Ashland Lithia Park

After a session at the paraglider training hill we stopped in Ashland and went for a walk through Lithia Park. It's been very hot (37c / 98f) so the shade in the park was much appreciated. The flowering trees are past their peak, but there are still some around.



The robins were out catching worms. It amazes me how they can find them and then pull them out of the ground. And how do they manage to grab more without dropping the ones they have in their mouth?



I watched another bird hopping around in the creek picking insects out of the water, again a good trick since I couldn't even see the insects till it pulled them out. It was challenging to photograph since it never stopped for more than a few seconds. I wonder if these birds have babies to feed since they seemed to be just collecting the worms and insects, not eating them.



The bright sun and dark shade made for some good reflections, like in the duck pond.



The flowing water in the creek also made an interesting subject, both in black and white:



and in color:



The Pacific Dogwood flowers were pretty.



Even just the backlit leaves were a gorgeous shade of green.



For more of these photos, see all 20 as a slideshow or overview