Ratty And The Nature Park

This was my first trip to a nature park in quite some time. Luckily, this one is only about 5 miles away from me. This is a small walking park that sits between the highway and the railroad tracks. Beyond those tracks is the Big Sioux River, which has been flooded since winter.

For those of you who might wonder, the word Sioux is pronounced like Soo or the name Sue. It is the name of Sioux City, Iowa, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the Sioux Indian Nation. Isn't it great that we have the habit of naming places like these to commemorate certain people?

This park is small but it has several different features to keep a person occupied. This swampy looking area isn't usually quite so wet. It's usually a small creek that you could step across after going down into the gulley. It looks like this because it connects to the bigger river, so it's also flooded here.

Up on the top left of the picture is what appears to be a deer hunter's tree stand or maybe just an observation stand. I've never seen a deer here, but I'm sure they are here. I'm not sure how old this stand is, but I don't remember it from my other trips here.

You can see the river beyond the railroad tracks in the picture above. I can't get any closer than this because there are no passable trails that go near there. There used to be two trails that crossed the tracks and went to the edge of the river. Those have been purposely blocked off for a few years now. That's a shame. I liked those trails a lot.

And finally, you can see my first bird in flight picture in many years. This was directly above me. I just barely got this one. I'm very out of practice. I tried to get other bird pictures but they weren't coming out for me this time. Maybe on my next trip here.

Any of you who are missing The Everyday Adventurer Dog Blog shouldn't worry too much. Even though I'm going to try to start posting my good old nature stuff, Delilah will be back from time to time. She's too insistent in everything she does to ignore her all the time. But I really like posting about nature more than anything else, so that's the way it should be most of the time. I'll talk to you later.

Delilah And The Nature Park

I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to load Delilah in the back of my truck and take her to the nature park yet, but I felt like I had no choice now. This is a story that will shock and amaze some of you, and maybe just put the rest of you to sleep. So let's get it over with.

It was a normal routine day when I let Delilah outside to do what she does in the yard. But then something very strange happened. Delilah came to the door scratching frantically wanting to be let in. Usually, it's not such an animated event. Of course, I wondered what the problem could be.

I watched her closely the next time I let her out. She wandered around the yard, as usual. But then I saw it! It was a little rabbit on the other side of the yard. Delilah saw it too. And she ran at full speed to the door wanting in the house again!

Yup, my growing German Shepherd was afraid of a soft little bunny rabbit! I couldn't let this problem stand. I tried to convince her that the rabbit was afraid of her too, but it didn't convince her. The rabbit didn't even care about her. It was busy collecting grass for a nest. And it seemed to know that the dog wouldn't harm it.

I had to toughen her up, and I figured the only way to do it was to get her a little life experience. So I decided to take her to the nearest nature park where there are lots more rabbits and many other animals.

The good thing is this seems to have worked a little bit. Being on the leash and close to me also seemed to help. She was stalking any birds that decided to show themselves to us. Of course, that was very few. But they certainly made lots of noise, and she was very curious about that.

Overall, she had a very good time at the nature park. She's still not the best truck rider, but she'll improve now that she'll get to go to some place that she loves. She also has a brand new cage she rides in. That helps a lot.

I had more pictures from the nature park other than just these of Delilah. I'll share some of them soon. Maybe even in less than a week. That will be my first non-Delilah post in quite a while. Finally, we'll be getting back to normal here.

I haven't had a post in a couple of weeks simply because I had nothing to write about. There wasn't really even any fun stuff with the dog, though I had lots of good pictures of her. As you can see, she's growing rapidly. She's beginning to look like a grown-up dog, even though she's only about five months old.

I'll share more Delilah posts, but let's get back to nature around here now. I'll talk to you later.