Waddle Waddle Quack Quack

Again, I apologize for the number of photos in this post but I'm telling a photo story. When I went to The Huntington Museum & Botanical gardens I finally got to see some baby ducks. I was walking along the path in the Japanese garden in the first photo and there is a stream along the left hand side of the photo.


I was so intent on taking shots of the water when I looked up at the where the water dropped off into a little waterfall there was mama and her babies.


Babies were swimming around having a good time, coming to the edge of the fall where I thought they might fall over with the water but they never did.


Mama was watching me carefully, sizing me up to make sure I wasn't going to harm them or come any closer and then she did something that totally surprised me.

I guess she determined that I was no threat and she began to lead the babies out of the water...


And lead them right in front of me at my feet and down the little path I had just walked up.




They just waddled peacefully down the path. I had such a good time taking shots of them!

More from the Arboretum

Just a few more shots that I took at the Los Angeles Arboretum. The arboretum has a pretty decent little hill on the property. They have a watefall where you can take the steps up, walk around the top of the waterfall and it leads to another pond where during the right season it's full of dragon flies and butterflies. Beyond this area there is an area I love. It's the photo below.


To me this area is beautiful and I don't know that this photo really captures it. The beautiful green of the grass, the blue sky peeking through the trees, the patchwork of light on the grass... It's one of those areas you just want to spread out a blanket and lie down with your head in the lap of a loved one listening to the birds and waterfall in the distance.


I've only started revisiting the Arboretum last year. This is the first time I've seen the wood duck there. I wish I had captured the colors better but this was in a shaded area with the light reflecting off the water.



This little guy below played with me for a good little while. It flittered around and landed near me but when I moved slightly it would flitter off but it would flitter all around me coming so close I thought it was trying to land on me then it would return to this wood railing near the water. That happened a few times before another butterfly caught it's interest and they flittered off together.

Baby Duckies

I was taking pics of flamingos in their little pond and notice this one duck in the midst of them. I thought it was curious but didn't pay much attention to it after all, there are all of these beautiful flamingos demanding my attention. But when I turned off the camera and started to walk away I suddenly notice all of these little babie ducks. They were so cute and that one duck was mama duck patiently watching over her babies that were just EVERYWHERE! LOL!