Are you my mother?

Are you my Mother, by P.D. Eastman was one of my favorite books when I was growing up.

You remember, the baby bird falls out of the nest while mom is gone...and proceeds to ask everything it sees if it is its mother.

This morning My friend Henia and I had a real life Are you my mother adventure. A not-been-hatched-very-long ducking was being chased by a crow out into the parking lot. After chasing the crow away, we tried to herd the little thing out of the parking lot and back toward the water, but it was so little it couldn't jump back up on to the side walk so...I caught him, must be all those baby bunny wrangling skills, who knew the were species transferable?

 As we were walking toward the pond to put the duckling in, a lady came up and said she and her girls were there putting a momma Duck and her babies into the pond. The duck family had been in their back yard, but last night a raccoon came and was getting the ducklings.  She was wondering if the duckling I had was one of them that had fallen out of the box.

 We walked to the side of the pond that the newly released mom duck was with her brood...and put little lost duck in the water...out it popped , I caught it again and put it back in ...it tried to come out again, right toward us, then it turned and motored across the water, but not toward the mother duck...

See it, the black arrow is pointing at it...I know the arrow is hard to see too, sorry. the duckling kept going away from the mom and ducklings....

  hopped out of the water and ran along the bank. The two young girls , their mom and Henia followed , and found little lost duck had wedged itself between two rocks.

 They got the little dickens out and put it back into the water. It swam toward the mom and ducklings. She was like ," And, who are you?"  Little lost duck was like," MOTHER WHERE ARE YOU!"

 See it here, left of mom. Meanwhile a mallard pair had come quacking over to us from the other side of the pond , little lost duck made a bee line right for them.

 Ya so, I guess all mom ducks and  baby ducks do no look alike, to mom ducks and baby ducks...who knew, anyway, the little thing was not going to let more than an inch get between it and its mom.  A happy ending for all.

 

 

Take a liking to a viking...

Lycra man went off to the wilds of L.A. with is friend JC to ride the Cyclavia. So I took myself off the the Scandinavian Festival At California Lutheran University here in town.

 The viking village, something for everyone..

 Weaving for the womenfolk

 weapons for the menfolk

 Had to take this picture for the youngest daughter. It is the symbol for Loki..I was noticing ho much like Celtic design this is then, had my doho! moment...the vikings invaded...or visited as the fellow insisted, Ireland. I remember a tour buss driver in Dublin saying the best thing the vikings brought with them was trousers...

 see, viking dogs below...tones of onion!

 No lutefisk...but they were singing about it on the main stage.

 don't have a clue ...it certainly isn't curling, not on a day like today.

Only think I could think of was "whats in your wallet?"

 Nordic wear

 

 I don't know what it is called, sounded some what like a fiddle, but see the lever key things on the side?

Wreath making

 I think I found the ABBA Girlz

 Swedish pancakes with lingonberry and whipped cream...yum!

Soaking up the sun.

It was a nice sunny morning at the park. here are some of the inhabitants soaking up the sun.

This Fellow was back, in all his dark, foreboding, magnificent-ness, the commorant...I think I will name him Snape.

and two turtles (sounds like a song)

turtles are not my thing, but I THINK this is a red-eared slider

and this is a Western painted turtle

Momma duck update, she still has all 10 ducklings!

A new momma was on the pond with her babies. They are a couple days older, she must have had them down on the creek. I have some video of them trying to swim up stream , they made it.

Enjoy!

First ducklings of the season!

I arrived to this scene at the pond this morning.

 Momma duck hissing at this seagull who had just chased her and her 10 baby's up the bank of the pond. He is trying to catch a baby for breakfast, and she was having none of it.

 She then herded her brood down to the water.

These guys are just so small. you can see here when the pigeon strolls by.

She is a good momma, two little guys got out of the water, she went to get them, the other eight followed.

she got everyone back in the water...but not for long...

She has her work cut out for her.

Danger is always lurking.

AVian post

This morning Lycra man and I were enjoying our coffee

and listing to our morning serenade, Mister Finch and Mister White Crowned sparrow, somewhere  Mister Wren added his song and a couple of Hummingbirds too.

Then this guy chimed in.

Mister Coopers Hawk..click here to hear his call...well OK after the very nerdy bird nerd tells you the catalog number etc...please be patient.

 Then it was quiet. Not a uh, peep, out of anyone for a good half hour.

Upkeep

Well, every girl needs a little maintenance from time to tine to look her best.  Mother Nature does too, well at least so we humans think. Today was her spa day.

First, the tree guys were taking down three trees that have not been doing well for the past two years. This year they gave up the ghost. The guys had to work fast, as these three trees are in the entry way to the library and they needed to get done before El-publico shows up.

.

  On the other side of the park , the landscape guys were cranking up their machines.

  

 

Both crews have this down to a science. It sure smelled good, fresh cut grass and sawdust,

kind of loud, chain saws on my left mowers on my right

and in the middle..

yummy flower petals.

Spending the morning with a Snowy Egret.

Well, today's story is NOT at the pond in the park, it was at the creek. On my first lap around the park I noticed a Snowy Egret perched at the top of a sycamore tree by the creek, on my second pass, he was down in the creek fishing.

 I watched him move along slowly. He seemed to be checking his footing, like maybe he was unsure of his footing ( you have my permission to snort derisively here) I know...a wading bird unsure of its footing...

After watching a while, I figures out it was jiggling its foot to scare up its breakfast.

See the rings it is creating as it shakes it foot underwater.

I set the camera on continuous shoot to try to get a shot of the egret catching something. He caught 4 somethings, and I got a lot of pictures like this..

I know, not even the bird is in the picture..

So you will just have to trust me , that in the half hour I watched him and the119 pictures I took  

 ( thank goodness for digital) he did catch 4 or 5 things for breakfast.

beautiful bird.