Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  On Wednesday, Dad and I kept an eye on the girls so Mom could go on a photo shoot at Tuttle Creek State Park with her birding buddy Beth.  It turned out to be more of a friendly foliage foray, with a couple bird surprises thrown in.  Anyway, she shot close to half a million photos and uploaded the best ones to this set on FlickR.  I chose the ones I liked best from there - but still had a hard time limiting the number of shots.  I have a lot for you, so I'll cut the chit-chat way back and let you slip into the Zen of Zim Zone.  Ready?

They saw lots of yellow:

And lots of red:

Sumac seed pods

This tree was growing right out of some rocks:

Click here for a close-up of the rocks and trunk

It was foggy and rainy, so they got some cool "atmosphere" photos:

The fog was so thick coming over the dam, you couldn't see all the way across!

Facing WSW down 18 toward the dam

The road into the park:

Bittersweet and Rough-leaf Dogwood teaming up for quite the color punch:

Another foggy field:

Here's a view looking up into the canyon:

When they were on the road above the canyon, they saw some Ring-Neck Ducks down in the water! Mom didn't want to hike through the mud to get closer (I know - crazy, right? I would have jumped at the chance!) but she was thrilled to see one of our migratory birds back and to get a foggy shot of them. (Click here.)

Mom is always thrilled at the sight of a Great Blue Heron and caught this guy in flight:

In addition to all the super-saturated colors, Mom also loved seeing vignettes like this:

Illinois Bundle Flower pods and grasses

Beautiful, isn't it?

Here's a bank along the River Pond:

This hawk was watching over things very carefully:

A Yellow-Shafted Flicker posed for Mom:

Mom took several pix of one of her favorite inlets at the River Pond.

This American Sycamore Tree has HUGE leaves:

And finally, the pièce de résistance!  Guess who's back in town?

American Bald Eagle

THE BALD EAGLES!  That was the best shot Mom could get that day, but now that they're back, there will be lots more photo ops!

Thanks for letting me share Mom's foggy pix with you; we thought they'd help you find a little serenity.  Mom said her get-away to Tuttle Creek helped her find her Zen of Zim Zone -- but I could tell she was really happy to get home and enter the REAL Zim Zone!  I hope our photos helped make your day a little more peaceful!

Play bows,
Zim