I wanted to get out for a walk today before it got too hot, so Sergeant Margie and I were out the door to the WPA Rock Garden by about 6:15 am.  I got a lot of flower photos, and some bee pix.  The bees seemed to be pollen-crazy today, and were rolling in the flowers and whizzing all over the place; I don’t remember ever seeing them so hyper. I took some video of some of them…

Then the dog and I walked over to the duck pond behind the garden and found that the fountains were shut off there… so the water was like a mirror.  I saw a large vulture sitting near the edge of the pond eating something, so I walked over to see what he’d found.  There were two large (dead) carps laying on the ground, and the vulture had ripped some pretty big holes in them.  I couldn’t imagine the vulture going into the water to get them, so I’m not sure how they ended up where they were.  The only thing I could think of was that someone had fished them out, and then ran off, leaving them behind when the cops showed up or something… We also saw a couple of crayfish, but they darted into the water before I could get photos of them.  Heading back to the car, we came across a crop of milkweed that was starting to get pods on it.  I’ll have to keep an eye on those, and see if they attract any Monarch butterflies.  (They lay their eggs on the pods, and the caterpillars dine on the pods as soon as they’re born.)  We walked for about 2 hours and then headed back home for some breakfast.