Geese at Crescent Lake Park

Chinese goose swimming across the lake.

These might be siblings.

Drip.

The male anhinga is showing off in front of the goose. The goose is not paying attention.

There's a small flock of chinese geese that live at Crescent Lake Park in St. Petersburg. I think there were only four a few years ago but they keep breeding. And chinese geese are known for good breeding. They look pretty and graceful from far away but can be very aggressive if you get close to them without food. People feed them so they are used to being fed and if you walk by them too close on the sidewalk they come running looking for food. The morning I was there, they were in the water the entire time. Floating around close to shore so they didn't come honking at me.

  Camera Critters

Canadian geese by work

"Head's up guys, here comes someone with a camera"

"I'll do my mean body shake and scare her away."

"Maybe if I flap my wings she'll leave."

"Forget it, she's not leaving. Just keep eating."

"There's good bugs over here."

I had read on Pinellas birds that there was a Canadian geese sighting in the cemetery down the street from my office. I threw my camera in the car and was able to drive through there after work recently. It's a small cemetery right off a busy road.  I drove around a little bit and quickly found the flock. They were so close to the road that I didn't even get out of my car. I just snapped the above quickly and left. I don't know if they'll continue south or stay here for the winter. I'll check back in a few weeks to see if they are still there.

  camera critters

Crescent Lake Park

Starling shining in the sun.

Female grackle with a juvenile.

Fat geese getting fed.

Juvenile white ibis downing a mouthful.

Foodfest at the ibis party.

Blue jay looking sad on the bench.

When it gets really I hot I tend to head for spots along the water to get the sea breeze. Before heading to the St. Petersburg Pier, I stopped at a nearby park. Crescent Lake Park is a small park near downtown St. Petersburg.  My last trip there was last spring when the baby geese were growing up. It looks like there weren't any baby geese this spring. People are always feeding them so they're pretty aggressive. I try and stay away from them. While I was walking around the lake, a lady and her daughter had a big loaf of bread and were feeding all of the animals at the park. The ibis were practically attacking each other for a slice of bread. Of course, they attacked the little girl as she was throwing out slices and finally she just threw the whole bag at them. This is why there are signs saying "Do not feed the wildlife." Oh well.

Walk around an Atlanta Park.

A large hand fed group of mallards greeted us at the lake.

I can't believe this waterfall is right in the heart of Atlanta (on the Emory campus).

There were tiny warblers everywhere.

The leaves were just turning.

Canadian geese trying to sleep.

Walking back to our car we saw this hawk go flying by. I ran after him and saw him perched in the woods.

We met some of my hubby's family in a park on the Emory University campus. It's a fairly large park with a lake in the middle. The weather was perfect, sunny and 70 degrees. There were a lot of ducks there that get fed on a daily basis so they came swimming up when they saw us walk towards the lake. We saw a handful of canadian geese that must be stopping over on their way south. And the hawks, there were tons of hawks everywhere. When we were driving through the city we saw hawks sitting on the lamp posts on Interstate 75. Guess that's why they named the basketball team after them.