Nature Walk

Hurray for the third consecutive day of sunshine!!!  (Shall I whine some more about what a cold, wet spring we've had?  No?)  I feel like we're coming out of a long hibernation!

We're taking advantage of the beautiful weather to explore some of our favorite places.  I mentioned earlier that we have nesting eagles nearby, so the boys and I went to see if we could see any activity around the nest.  That nest has been used for several years, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

Here's a close-up.  Nobody home that we could see, though we've been told there are chicks in the nest.  We decided to walk around behind it to try a different view.

I love this trail.  Kind of feels like you could end up in Narnia :D

Even better with my boys on it!

And yes, they're carrying sticks, and they're authorized to use them...

ONLY on stinging nettles, the bane of our existence.

Here's the nest from the other side.  Still nothing visible.

The boys weren't too disappointed, with the pond to explore.

Looks empty at first, but when we slow down and watch and listen...

Daddy mallard is paddling around, keeping his eye on...

... Mama mallard, and her little tennis-ball-sized fluffy ducklings.

And a wood duck, too.  Don't see those as often.

Tate, my devoted entomologist, found this big dragonfly.

I love the shadows his wings make on Tate's fingers!

We were 'out of position' when one of the adult eagles returned to the nest.

With my awesome photography skills (eyes roll) I managed to catch this stunning shot.

(See if you can find his wing-tip, poking out from behind a branch.)

Oh well, the boys prefer to watch the redwing blackbirds.  They like to nest in cattails, and sing constantly.  Gunnar describes their call as, Woo-kah-duh-DEEEEE-doo.

We'll try again, for photos of the eagles, but there's plenty of other things to see :D