After a walk with Everett and the dog last night, wherein the latter flushed out a pair of ducks and caught one of their ducklings in the long grass beside the road, I managed to sneak out this morning for a walk without the hound.

Some of the wildflowers in bloom in the ditches:
Blue flax
Blanket flower
Prairie (western red) lily
Northern anemone
Harebell
Prickly rose
Yarrow

And the air is sweet!

Waterfowl spotted:
Mallard ducks
American coot pair with four large babies
Blue-winged teal with 10 tiny babies on the water
Killdeer with one baby

Outside our bathroom window, the closest poplar tree is filled with European starling fledglings and their parents. It seems yesterday was their first out of the nest and today they are quite proud of their new wings and doing a lot of bragging and showing off.

Everett and I also saw a young partridge running in the ditch last night, but after the duckling was carried in the dog's mouth to the side of the road and left twitching and flapping its wings, he was in no mood to go with me again this morning. We had walked away quickly, both to distract the dog and to avoid seeing the duckling in its death throes. However, the little bird was no longer there, nor was there blood or feathers on the ground, so I like to think the dog didn't do much damage and after we left the parents returned, found it, and it got safely back to the nest.