Another beautiful day dawned and I was out the door by 9:00 a.m. and headed to Council Point Park for my walk around the perimeter path. I am convinced that this haven of water, brush, trees and a little bit of wildlife could very well be called Lincoln Park’s gem. There were just a handful of people walking or jogging the perimeter today and no bikers. I was walking along minding my business when suddenly two huge Canada Geese waddled out from behind a brushy area and crossed my path. They were so busy squawking at one another that they didn’t see me and stopped right in front of me. I figure they were busy gossiping and oblivious to humans. They looked a little scared (and I was too – these guys were big and years ago I had an encounter at Silver Lake with a big swan who came after me, flapping its wings and running pretty quickly). I stopped in my tracks and they goose-stepped across the path with their huge, black webbed feet and started squawking to one another again. I had to smile and thought of my two plastic life-sized geese Mickey and Minnie and I have to put them outside this year. They are my brethren after all. I saw several squirrels, still chubby from the Winter, digging fast and furiously in various mulched areas as they frantically tried to recall where they buried their stash of nuts. I think I saw one scratching his head. Whether it was to prompt him to remember the hidey-hole or merely a bad case of fleas I don’t know. I also saw several huge fleet-footed rabbits; I’d have loved to have seen a litter of bunnies but none were within my sight anyway. I had just recovered from the encounter with the geese, when I saw a wiggle of ears out of the corner of my eye, and again I stopped in my tracks to not spook them and next thing I knew I saw a flash of white powder-puff tail go by. The birds at the Ecorse Creek are plentiful and I heard more different birdcalls than I saw the actual birds. I saw a Red-Winged Blackbird in the marshy area and if I had a camera I could have gotten a great close-up. I saw several goldfinches flitting around the marsh area as well. I identified a cardinal’s sweet song and now am going to make it a point to look for my copy of “Audubon Bird Guide to North American Birds” which my mom bought me years ago. I think they also have many websites where you can hear actual birdsong and identify the bird by its call and they have images to match up the birds as well. I am going to do this before I return to the Park next weekend. I am limited to this journey on weekends only since the entire round trip takes me 1 ½ hours – I won’t win any prize for my time expended on the walk but meandering through this idyllic little setting is well worth taking time to linger and take in a little of nature’s beauty.

Post script: When I finished up this post I left and decided to Google and find out more about Council Point Park. On doing this, I saw some pictures posted from earlier today – one picture was of a gentlemen I passed the time of day with and he had snapped some pictures of what maybe were the goose and gander I encountered. I wish I’d have been lucky enough to see the goslings!