I normally purchase my Wisconsin state park sticker at Willow River State Park. When I stopped in December the office was closed so I thought I would try again today. This time I planned ahead and called the park. The office wasn’t open and the only way you can purchase a senior park sticker is in person. What to do? I started looking around to see if there was someplace else where I could purchase it. Turns out that Baldwin, Wisconsin has a regional DNR office and they just happened to be open on Wednesdays. Since this was on my way to Willow River I made the stop and purchased my two senior park stickers for 2012. I’m now ready to hit the parks for another year.
 When I pulled into the Willow Falls parking lot there was not a car to be seen. I don’t remember the last time this happened. I suppose with the lack of snow and cold weather the falls isn’t much of a draw. The first thing I noticed was the trail to the falls was glare ice. There was no way I would make it to the falls without some ice cleats on my feet. Fortunately I always carry them on my pack in the winter. Even with them on it was slow going on the ice.
 When I reached the river level I notice a mature Bald Eagle fly into a tree. As I was watching that one I noted another one in a tree. Then I saw a Pileated Woodpecker in a nearby tree. When I left home I had my Birding lens and camera in my pack and since I was too lazy to take it out I was ready to shoot the eagles. Unfortunately I only managed a distant shot before the eagles took off. I left my birding lens on the tripod and headed for the falls.
There was no frost, too warm, and very little ice in the falls. Since the ice formations were so small I decided to leave my birding lens (500mm) lens on the camera and use it to photograph the ice formations. I wandered around both sides of the river but could only find a few close-up shots that were worth taking.
 As I started to leave I noticed some watercress growing in a small stream. I stopped to take a few photos of it before heading back down the trail.
Rather than go back to the car I decided to walk down the ski trail that follows the river back toward the main parking lot. Normally you couldn’t hike on the trail but since it was glare ice I though no one would mind. I heard some geese and duck along the river and thought I might get a few shots. As it turned out the ducks took off before I got close enough and the geese were too far away. I took a few ice shots and started back to the car. Just then I heard something overhead and saw six Trumpeter Swans fly over. I had seen them in this area before but didn’t expect to this year because of the large amount of open water available to them. I wasn’t quick enough to get a shot but it was a great sight nonetheless
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