look at on the drive home.