Serene Scenery Sunday

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie.  For this week's dose of serenity, we thought we'd share some of the photos Mom took yesterday out on her birding walk.  She took about half a million shots, but I chose the ones I like best to share.  Are you ready?  Let's get serene!

Here's a pretty wildflower!

It's called a Trumpet Vine, but I really don't think you can play a tune on it or anything.

Here are some cool logs:

Here's the marsh they walked around:

I don't know if you can tell, but it was raining. Mom had a plastic bag for her camera and there wasn't any lightning, so it was all good.

Another wildflower!

It's a Tall American Bellflower.

This one made me smile a LOT, so I'm including it:

Do you know why? It's a GOOSEberry Bush! It made me think of my very sweet and handsome friend Goose, and so I think it's beautiful!

Mom and her friend also saw this cool nook in an old tree:

There's water in there! (For a look using the flash on the camera, click here.)  Can't you just imagine little woodland faeries swimming in there when no humans are around?

Mom also saw one of our very favorite wildflowers, Snow On The Mountain!

If only there was real snow involved!

Aren't the raindrops pretty? We really need the rain, so it really helps a lot with that whole "serene" thing.

These were the biggest Snow On The Mountain plants Mom had ever seen. Can you tell how big they are? Let's pan out a little.

Oooooh! It's those handsome Border Collie boys, Moss and Seamus! Hi, boys! I hope you had as much fun as my mom did!

Where was I? Oh, right. You can see the Snow On The Mountain behind Seamus - he's a pretty tall puppy, so that should give you a good idea of how big the wildflowers were!

Mom heard a lot of birds out there, but didn't see most of them. They must have been sheltering from the rain in the leafy trees. She did see a Great Blue Heron on the opposite bank of some water:

Can you see him over there? He was pretty well camouflaged!

Mom and her friend had been totally focused on something else, then looked up and were surprised by this:

A vortex of vultures!

At one point, there were 10 Turkey Vultures up there watching them! Mom said given the gloomy, rainy day, it was sort of spooky!

At the same time, very beautiful!

Mom said they watched each other for a good, long time before moving on.

One last photo, as Mom drove out of the park:

That's very Kansasy, isn't it?

If you'd like to see more pix from their walk, please click here.

I hope you have a wonderfully serene Sunday!

Camo!