Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim!  I escorted Mom on a birding trip out to Tuttle Creek State Park this week; we had a wonderful time together!  It was so peaceful and serene - our photos seem like just the thing to help you enter the Zen of Zim Zone!  Are you ready?

We made lots of stops throughout the park.  Our first one was by the dam outflow.

"Mom!  I see birdies!"

This guy was pretty far off, but Mom was delighted to see a Goldeneye Duck:

We also saw a Great Blue Heron doing some fishing:

And this GBH was hiding in the rocks along the river bank:

Great camouflage, buddy!

There were a couple American White Pelicans swimming around down the river a bit. I was able to mentally connect with one of them and got him to swim all the way up to where we were.

"Hi, Zim!"

He swam right into the outflow tunnel and caught a fish! Way to go, Pelican friend!

"Thanks for the tip on the fish!"

There was another gentleman near us trying to take photos of the Pelican - he seemed surprised when Mom looked at me, saw how I was looking at the Pelican, then told the man the Pelican would most likely swim right past where we all were. Hey. They don't call me The Pelican Whisperer for nothing!

We drove over to an area just up the river a bit, then got out and did a little hiking.

"Isn't this great, Mom?"

If you look past me, you can see two white specks in the river. That's my Pelican friend and another Pelican!

I had a blast walking around for a while ...

Tiptoeing so I don't scare any birdies away!

... and smelling all kinds of great stuff!

It was very peaceful!

"Ahh!  Kansas!"

We drove over to another area and saw this Great Blue Heron in one of the little outlets:

Apparently, he was being photo-bombed by some ducks! Ha roo roo roo!

We went over to one of our favorite look-out areas:

I love that little bridge!

"Ha-looooo?"

We didn't see any birds, but it always pays to check!

We did see this cool ice-covered rock:

And a fishing bobber in a tree:

That might not have made the person fishing feel very serene, but Mom liked the splash of red against our blue sky!

We went over to where the River Pond meets the Big Blue River and saw this:

Isn't that cool? The River Pond is frozen, but the river isn't!

"Tell me that's not totally cool!"

We hit another area or two, then it was time to head home.

"You know how to get home from here, right, Mom?"

What a great, relaxing afternoon!  Thanks for coming with us - I hope you've found some serenity in the Zen of Zim Zone!  Have a wonderful Sunday!

Play bows,

Zim

PS:  For more of our photos, please see our set on Flickr.