A Visit to Tucker Wildlife Center

Or, I could have titled this post "Rumors of my Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated." It's been awful not being able to keep this is current like I have in the past! A recent promotion at work has meant a significant increase in my workload which means much less down time for things like blogging and jewelry-making. Every time I pass by my bead table I can hear the beads crying from loneliness. I'm sure things will eventually get back on track, but at least in the meantime, I'm rakin' the overtime pay LOL!

I first uploaded this pictures back in May! They are from a wonderful little wildlife and nature preserve in our local Saddleback mountains called Tucker Wildlife Center. We visited it for Mother's Day and then went to lunch at a nearby restaurant afterwards. It was such a beautiful place and really fantastic for bird watching - especially hummingbirds. I just wish I'd been fast enough with my camera to catch more of them in photos!





This is Silverado Creek that runs through the back edge of the property. You can see that even though it was only late May, it was already starting to dry up. We didn't have normal rainfall amounts this year so things are pretty dry.





This is a darling little genuine wishing well. You can even lower the bucket if you want to!





When I first walked by this pond, I thought these guys were actually statues because they were so still. Nope, actual turtles that live in the pond...out for a sun bath!





This is Henry, the desert tortoise out for a stroll.





This is supposed to be a bird feeder, but from what I could tell, the squirrels had pretty much taken over the buffet.

There's a fantastic bird watching enclosure with feeders all around it and we identified at least 10 different bird species, not including all the hummingbirds we saw. Unfortunately, I just wasn't good enough with my camera to catch any of that action - especially since we had three wiggly boys with us (my son and my two nephews) who inevitably moved or made noise and scared away the birds just as I was about to snap a picture.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and I hope to get back to blogging more regularly Real Soon Now.

KJ