Tiedeman's and Stricker's Ponds

 

First, here are some photos from yesterday at the Arboretum:

Here I am in front of a magnolia:

And here we are in front of a crabapple:

This is a very large redbud:

Another magnolia:

These are the pelicans on the island in the wetland at the Arboretum.

Today after Mass there were donuts, but Travalon, Jilly Moose, and I fled to Fair Trade Coffeehouse to avoid the calories, and we ran into Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy there. Later we joined the usual crowd at brunch, then Travalon and I went for a walk at Tiedeman's Pond. We saw mallards.

And painted turtles.

What could be sweeter than baby geese in a field of dandelions?

The shoulder patches on this red-winged blackbird look more orange than red.

Another red-winged blackbird was attacking a sandhill crane.

We saw a mama wood duck with a bunch of little ones.

We didn't see the groundhog, but here is his front door. He also has a back door, which looks almost exactly the same.

Then we went to Stricker's Pond, which is maybe two blocks away, and we saw baby mallards.

And lots of sandpipers.

This crane is standing on a sandbar in the middle of the pond.

There are a lot more photos, like of a mama merganser with a bunch of little ones, but Boethius suddenly got slow, and it's getting late, so I'll have to post them tomorrow. It looked like the crane was thinking about picking off one of the baby mergansers, but they swam away really fast, so the crane gave up. I saw a woman with binoculars around her neck, so I pointed out the merganser family to her, and she thanked me. I wouldn't harass random people walking by about the mergansers, but I assumed that if she had binoculars, she was a birdwatcher. She pointed out that there was a dead pelican on the shore of the pond. So sad! 

Then we went home and saw the Bucks lose in Game Seven against the Celtics, so they're done for the season. At band practice we practiced outside, and people kept wandering by and listening to us. I enjoy being a feral mandolin player, doing whatever I like, and I enjoy it even more when people listen. Then at Night Prayer Rich mentioned there was a lunar eclipse going on, so Travalon and I went out to check it out. Travalon got some good shots of it, so look for that tomorrow too.

Famous Hat