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donutsweeper ([personal profile] donutsweeper) wrote2011-05-19 12:41 pm
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Walking with the dog, May 17th 2011

It was a beautiful day when Molly and I went for a long walk down to the creek and I decided to take the camera along and document some of what we saw.

I don't know a lot about flowers, but here's a pretty yellow one.


Tulips!


This didn't come out as well as I hoped, but here's a woodpecker of some sort. (This is the same tree I saw a black squirrel on the day before, maybe it likes animals?)


This bird squawked loudly at us as we walked down the path, scaring Molly a bit.


We reached the creek! Not surprisingly, considering all the rain and snow, it's very swollen right now.


Molly did not really want to stop and pose for a picture by the creek.


We took a different (and longer) route home and passed this neat little statue


two beautiful flowering trees,




and, last but not least, lilacs with bonus bird's nest.


(Oh, and here's a bonus bunny that was outside the window sniffing around the lawn after we got home)

[identity profile] rustydog.livejournal.com 2011-05-20 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
Heh, yes, I think 30 years is a legitimate excuse for not remembering a few things from Girl Scouts. *g*

I love the Cornell Lab site! I'm glad you enjoyed it too. I think it's the best place to go for North American birds on the web. (I use an iBird app when I'm away.) It's so great to be able to hear the calls!

Ravens are larger than crows, so I think if you found it too small to be a crow, it wouldn't have been a raven. I don't know! Pretty bird though. :)

Tulips! Such an amazing story of selective breeding -- actually a series of mutations and clones, if I remember correctly, leading to such variety! Have you read Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire? It has a big section on the history of tulips, and it's just fascinating.

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2011-05-20 04:53 am (UTC)(link)
Have you ever listened to the podcast "Stuff You Missed In History Class"? They did a great one on the tulip a few months ago.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-tulip-mania-worked/id283605519?i=91097366

Hmm... no idea on the bird then. Oh well. It's hard to figure out species when its up above you with wings tucked in and a dog is tugging you because there is grass OVER THERE to be sniffed (as opposed to the grass right where we were standing, which was obviously inferior)