Walking at Josey Ranch Lake

Generally walking in Texas is a morning activity - before the hottest part of the day. The lake near the library in Carrollton TX is a popular and easy hike. The birds are accustomed to the walkers so it is a great place for photography. There were a few pigeons; it seems like almost all city parks has pigeons.

There was a Little Blue Heron that I saw both days I walked the loop. It appears to be a bird that likes to fish in isolation.

The great white egret likes to company of the ducks. Both days the bird was surveying the lake from about the same place and with the same company.

There was a pair of swans in the same group.

A juvenile swan was also nearby. Another walker commented that there had been 4 ‘ugly ducklings’ but this was the only one from this year’s nest to survive (the turtles in the lake are the probably predator for the very young swans). The one that is left is clearly large enough now to be in no danger from turtles. The juvenile will stay with the parents until the feathers are all white later in the summer.

In another pond we had seen two swans the first day. On the second day we saw only one and there were a lot of feathers on the duck-weed coated pond. We were relieved when we saw the second swan - obviously a little ruffled from a round with some predator (maybe a dog?).

There were several nutrias around the lake - an invasive rodent that most states are trying to eradicate. We saw three but another walker said there were probably 8 or 9 round the lake. They seemed to be as acclimated to people being around as the birds. I wondered why they had not been trapped and taken away.