Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  It's been a beautiful week here, filled with lots of puppy antics, a frosty morning here and there, and crisp, sunshiny afternoons! God painted some warm, color-packed sunsets for us that Mom's camera or iPhone can only begin to capture!  Without further ado, here are some photos from the past week to help you ease into the Zen of Zim Zone.  Let's start with one of our wonderful sunsets:

Feeling more serene already, aren't you?

As Maggie told you, Mom slipped out to Tuttle Creek State Park with her birding buddy Beth.  Oh, fear not!  She made it up to us with one-on-one attention/play and adventures!  She put a million and a half of her photos into a FlickR set; I thought I'd share the best with you today.

They saw a few sunflowers ...

... some turtles out soaking up some sunshine ...

... and a few gulls hanging out with an American White Pelican:

They were very excited that the Pelicans are back!

The River Pond area couldn't have looked more beautiful!

They walked way out on the rocky shoal to get some shots of a Great Blue Heron and another Pelican.

If you look way down at the end, you can see the Heron sticking up - and over on the left, on that little jut of rocks, you can see the Pelican!  Let's go in for some close-ups!

The Heron was hanging out with some Canada Geese:

Look at the shot above. You don't think that goose is about to ... well, you know.  Look out, Mr. Heron!  Ha roo roo roo!

Portrait of a Great Blue Heron

Mom and Beth got within about 20 feet of the Pelican! Mom said they could barely contain their excitement! Here's a look at the American White Pelican:

Isn't he gorgeous?

American White Pelican

Sure, he watched them, but he never flew off!  How cool!

Speaking of watching things, Mom said there were fish jumping like crazy in the water!  A certain member of the birding party was transfixed by them!

"But... they're FISH!  And they're JUMPING!"

Moss couldn't help it!  They were JUMPING FISH!!!  (Seamus was there, too!  He just wasn't as in to the fishies!)  Besides, to hear Mom talk about it, she was pretty excited about them jumping, too; she's probably the Mom-stigator!

While out on the rocky shoal, they saw Double-Crested Cormorants fly by:

They also saw a Kingfisher dive into the water, catch something, and take it over to an old downed tree to eat.  Mom zoomed in and came up with this shot:

She said it's not a great shot, as she asked her camera to do more than it really could, but she was excited to see it and at least snap a shot or two. The best Kingfisher shots she has taken were with me, of course. Perhaps he would have come closer if I had been there.

Here are some cool marsh grasses:

And Mom saw a bird she's never seen in real life before - a White-Breasted Nuthatch!

There are a whole lot more pix in our FlickR set; we hope you'll go enjoy them.

One last photo for you! Mom and I went on an adventure this week, just the two of us, to the Kansas Ocean. We saw a bunch of my goose friends! Here's my favorite shot:

We really like the Autumn colors and the Canada Goose reflecting in the water!  Total serenity!!!

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!  And remember to make it serene!

Play bows,

Zim