The Week In Seven Photos

One could not have asked for a better morning at the park with blue skies,

sixty degrees and my niece, the animal whisperer, along for the walk.

The animals were just pouring out of the woods to see her and there was barely enough room on the paths between the deer

and sandhill cranes.

Thanks to my niece, we were lucky to have another birder show us the way to our first sighting of a young Virginia Rail.

I was very happy to have everyone gathering around us until a red-winged blackbird nearly landed on my head and

the shakedown by scrappy squirrels, chipmunks and birds almost had us running back to the car.