Serene Scenery Sunday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  As I promised yesterday, these are photos we helped Mom take out at Tuttle Creek State Park.

The first thing we saw when we got there were a bunch of ducks.  Mom got all excited because in with the Mallards were two Redhead Ducks!

Two Redheads!

She was excited because it was the first time this year she has seen them!

After taking a gazillion photos of the Redheads swimming away from her, we headed down Eagle Pass Trail.  Dad and Mags took the lead.

What a beautiful afternoon for a hike!

It was warm and sunny and most of the ice had melted off the River Pond (that will be remedied today, as we've had a tremendous drop in temps), so all the birdies were out fishing and hunting!  We spotted this hawk high above us:

Red Tailed Hawk

I kept a lookout over the water, helping to spot other birds!

"Mom!  Out there, at about 1 o'clock high!"

We saw lots of Bald Eagles, like this juvenile:

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Another shot of the juvie, ready to dive!

Remember I said yesterday that Dad and us girls stayed up on the path while Mom ran down to the water because there was a lot of goose action?  There were Snow Geese forming up, getting into formation, then flying off!  Here they are, right above us!

Snow Geese

They were very orderly for Snow Geese!

Speaking of orderly, here is a shot of Maggie, Dad, and me, being really good:

Me, Dad, and Mags.  Dad is the tall one.

Did I mention we saw lots of Bald Eagles?  How about a tree full?!?

Bald Eagles, various ages

The adults are the ones with the white heads and tail feathers.  The immature ones are different shades of browns and mottled white; they don't get the adult look (plumage ... whatever) until they are about five years old.  (You can read more about them at this link, if you're interested!)

We got back into the SUV eventually and drove around the park a bit.  Dad stopped by one of the little beaver ponds because he saw one of Mom's favorite kinds of ducks -- Green Winged Teals!  They were in with a bunch of Mallards, but the Teals are much smaller, seem to stay in the shadow of the reeds, and are very skittish.  Mom snuck as much as she could sneak down to the water's edge; although most of the Teals either took flight or disappeared into the reeds, she was able to get a clear shot of this little guy:

Green Winged Teal!

It made Mom very happy!

Oh.  And did I mention Mallards?  Knowing how much our buddy Goose's MOM likes Mallards, we thought we'd post this shot, too!

"Quack!  Happy belated birthday to Goose!!!"

Isn't he a handsome duck?

I hope you feel nice and serene now! Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!

Cammie!

PS:  To see more photos from that day, please click here.