Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge

Hello, my dear friends! Hope this finds you well. I mentioned that my human and I traveled to southern Illinois back in October. To Carbondale, IL to be exact. My human has a daughter there. I'll just call her my extra human. Anyway, while visiting, we took a trip to the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. 

This is located just east of Carbondale and has a large lake. You can go boating (not sure why anyone would), fishing (catch some for me), other watersports (you call getting wet fun???), picnicking (bring the fish) or just hiking (I actually enjoy this). We just spent the afternoon walking around. Now my extra human took the leash, so we could get closer to the trees and tall grasses (she doesn't need a walker like my human does). I really enjoyed this. I checked out the grass, 

climbed a tree, 

hunted something, 

and just generally walked around.

I did get my extra human to walk through a plant with lots of tiny burs that got all over her clothing (😁😁😁). I noticed the burs and avoided them completely. Not my fault she didn't. I relaxed while they sat and picked burs off all her stuff. 

That's one way to make them stop and enjoy the scenery (it was lovely).

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We did see a big snake, but it was booking it to the water 🐍. My human didn't have time to get a picture. We were all glad it wasn't interested in us. Now snakes don't really bother me, but this one was a bit big even for a great predator like me. Better to let this one go. There was a man fishing nearby who decided he would change his fishing spot. Even he thought it best to leave that one alone.

Later in the week, my human took me back to the refuge for a little exercise. This time we saw wild turkeys 🦃.

Now I love stalking birds, but my human wouldn't let me. Something about being guests in their home. Bunch of poppycock if you ask me. Mother Nature wouldn't have put them in my path if she didn't want me to hunt them. At least that's my belief. Fish are for eating, birds are for hunting. Am I right??

Anyway, if you are ever in southern Illinois, I highly recommend the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. It was beautiful and I had a great visit. 

Till next time, keep wandering my friends. Keep wandering.