Thursday's trip to RBG

As you might know from the 'Focus on Life' post of this week we have recently been to Royal Botanical Garden. I wanted to visit the Rock Garden, where the tulips are almost gone by now. But the garden was closed so we went to another - which involved a little hiking and a lot of fun.

As William put it "and to think I didn't want to come!" :) Many of the pictures are taken by William himself

This friendly Cardinal wasn't afraid to come close and I think
he wanted some seeds :) 

William had fun with the chipmunk - she, too, wanted food

A lovely sun-set (the beginning of) in the park

Our resident swans (we were hoping to see the pelicans, no luck yet)

The Red-winged Blackbird (I kid you know, that's the name of this bird!)
She followed us around a lot and kept chirping

One of God's creatures - we are still trying to figure out what is it.
It was quite large (more of a beaver size)

Another of God's creatures (in our area we have over 3,000 species of birds...
we have just started to learn their names)

Huge trout: I mean **huge**; the large one was over 3 ft long!

The child, admiring nature (and checking the time at mommy's request)

Said Red-winged Blackbird: she might have had a nest close-by...

... because she fought both this Cardinal and another Red-winged Blackbird

A cute woodpecker walking on the board and pecking it for worms

The well-known and beautifully coloured Mallard

A pair of swans, watched by a lone goose

And another swan, on the ground (probably nesting) 

The thinking man - he's lost in his thoughts