Town Lake

Today Emily, Grandma, and I went for a walk along Town Lake as one final effort to induce labor before the hospital takes over. Though Emily and I walked along the trail almost every day between weeks 15 and 39 of my pregnancy, we had never stopped to feed the ducks before. Today we did.











These three pictures show the birds that were by far the most common: the lesser scaup, the American coot, and the pigeon. Those pigeons were not shy at all and had no concern for the personal space of others. They really made me pretty nervous. One lady feeding the birds with her son or grandson I guess wanted to show him what a pigeon felt like because she grabbed one pretty expertly and let him feel. Maybe those pigeons need more treatment like that to teach them to keep their distance, but I certainly would not be excited to touch one.





This is a grackle. The UT campus has a problem with these birds, and there were a couple hanging out hoping for some bread. One actually swooped in after Janet threw in a piece and caught it out of the air before it hit the water.










There was also one of these wood ducks in amongst the others. He was very cool looking.






















This scary looking bird (above) is a cormorant and it is humongous! We didn't actually see one swallow a gigantic fish whole, but I thought that picture would help convey the terror I felt at the sight of this bird. He would dive really deep under the water and then come up under a group of the lesser scaups and coots and scare them all away. It had bright face markings and if I had to describe how this bird looks in one word, I would say fierce.

This is a swan. We saw a couple of these and one had a bunch of babies. Not on its back though. I was sad that I couldn't really appreciate it's full coolness because it was on the other side of the river and I wasn't wearing glasses.




Here is a picture of baby-grandmother bonding time at the duck feeding. Emily loved it but would have fallen in several times if I wasn't holding her hand most of the time.

This tree is really huge. I didn't realize how huge it really was until Janet went down to see it.
The walk hasn't done anything to help so far... maybe it still needs time to take effect?