Some Fall color on a Short Walk, 11-08-19

I took my dog Esteban for a walk at William Land Park this morning. It was 41º outside, which is okay for me, but was too cold for him – even in his sweater. So, we were only out there for about 60 minutes. (I usually like to walk for about 3 hours, so cutting the walk short was kind of a letdown.)

I used to take my dog Sergeant Margie out with me all the time before he got too creaky to handle the trails, but he was twice Esteban’s size (16 pounds to Esteban’s 8) and had a thick fur coat. The only time I had to take Sergeant Margie back to the car and curtail a walk was when it was down to about 29º at the American River. Too icy for him. He was a trooper, though. I have to be more careful with Esteban, I guess. He’s more fragile.

Anyway, during the walk, Esteban was very good when he encountered ducks and geese or squirrels. He didn’t try to lunge at or chase them. But he was oddly thoroughly fascinated by a single long seed pod from a catalpa tree. I don’t know what about it was so interesting to him, but he approached it as though it was a snake, and walked around it and poked at it… He’s such a funny little thing.

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.

In the pond in the park, all of the lotus plants have died and some of them have been pulled out and left on shore for Parks and Rec to clean up later. All of the brown twigs and desiccated leaves in the water are, at the same time, ugly and oddly beautiful. There is also some autumn color in some of the trees, and the reflections of that color on the water were gorgeous.

Seed pod of Sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera

There were lots and lots of Wood Ducks in the pond and lots of Northern Flickers in the trees and foraging in the grass. I also heard a Nuttall’s Woodpecker and a Belted Kingfisher, but I couldn’t catch sight of them.

But, as I mentioned, my walk was cut short, so I didn’t get as many photos and wasn’t able to do as much exploring as I usually do.