FEBRUARY 5, 2013

(CLICK on the photographs to ENLARGE them) Oh, Deer! There was a herd of nine deer on the hill side near the Braves' baseball field at Dan Daniel park. They were beautiful to see since there were deer of many different sizes including a couple of young ones. My only regret is that this is the herd that the white deer and her mother hung out with; I don't know what happened to her, but I haven't seen her since before Thanksgiving. But, these deer made it a beautiful afternoon on the Riverwalk trail.

January 27, 2013

(CLICK photos to make them larger) Sadie and I passed only one other person on the Riverwalk Trail this morning. My Averett colleague, Richard Ferguson, was running on the trail this brisk, Sunday morning. We were so early this morning that it was, evidently, too cold for many of the birds to be out, though we saw a few cardinals, mockingbirds, chickadees and woodpeckers. However, the geese were out in great force. On the river and in the air, the Canada geese made their presence known, and there was a large number of the white, brown and grey geese; as we approached, they seemed agitated by the presence of a dog, so we made a wide circle around them so they wouldn't be interrupted from their morning activities in field. We went back this afternoon and, again, saw very few birds, but Sadie found a crummy looking baseball in the tall grass (one of nearly 70 she has found this year). I took her to a baseball field and let her run and play with the ball. She had a great time throwing the ball in the air, running after it, and keeping it away from me.

As we got into the car, a couple in a white truck stopped and got out to pet Sadie. The lady called me by name and said she enjoyed my photos in the paper. We chatted for 15-20 minutes, and then we came home. It was a very good day at the park.

January 16, 2013

The river was very high this afternoon and only a few geese and ducks were in the water. The geese on the shore backed away as Sadie and I passed, but when we saw a large group of geese, we decided to turn around and not bother them. I felt that they had been traumatized too much already by the high water on the river.

Those who deny global warming should have been with me on the trail this afternoon. I saw something on the trail I had never seen during this time of year. Actually, Sadie went over to investigate a movement in the grass, and when I got there, I saw a foot and a half long green snake. I have never seen a snake during this time of year since they are, mostly, hibernating. The snake looked at us and didn't move until we left. My guess is that its underground winter home had been disturbed by the heavy rain and the flooding, and it was out, on a rather mild afternoon, looking for another place to burrow.

Sadie found two baseballs on the trail this morning; one was badly beaten up, and the other was nearly brand new. She dropped the older ball, which she had carried around for several minutes and picked up the new ball following a rather lengthy decision making process trying to decide which one to keep. I let her play in one of the ball fields where she tossed up the ball, chased it, and carried it around like a trophy. It was a good day on the Riverwalk Trail.