The Thorpe Family

A "Adventure" in Dubuque...
Part I

I'm now to the point where, once to twice a week, I load up my jeep with the kids, dogs, and snacks. We have come to call these outings "Adventures". We pretty much drive around Dubuque and surrounding areas without a map (or a gps now) and try to find our way around. Dubuque is a mix of New England woods, Rolling farmland, and San Francisco type hills. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and since we live within 5 miles of the Mississippi River we have a wide variety of wildlife.

On this particular day we ventured out to the "Mines of Spain". Honestly I wanted to go because I couldn't get My Fair Lady out of my head... "The Rain in Spain, stays mainly in the plains...". When I first saw the sign, I googled it and found out it was this amazing preserve with dozens of trails. Best part was it was only about a 15 min drive from our house and FREE!! Naturally we took back roads to get there. We decided to drive up the hill and landed us at Juliene Dubuque's Grave site with panoramic views of the Mississippi River. We got out of the car and sat on a bench for 15 mins watching a tugboat go down the Mississippi...

We continued walking to the grave site which is enclosed in a massive stone tower. Savannah and Brenton were beyond excited!! A Castle tower was just in the middle of the woods. haha. We noticed steps going down from the tower down the bluff. So we went to the bottom of the stairs. When we got to the bottom, I thought it would be a cool pic if the kids climbed back up with Benson and stood in front of the monument. Dubuque has amazing birds here, as in BIG Birds. I saw this huge bird above us while the kids climbed. He just was flying round and round... I didn't think anything of it to be honest. I took the photos and that's when I realized something was not right. I could hear these weird noises. I looked around and couldn't figure out where it was coming from! Than I looked up, and noticed this Bird was circling us. I than realized it was after our dogs probably.

Oh Crap.

I ran up those stairs as fast as I could. I tried to stay calm, because the last thing we needed was chaos. I quickly told the kids it was time to go, and that Mommy was going to carry Benson (he is the smallest of the 2, weighing in at 4 1/2 lbs. Lacy is 9lbs.) and hold onto Lacy.(After all if it wants the dogs, let the bird attack me and not a 2 & 3 yr old!!!) "Lets have a race to the car! Okay?". The kids started running, and I started running behind them.

However, this BIG Bird was not giving up. Savannah turned around. HUGE MISTAKE!! This Bird was so low, that I quickly realized its wing span was probably BIGGER than ME!!! And I'm guessing since Savannah starts to SCREAM bloody murder at this point, she had realized it as well!!! FYI, when your kids realize there is a GIANT BIRD chasing you, the no chaos kinda goes out the window! Savannah would NOT stop Screaming! Brenton was Crying! I'm holding 2 dogs and trying to get the kids to RUN!!! Savannah couldn't and wouldn't stop looking UP at the bird. So she was screaming and running in circles. literally. I told Brenton "Grab your sisters hand!!! RUN to the car as FAST as you CAN!!!". He quickly grabbed her hand and just ran!!

I'm pretty sure that because we were running under so many trees that it was the only thing protecting us somewhat. The most anxiety was when the dash thru the parking lot. It was just wide open asphalt. I quickly pressed the unlock button while we were still under the trees.

Meanwhile there is a beat up car sitting in the parking lot. With 2 ppl sitting in it, with their windows rolled down. (Pretty sure they were smoking pot) As we run past there car. The Guy says out there window "Hey! There is a pretty big bird chasing ya!"
Me: "Yah I kinda gathered that." (No Shiz... seriously?!)
Guy: Ya he almost got ya!!!
Me: Im throwing dogs and kids into the Jeep at this point. And Ignoring him.

It took me a good hour to calm the kids down. Can we say TRAUMATIZED?! Never taking dogs to wildlife preserve again!! And def not coming back unless there is a second adult with kids.


We later learned, that the BIG BIRD, was a Turkey Vulture.

*A large bird, it has a wingspan of 170–183 cm (67–72 in), a length of 64–81 cm (25–32 in), and weight of 0.85–2.26 kg (1.9–5 lb).

*It has dark brown to black plumage; a featherless, purplish-red head and neck; and a short, hooked, ivory-colored beak.
*Its life expectancy in the wild ranges upward of 16 years, with a captive life span of over 30 years being possible.
*The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion.
*It finds its meals using its keen vision and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gasses produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals.
*In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently.
*It roosts in large community groups.
*Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses.
*It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets.
*Each year it generally raises two chicks, which it feeds by regurgitation.
*It has very few natural predators.

Although they are not known for going after live animals... it does happen. Its just rare! Yay for adding to a rare statistic! :/

To Be Continued...