For months I’ve been watcing a Facebook page filled with wonderful professional and amature photographs of Michigan birds and wildlife. Lots of them have been taken at Kensington, my favorite park, and each time I see something amazing that was shot there I vow to get myself out the door.

But every morning this week when I’ve considered heading out, I’ve yawned and rolled back over to sleep a couple more hours.

Friday the weather guy said that next week it will be colder and rainier and maybe even snowier than the wonderful weather we’ve been enjoying. I figured if I was going to get going I better get going.

So I did.

Now my problem is that I have over 300 photos taken on my 3.5 mile walk through the woods. I saw so many different things, any one set of photos could be a blog post. Should I try to share it all with you? Or just a tiny bit? Maybe it will turn into multiple blogs.

Guess we won’t know until I start posting. I will say that you might want to click on the images, because there’s a whole lot of detail you don’t want to miss, especially if you’re reading this on your phone.

If I hadn’t made the choice to get off the sofa I would have missed the golden light that filled my first stop at the park. I stayed there for several minutes, then drove over to the nature trails.

When I arrived there the parking lot was half full and I knew I was later than I like to be. I considered heading out in my typical direction, but decided at the last minute to focus on the trails at the back of the park. So I made the choice to turn right instead of left, and almost instantly noticed a whole lot of photographers, complete with very expensive gear, pointing their cameras up.

When you come across a gagle of photographers it’s best to look where they’re looking. So I did. And this is what I saw first:

I didn’t know what it was for sure, but I knew it was really big and beautiful. Most of the photographers were frustrated because the branches of the tree were hiding her face. I just climbed over a bench and a fence near the nature center to get a different angle.

Then someone said there was another one around the next bend in the trail. Over there were even more photographers, all pointing their huge lenses at a very sleepy, obviously well fed male.

I took plenty of pictures, thrilled to be there, in the right place at the right time for once.

I just about skipped back to check on the female, getting a shot from behind that was OK, but not as interesting as this shot from below her.

And then she tucked her head under her wing for a quick nap.

So much excitement and I hadn’t even started my walk yet! So I reluctantly left the big birds and headed out toward the back of the park.

And almost immediately ran into the merry band of turkeys.

I kept taking pictures because they were so pretty. They weren’t paying much attention to me, and there was a young family complete with kids running around that was approaching from my left. I wanted to get my pictures taken before they arrived.

The family was coming and I wondered if they realized these big birds can be pretty assertive if they figure out you have food.

I figured I’d move on before they figured out I had seed in my pocket.

I turned right to go up a path that would connect me with the trail in the back, leaving the birds behind. I was concentrated on this cute squirrel…

…when I hear multiple pairs of feet rushing toward me.

Apparently they had figured out the lunch lady was leaving. It was sort of intimidating to have they rush me like that, so I threw two handfuls of seed as far as I could away from me, and race walked (casually of course) to the next corner and turned into the woods. Luckily brush blocked me from their view and I got away.

So what do you think I found in the woods? I guess you’ll have to wait, because this is long enough already. And there’s so much more to see.

Stay tuned.