Security Detail

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  As many of you know, I am now the Head of Security here at Ao4 Headquarters.  When Mom said she was going to head out to Tuttle Creek State Park to do some birding yesterday, I knew it was my duty to go with her!

It was a breezy day. Well, OK. We had wind gusts of 50 miles per hour. That could be more than breezy. In this photo, you can see some of the leaves blowing all around:

The dock we usually stand on was soaking wet from the waves splashing up, so we opted to not stand on it. It could be slippery - safety first!

We drove over to another area of the park. Here I am, after getting out of the car:

Can you see the wind blowing my leash around? And in this next shot, you can see it fluffing up my furs!

"Wheee!  Feel the breeze, Mom!"

So far, it had been pretty much of a blowout as far as seeing birds went. We walked over to where the River Pond meets the Big Blue River and had a look around.

"Looks safe.  We can go down to the water's edge."

"Hmm.  'Warning.  Submerged da--' Oh, my!  They don't have to swear about it!"

Just kidding.  And a good warning!  I made sure Mom didn't jump into the water and swim downstream.

We walked along the shore for a while ...

We did see some Common Mergansers way off in the distance. Here's the best shot Mom could get:

Common Mergansers
The one with the cool hairdo is the female

She said it was hard holding the camera still in that wind.

Here I am looking around at the River Pond:

Me doing a safety check

Not much bird action out there, either, so we got into the car again and drove to yet another area.  We drove slowly along the windy roads of the park for a bit, and then --

"WAIT!  I see something!"

Check it out:

Gooses!

Is it just me, or is that guy giving us a dirty look?  And his friend over on the right sure has his feathers ruffled!  Ha roowooroo.  Just kidding - it was the wind again.

I'm not just Head of Security, I'm a birder, too!  We eventually saw some more different birdies, but it was hard for Mom to get good shots of them.  We had fun anyway!

Thanks for coming to the state park with us!  If you'd like to see the rest of our photos, please click here.

Cammie!