Monday, April 28, 2008

A Walk in the Park

Robert and I had a great 6 mile walk at our local-ish park on Saturday. We have been trying to take advantage of the last remaining not-hot days before summer starts with full fury. (And although I complain about daylight savings time, the ability to walk several miles at the park after dinner during the workweek is also wonderful.)

We spent almost the entire time talking about economics and occasionally stopping to observe flora and fauna. The Mexican hat has come up since last week.

Wildlife highlights included:

A hispid cotton rat (which Robert saw but I did not)

A gulf coast toad (which scared me)

A blanchard's cricket frog (which we heard but did not see)

A cottontail bunny, quite young

A roadrunner, running across the road, which prompted me to say "A cuckoo!" It is a member of the cuckoo family, but still seems like a weird way to categorize such a familiar bird.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since I haven't seen a roadrunner in spite of the many visits we have made to Austin, I particularly wish I had been there to see it.

Sally said...

Mom, we see a roadrunner at that park pretty often, so maybe we'll get lucky next time you are in town. (Of course, this could be like the pileated woodpecker, only having TWO nemesis birds at once seems unfair.)

rvman said...

We've seen rabbits there about 3 out of the last 5 or 6 times we've been there, and the roadrunner a similar fraction of the time. (Actually, at least three roadrunners - a pair in a 'wildflower' field, and one on the drive into the park.)

We also saw a VERY large, but very obviously domesticus, cat slinking through the undergrowth. He obviously belonged to someone in the adjoining subdivision, and was probably overjoyed to find that he had a park to make his territory.

Anonymous said...

While on the wildlife spotting topic, I saw a wild turkey at work today most unexpectedly! In front of my building, not on the trails...

Sally said...

Jen, nice one!