North Park, Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Well mom got her hip transplant this morning. The hospital where she had the surgery is just a few minutes from North Park. She told us that there was no reason for us to stay around the hospital during the surgery. My brother lives maybe 10 minutes away and my sister maybe 15 minutes. She told me to bring my camera along and go to north Park instead of sitting around. Being the good son that I am I had to do what mom said. My sister and one of my brothers, stayed at the hospital, my second brother went back to his house to take care of a few things and I went to Marshall Lake at North Park.

I didn’t want to be gone from the hospital very long no matter what mom said but I had a lot of targets in the hour that I spent at North Park this morning. The first chance I had was of a Northern Cardinal that was perched in a tree near where I parked.



My next opportunity came with a pair of Hooded Mergansers that didn’t want to stay still to have their picture taken. The pictures of them are a little too blurred for my tastes unfortunately.



I even snapped a few shots of some Mallards and a Canada Goose that were resting on a log across the lake from me.



I also got a few shots of a Common Grackle, a European Starling and some House Sparrows that were looking for nesting sites.

The highlight of my morning however happened when I was driving back to the hospital. I was still in North Park, just past the Boat house when I saw a Snow Goose. I parked, grabbed the camera and got some quick pictures of this guy. Snow geese are very rare for this area. They pass north of here on their migration and they use Middle Creek WMA near Harrisburg as a migration staging area.



Well after this, mom’s hip transplant went superbly. She was in good spirits but was sore which was to be expected.

Update, July 18, 2009: Mom says that her hip makes her feel like she is 10 years younger. She has mobility that she never thought that she would have again.