A Walk, A Rookery, and a Ride

What a busy day we have had.  Russ started the morning with a solo walk with Jewel.  She was raring to go so while I got showered, and Ollie did his imitation of a couch potato, Russ and Jewel had a brisk walk around the neighborhood.

Breakfast at the Original Pancake house was followed by a trip to Alton Baker Park.  I just noticed that, in the linked post, I called the geese Canadian geese – I know better now, they do not have passports and they are called Canada geese.  How they got their name is debatable but you can read about that here if you are interested.

The pups were GREAT.  Interested but not intimidated by all the geese, ducks, pigeons and other water fowl in the area.  Jewel did try and convince us to let her herd them but she was kept firmly in hand and did not bark.  Did you know that Australian Shepherds are often trained using ducks as the first animal they herd?  Of course Ollie and Jewel are not going to be working dogs so we won’t be encouraging the herding instinct.

Jewel is looking at the ducks and geese, while Ollie is busy sniffing their leavings…



NO OLLIE, it is NOT doggie perfume!


Please, Mom, just let me get a little closer…


I could round them up for you, I KNOW I could!


So near, yet so far away.


That’s a good girl (doggone it anyway!).


And a good boy – just curious, no barking at all.



A lady passed us on the trail and then she stopped and was shooting pictures with her phone.  She was kind enough to point out a group of 5 heron nests in a tree across the canal.  We never would have seen them as it was quite a distance away and we were concentrating on the dogs.  I don’t know if 5 nests qualifies as a rookery, but it sure was neat to see them.

Can you see two herons in this picture?  Click to enlarge.








As we watched, another heron began to circle overhead.


It circled three or four times.  Maybe checking to see if it was safe to land??






Finally the landing gear came down and the final approach was made.





Can you spot all three herons in the picture below?




All I had with me was my little Panasonic pocket camera so the quality is not that great.  But now that we know where this is, we’ll return with our big cameras and try for some better shots.  It sure was fun.

Our fun for the day was not over yet but this post grows long so I will save the “Ride” part for tomorrow.  Hint:  The wheels on Therapy were rolling!!