Madtown Monday

Our beans went out on a "photo walk" Saturday, taking pictures around Madison. This is their second "photo walk". Here are some of our favorite pictures... ~Charcoalie

The UW Arboretum is a wonderful place for birding, hiking, bird watching, walking, seeing birds, and listening to frogs and birds. The beans went there April 15 - a gorgeous day!
There are many wild turkeys in the Arboretum - this one flew away (Yes, wild turkeys can fly, just not well).

Mom barely caught this Bluebird; they move fast and she's not the hunter we cats are. You can click to see any of these bigger in Flickr, and once there, click All Sizes to see them at maximum size.

I said these are our favorites, not her favorites or her best... but as cats, only our opinions really matter. She hasn't figured out what this bird is... but we don't care, as long as it's tasty!

These are a pair of Northern Flickers... but not for long.

This is the one on the left, who got away.

This is the one on the right, who didn't get away.

This is the hawk that caught the one on the right.

It surprised Mom, so she got confused and messed up the camera and didn't get a good shot of it. She's still not as good a hunter as a cat. Or a hawk.

She also shot some things that won't escape so easily. See this bush? It must be dangerous; they've caged it (We're not a political blog, but if we were...).

This bridge was pretty... the marsh was full of frog song, but Mom didn't spot a single one of them. I bet they'd be fun to play with.

This week, the weather definitely wasn't as nice. The beans met at the Monona Terrace, which is in Madison, not Monona. It's on Lake Monona; there is no Lake Madison, but maybe Mendota, the bigger lake, means Madison? Uh, yeah. They were all named by beans... go figure.

That's a rug. With a symbol for the Terrace. Why she shot that, I don't know.
This is the capital building, which is visible from the terrace. I think it's getting flooded or washed or something.

Now for the MOST IMPORTANT photos of the day... Mallards! Not the Madison Mallards but mallard ducks... and ducklings...

See, the beans were standing by the water, and Mom looked down to discover a momma duck and her ducklings. Well, Momma Duck took one look at the beans, rounded up the ducklings, and said, "Come along, kids, it's time to go." Too bad about all the trash that washes up here.

They're good little duckies; followed their momma right away and stayed in a tight bunch (there were 11).
They were so little, they were pushed back easily by the waves. Now they're right behind Momma...

And now they've been washed away...

The momma took them far away before Mom could grab one for us. I mean, 11 is a lot; she'd be doing the ducks a favor...
Ok, next were the group of males. One is different - maybe a cross between a Mallard and a Black Duck??? How about Peking Duck?

Now here's a restaurant for cats! Table for 3 please? Near the window.

And here's a lion guarding a downtown building. His partner had lost his fangs, poor thing, but still looked fierce.

Finally, no feline trip to Madison would be complete without a visit to Mad Cat Pet Supplies; they have 3 locations and a unique truck. Each shop has at least one resident cat to try out all the merchandise. Morty and Lucy are on speaking terms with Mom.

The truck says "No Kill," a message for shelters and that stoopid law a few years ago that would have made it legal to shoot feral cats in Wisconsin. Luckily, that law was "shot down".
Mom took lots more pictures and you can see them on Flickr. But for those of you who really, really need a cute cat picture...

Here I am!