October 22nd, 2020

It's Thursday and you know what that means, right?  Photo Safari Report Day!  YAYAYAAY!

Joy and I headed to Oscar Scherer which is a state park just up the road a bit.  We paid our measly $5 admission and headed down to the parking lot.  It had been quite some time since we visited Oskie (as we call it) and we took some time deciding which set of trails to aim toward.   Since it was a cooler, more overcast day we chose a set of trails that has very little shade. Normally we avoid those (too hot!) but that day felt like the perfect opportunity.

So since we weren't as familiar with this park, we carefully paid attention to trail markers and off we went.  And in short order, got ourselves so turned around that we ended up back where we started. What the actual heck?    We followed the markers, I swear we did!!  And yet, dang it, there we were back at the beginning.  Bizarre.

We laughed it off, choose a different set of trails and tried again.  This time, we didn't circle back but we were disappointed that we weren't finding a lot of photo worthy subject matter.  Ratz.  We were just starting to think that while it was a nice walk in a different place than usual, maybe it was going to be a pooper of a hike, photography-wise.  And then suddenly, birds. Birds of all colours, shapes, sizes and song.  They were everywhere!  We were surrounded.  Cool!

The birds were on the ground, in the trees, in the bushes, the shrubs, the grasses, the flowers and on the overhead wires.   Sometimes just one, other times whole flocks. It was Birdie Land!  I don't know what all of them were.   Joy does, of course, and she tells me and I promptly forget. But I know a few.  Blue Jay, Cardinal, Scrub Jay, Mourning Dove, a kind of wood pecker aaaannnndddd          Yep, I think those are the only ones I knew from yesterdays photos. 

But from that point forward, we began to see so many other wonderful things.

Interesting bugs:

I was that close to sot many flying stinging things and yet!  I managed to not get stung. Not even once.  I am impressed. Both with my luck and their high tolerance for my existence in their time/space continuum.  And yes, I did thank them for their restraint.

​Also found some pretty flowers. That always makes me happy.

As always there were a couple of rando shots that I couldn't resist:

And we learned several things from this hike.  A) Oskie is a beautiful place to hike with lots of trails but they are not marked very well.  We aren't the only people who got turned around.  We met another hiker who was totally lost and had a map in his hands.  B) The best hiking there is on a coolish, overcast day and C) if at first you don't see photo ops, hang in there because somewhere down the trail is awesomeness.

​Perhaps good life lessons too ;)