Our Vacations, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 6

I'm all for traditions. One tradition we have when we visit Oregon, even if we don't do anything else except chill, is going to a nature trail near where my parents live. The first time Jeremy and I went, we saw turkeys in the trees and a green heron, which was exciting as I had never seen one before (that I knew of). Since then, it's been tradition to look for green herons there and we see them every time.

Last year I took all the kids out to the nature trail. Some of them had more fun than others. This year Jeremy, Nichole, my brother, and I went. 

We saw several green herons, of course. We also got a new to us bird. I hadn't even heard of this bird before- wrentit. They have the fluffiness of a bushtit and a tail like a wren.

I really do love getting out in nature and enjoying God's creations.

There was one point where Nichole and I had to head back for something we dropped and we saw a turtle walking along the path like us. It was so fun to see. By the time we came across it again, it had turned around and was headed through the bushes back toward the water. Heh heh.

We saw plenty of turtles and we even saw a muskrat who decided to get out of the water.

I love morning birding (and nature watching in general). I also love celebrating. We celebrated Drop a Rock Day and Eat Beans Day on July 3.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

National Camera Day

Since it's National Camera Day, June 29, I thought I'd share something our camera captured a few days ago.

 This is a black-crowned night-heron.  This is a side view of the same bird:

Amazing, isn't it?  We were out for a walk with a friend and it was just sitting in the tree right in front of us.  The kids didn't scare it away.  It just stayed there, let us get a good look at it and take a bunch of pictures.  Amazing.
I'd never been that close to one before.  Usually I see them all the way on the other side of a pond.  This one was right there so we got a really good look at it.
It almost didn't look real.  Especially when it was head on.  It's eyes looked like glass eyes you would find in a puppet or stuffed animal.  It was real, though.  It must not have been too bothered by us, either.  It didn't squawk and fly away.  It did close its eyes after a while and adjust its head position.

That was neat.  I'm so glad we visited our friend and she took us to a place she likes to go walking.  I'm also glad we have this camera to take pictures of birds like this.
Happy National Camera Day.