Serene Scenery Sunday

Woo, everypup and everycat.  Dave here with this week's installment of Serene Scenery Sunday.  As Zim told you yesterday, Mom was out cavorting with Border Collies (and her friend) yesterday and left us alllllll alone.  I know.  It was terribly unfair.  She did come back very happy and serene and excited about everything she did and saw, though, so it was OK.  She asked if I'd share the best of her pix with you today and there are a ton of them.  Grab your water bowl or cup of coffee, and let's get ready to get serene at Tuttle Creek Lake River Pond/State Park!

This is in one of the many shelters in the park:

Mom always feels serene when she sees it.  They parked right by it, so Mom went in and snapped a pic before they started hiking.

Along one of the trails, they saw this Downy Woodpecker:

Mom said he was hard to capture; he was tiny and kept moving.

Mom said she prefers large, slow-moving birds.  Ha woo.

Along the path, there are lots of gnarly trees of all kinds.  It's no surprise then that there are several of these in the ponds:

Beaver Dam!

Another Beaver Dam!

It should further come as no surprise that if you wait and watch and get really lucky, you might see one of these pop up over the bank:

Mr. Beaver!

Pretty cool, huh?

Both Mom and Dad like this picture and say it reminds them of Easter:

It doesn't get much better than Easter, does it?

Mom and her friend also saw this little birdie:

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Mom's friend was able to ID it; Mom had never seen one before!

Speaking of birds Mom's never seen before, she saw this guy hanging out with some Coots:

That's not a Coot!

Mom's friends and a member of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's FaceBook page helped Mom ID it as a Horned Grebe going through Winter to breeding plumage!

Here's one of the Coots he was hanging out with:

Mom loves Coots.

Hmm.  Those aren't birds in the photo above ... I do believe it's Moss and Seamus, Mom's friend's Border Collies.  I hope they had a good time!

Here's another sort of mystery bird:

Mom thinks it's a Northern Rough-Winged Swallow.  Anyone have any other ideas?

The Rough-Winged is supposed to have long, pointy wings and tail, be brown and pale brown, and according to Cornell, a "small, long-winged stocky songbird."

"Who are you calling stocky, husky?"

No offense, birdie.  The Cornell people said it, not me.

Moving right along... here's a Red-Winged Blackbird:

Mom said they could hear a whole lot more birds than they could find.  I think this could explain the whole thing:

"Two women with cameras coming this way!  Hide!  Hide!  HIDE!"

You never know.

On her way out of the park, Mom saw an American Kestrel perched up on a post!

Is it just me, or does he look like he's saying his prayers before dinner?  Look out below, little mousies!

Maybe that wasn't the most serene place to leave it for today, but maybe it was for the Kestrel.

Remember to look for serenity all around you.  You never know what you might find!

Luv,
Dave