I got up around 6:00 this morning and headed over to the William Land Park and the WPA Rock Garden.  It was only about 49° outside this morning, and got up to a high around 70°, so it was a lovely day weatherwise.

When I got to the park, the first thing I saw was a group of Mallard fledglings.  I think was the same orphaned group I saw several weeks ago when they were just fuzzy babies.  They were traveling without a mom.  If it was the same group, they’ve developed well.  Their mama must’ve died AFTER she was able to teach them enough to keep them alive.  I’m kind of proud of the little things.  They had a really rough start, but are doing very well… I also came across a couple of pairs of Wood Ducks…  In the rock garden, I saw a lot of beautiful flowers, but no really neat bugs – although an Assassin Bug nymph did land on my arm and walk around for a while.  Hah!  I wanted to go over to the larger pond in the park, but that whole section was closed off for some kind of special event. Grrrr.

I still wanted to do some more walking, so I went over to the Sacramento Old City Cemetery.  When I got there I was all set to park across the street in the big parking lot there but… the parking lot was blocked off because they were repaving it.  Grrrr-2.  So I drove around the block and parked inside the cemetery near the front gate. (You’re not really supposed to, but… the parking lot was inaccessible).  The gardens there are starting to fade already but I still managed to get quite a few photos.  The cemetery seemed full of Mockingbirds this morning; they were singing from everywhere, many standing on the headstones to show off for the girls. I was also surprised to see a young Red-Shouldered Hawk fly in and land on one of the pine trees there.  He didn’t stay long, though, because a pair of Scrub Jays kept harassing him.  Apparently, that was THEIR tree and they didn’t want the hawk loitering around there.  What was funny was: just before the hawk took off, he pooped on the tree.  Take THAT, Scrub Jays.  Hahahahaha!  As I was leaving the cemetery, I saw a male Western Bluebird land on the fingertips of one of the “monumental” size statues…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I walked around for about 2 hours and then headed out.  I stopped first at Raley’s to get a few things for lunch before going home.