There was a beautiful Heron that I came upon a few months ago at a pond in Monument Valley Park behind the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center.

These photos seemed to have a very Japanese quality to it, ad did a few others I took that day.

So I have stopped there many a time to see if I could catch him again.

I have only seen the Heron there twice, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the creatures that were there each time I stopped at the pond.

Not much of a hike, but I do get to see some interesting creatures: Geese, Ducks, Squirrels and Turtles on my last stop.

The first day, and a few other times, I saw this one legged goose. He seemed to have had a run in with some creature as his feathers were also not in the best of shape. But he not only survived that run-in, he could act very dignified when he was out of the water, standing tall. Though getting out of the water and hopping around, he did lose some of his dignity, but not the concept that he could survive any challenge he encountered.

He is an inspiration to me, and needed this reminder as I am having a mentally challenging time right now. I do need my sunshine! And walks in Nature to get back my positive energy and attitude.

The Ducks were beautiful to watch swim and a female took to posing for me on a rock in front of the pond as a male swam by below her. Not sure who was showing off for who, but she later joined him for a swim together.

There are dozens of Geese at this park swimming and walking around looking for a hand-out of bread that I have seen people feeding them. They look so regal on the water. I had fun trying to get some good images with their reflections below. It was a bit windy and the water wasn’t very still, plus they were swimming most of the time, so hard to get a perfect reflection when the water was in motion.

Another day when I stopped by I saw some ducklings that had beautiful coloration. They were so small walking among the Geese, but seemed pretty fearless. The more I look at the photos, I wonder if they were ducklings or another type of duck? A Wood Duck perhaps?

And then I noticed some very fluffy birds. There were also Goslings there that day.

That was pretty special. Mama Goose kept pretty close to these little ones, but I don’t think she had much to worry about. They too seemed fearless and big enough to take care of themselves fairly well.

The last time I stopped by this pond I found the Turtles that my hiking friend had told me to look for near the island.

My camera battery was running low! I swear I am going to buy another one to always have in the car! I remember the camera, but don’t think to bring an extra battery when driving around town.

So I missed the swimming of the one from a rock to join the other one. Still, they looked very cute together.

My most recent hike was another in town hike that wasn’t really planned to be as long as it was.

I walked to the MAC for a meeting at 3pm that was canceled. I had another one at 6 pm, so walked home, then back again. That was 2 miles of walking and it was a lovely day, as sick as I was that day, I had a difficult time enjoying the extra “hike” in town. I could have really used that time to rest, as I was not feeling well that day, physically or mentally. Still I did stop and enjoy some of the flowering plants along the way and took different routes to see what else was blooming on my second walk there.

I do have a couple of real hikes to catch up on posting, but not tonight . . . time to get some rest and see what Monday brings for health and getting back into the saddle of working again.