NEW BEGINNINGS ~~ A FEW ODDS AND ENDS ~~ PARTING SHOT

NEW BEGINNINGS

Linda and I were drawn to visit Randall Park this past weekend by the prospect of finding some kind of waterfowl babies there. We were not disappointed as there were many little baby ducklings sitting around and swimming in the pond. Most of the ducks seemed to have paired up and many were just lazing around, enjoying the sun and the warm weather.

Mallard couple

I saw a mother Mallard on the shore of the pond with her darling little babies. They all sat still for me to video them until an intruder came up and Momma Duck had to go into "protective" mode.

So who was the unwelcome visitor crashing into the duck family's morning nap? It was none other than this guy below...

Not only was this male goose being mean to the Mallard family, he accosted me as soon as I got to the pond area, and immediately went after my tennis shoes. I don't know if he just liked the color or what, but he would not leave me alone. You can hear him behind me squawking almost the entire time I was filming. This goose was paired up with a totally white female goose, so I looked them up when I got home. At first I thought it was the African Goose with a new mate, but apparently these are Chinese Geese. They are very closely related to the African Goose, and the males of both breeds look almost identical, but the female Chinese Geese are white. There is one other goose at the park that is the same coloring as the male but smaller, so we had thought it was a female African Goose. Now I am thinking it is a juvenile male Chinese Goose. We saw it this past Saturday when we were there, in a different part of the park. So apparently there are two male Chinese Geese at the park and one female, but no African Geese. It's all very confusing.

Female Chinese Goose

To get away from the aggravating Chinese Goose, I had to almost run over to another area of the pond. Mr. & Mrs. Goose stayed over at the viewing area, walking back and forth, trying to figure out how to get to me over on the other side of the railing. It was crazy.

After I eluded the shoe-nibbling goose, I couldn't resist snapping away at the all the cute little babies there. I didn't see any Canada Geese babies anywhere, so I guess it is too early for them yet.

Mallard baby

Sleepyheads

The ducks weren't the only ones who were paired up at the park. I saw several couples of Red-Winged Blackbirds over in the grass, foraging around for their Saturday morning brunch. The males had their beautiful, brightly-colored wing bars on display.

Male & Female Red-Winged Blackbirds

We decided to walk over to the creek area of the park to see if any of the wild Milkweed plants had come up yet. We want to keep our eye on these plants when they do appear so we can see if any Monarch butterfly caterpillars are on them. Apparently it is too early for these plants to be up as we didn't see any. However, we came upon a group of California Quail. We only saw males in this group, and one of them jumped up in a tree to try and distract us. It worked because while I was focusing on him, the rest of the group disappeared.

We discovered them in a thicket along with several females. This may be where they are making their nests. We decided not to go any closer so we wouldn't disturb them, but we will be watching this area for babies in the near future.

A FEW ODDS AND ENDS

Last week I was out on the back porch getting ready to grill supper and noticed this spider up on the ceiling. He had weird green mouth parts so I just had to get a picture of him. It turns out that he is called a Bold Jumping Spider (link). I sure am glad he did not try to jump on me or else I would have done the "get this thing off of me" dance right there!

While I was out there grilling, I happened to notice the Plantaginea hostas (link) that Linda had planted over by the fence. They are all coming up very nicely this year. In August they will have the most wonderfully fragrant white flowers on them.

Plantaginea Hostas

Speaking of fragrant flowers, Linda showed me a tree at Kissel Park the other day while we were on a walk. As soon as we rounded the bend, I could smell it. It almost smells like a jasmine flower. Below is a picture of the tree and a closeup of the flowers.

Fragrant flowers

I had to throw this picture in below, just in case anyone is craving something chocolate (looking at you, L.H.). We had some over-ripe bananas just hanging around, so Linda suggested I make banana bread with them. If anyone mentions baking, I am there. I also had some left-over chocolate chips from when I made cookies a few months ago, and I always have a container of chocolate powder on hand, so it was a no-brainer that I make Double Chocolate Banana Bread (link). It was delicious!

Below is an extra little video I made of birds (of course, what else is there?). Starring in this video is a Black-Billed Magpie, the female Chinese Goose (which mister squawking in the background), and the most adorable little ducklings with the cutest little peeps. Enjoy.

PARTING SHOT

While I was outside on the patio grilling, I heard something rustling around among the hostas. The stalker soon made an appearance.

That's all for this week. The blog is going to take a few weeks off so the Southerner in the Northwest can get a much-needed rest. Check back in about a month or so and I'm sure I will have a ton of new pictures and videos to share with you. Until then, get out and enjoy Nature!