Some More Adventures in Dad's Park

Okay, so off we go again on our adventure in my Dad's park. He isn't visiting his park this week though as he is in a place called Memphis until tomorrow and then a place Miami for the rest of week. I wish my Dad didn't have to travel so much. He says it lets him buy me things like my doggie door and deck but I think I would rather not have them if it meant he could stay home. He just shakes his head and says a "Dad's got to do what a Dad's got to do".

Anyway, off we went down the path under the nice shady trees and you know what we saw? Geese !!! Mom said these are Canadian geese and it was funny, they just sat on the path while all the people walked by but as soon as I came along they all started honking loudly and went into the water. Dad says the geese thought I was a wolf. How dumb are those geese.....do I look a wolf to you???? Mom likes the geese and thinks they are very pretty but she sure doesn't like their poop. They make the biggest ever poops all over the paths and neither mom or dad would let me near it which I though was a bit mean. I just wanted to sniff and maybe roll on a couple of them.

Now as you can in this photo, the geese had babies too. There was four little geese puppies with this group. These types of geese breed very fast and often have between 4 and 10 puppies. Mom says they eat grass (yuk!!!) and because so much of America now has grassed parks and lawns and golf courses the numbers of these geese have just gone crazy. There was lots of others kinds of geese at the park too, white ones and ones with orange beaks and lots of ducks too. In fact a bit further along we saw these two duck puppies and it was odd because the momma duck was white and the daddy duck was a Muscovy. I wonder if my mom's head hurts carrying around all this information she has there - she seems to know to lots of little bits about everything.

The ducks also thought I was wolf and quacked loudly and even flapped their wings at me - so I BARKED at them and then scurried away. Next we went around the other side of the lake where the weir is.

There was lots of steps to go up and dad was surprised how quickly I hippitty hopped up them. At home our basement steps are very narrow and steep so I go up those very slowly one at a time - mom says I look like a little old man. But these were big wide steps and I BOUNCED up them. There was lots and lots of little birds flying around like crazy near this weir thing. I was a bit worried they were going to attack us, but mom said they were swallows and they just catching little insects above the water. I kept my eye on them all the same. We all know Omaha has strange critters and I didn't want to add dive bombing kamikaze swallows to the list.

Now one of the things mom had been looking for on the lake was these things called 'swans'. She said there are two that live there all the time (they go to live at the zoo in winter when the lake freezes over) For some reason my mom seems to really like these swan things. Anyway, we eventually found Mr Swan, he was on his little island preening himself and I must say, he was one big Swan Dog!!!! The swans must keep the geese away from them as there non around their side of the lake. Mom looked and looked and was getting very worried when she didn't see Mrs Swan anywhere. She said swans mate for life and that this pair are quite old and she wondered what would happen to Mr Swan is Mrs Swan had gone over the rainbow bridge. But then, as we rounded the corner there she was and she was sitting on a huge nest she had built!!!! Mom was so happy - she is a bit soppy like that and was even happier when Mrs Swan let her get a picture. Mom didn't get close though, she took a photo using something called the zoom lens as she said Mrs Swan has to stay on her puppy eggs to keep them warm until they hatch. I asked mom if I hatched like that and she said no....I was just about to ask her how I came about when she said "look Reilly - a squirrel" and of coarse I forgot all about the question.