Nature Center

Doing things on a weekend is one of my favorite things. That was a vague statement. Let me rephrase: I can't sit at home on a weekend so more often than not, we are out doing something. Just ask J...he would tell you the same thing. This weekend was no different! Plus, the weather was warmer and the snow piles (most of them) were gone!

We went to Wood Lake Nature Center which is not far from us. It's a place we haven't ever taken our kids to, but they've been there before on a field trip with their class. They knew, right away, where things were and what we could do. We started off inside looking at a few snakes and some turtles. Then it was outside to walk around the trails.

You'd think that being in a first-ring suburb there wouldn't be much for wildlife. Well, on our walk, it was hard to tell if we were in a city or in the middle of nowhere!

We were on the lookout for anything dealing with animals or plants. Here A found some animal fur-we're still not sure what it was or where it came from.

We saw 3 muskrats on our walk. This was the first one we encountered, nibbling on some tall grasses. 

There were plenty of geese to be seen, too! These ones seemed to be doing a dance of some sort. Perhaps it's part of a mating ritual? We passed by one mama goose sitting on her nest-she hissed at us from about 100 feet away. We saw these geese:

A & C weren't too sure about them. A jogger walked by them and (I'm assuming) the male hissed at him. So we kept our distance and didn't get any closer. And then there was this goose:

Just standing on one leg, sound asleep. A & I had already passed it, and then it was J & C's turn. As you can see, C isn't too sure about this goose. Truth be told, neither were J & I! But, it just kept on sleeping!

It was a beautiful day to be out walking around with signs of spring everywhere!

We're so glad spring is here to stay and that we have a place like this to explore with our kids!