Perfectly Chilly Sikes Lake Walk With The Gosling Lawn Mowers

Yesterday, the day known as Friday, it was back to Lucy Park's backwoods jungle I ventured to for some salubrious nature communing via high speed walking whilst being on high alert for slithering snakes in the grass.

Today, the day known as Saturday, the third such day in May, it was back to nearby Sikes Lake I ventured for some high speed walking with no worry about snakes in the grass, just goslings in the grass being not too worrisome.

The above photo is looking east from the west end of Sikes Lake, at one of the two bridges which cross the lake.

Yesterday's predicted severe thunderstorms did not happen. Not even on drop of rain, let alone any loud booming. Today has had a cold front blow in, lowering the temperature to 75 at the time I was lake walking. 

Back when I lived in Washington, 75 degrees seemed hot, almost too hot. Now I am so acclimated to heat that 75 degrees feels chilly. A pleasant type of chilly.

75 degrees is cooler than what I have my A/C set to.

Sikes Lake's biggest gosling flock was pretty much at the same location I saw them at two days ago.

You can see what a good job the geese do at keeping the lawn clipped short... 

Monday Morning Sikes Lake Reptile & Gosling Encounters

On this third Monday of May it was back to Sikes Lake I ventured this morning for salubrious nature communing.

We have had four days in a row with the weather prediction predicting thunderstorms and rain, including today. But each day ends up being mostly dry and free of loud booms.

The baby geese, also known as goslings, population seems to be of record breaking size this year. I suppose it may be a post COVID baby boom.

I had a reptile encounter of the non-snake sort today.

A turtle was lounging among the pink evening primroses. Why do I find turtles to be cute, whilst I find snakes to be anything but cute?

Years ago I was swimming in Lake Grapevine, in the DFW zone, when a reptilian head suddenly popped up in front of me. I thought water moccasin and did not know I was able to swim as fast as I swam to get out of the water.

The reptilian head had followed me to shore, which is when I realized it was a turtle that was chasing me, not a snake.

This incident became the last time I have been in a Texas lake...

Sunday Sikes Lake Goose Walking With Goslings

As the sun was doing its setting duty last night lightning began flashing, non-stop, for about an hour. Prior to the lightning flashing huge globs of water plopped to the ground with a thud. The globs must have been big balls of hail prior to melting soon before hitting the ground.

I recollect no strong wind blowing last night, but by morning's light a lot of wind damage appeared. Tree limbs, pieces of roofing, and some litter.

So, with the sky still cloudy on this first Sunday of the 2023 version of May it was to Sikes Lake I ventured to do some goose walking around the lake.

Above you see some of the geese, posing with pink evening primroses. Behind the geese that is the bridge across the creek which enters Sikes Lake at the west end of the lake.

Soon after crossing the aforementioned bridge I came up the small goose family you see here. Mom and dad and seven goslings.

About 100 feet further I came upon a much large flock of goslings. I could not get them all in the photo, along with the multiple full size geese being gosling-sitters.

A severe thunderstorm is on the weather menu for later today...

May Day Workers Of The World Unite With Sikes Lake Goslings

It was to Sikes Lake I ventured this morning on the first day of May, also known as Workers of the World Unite Day.

A couple days ago I was at Sikes Lake and photo documented a flock of goslings in flotilla mode floating on the lake.

Today that flock of goslings were landlubbers, tiptoeing in waddle mode through a patch of Evening Primroses, which is what you see photo documented above.

The first day of May is a warm one at my location. Clear blue sky, windless, just about as perfect a day as a day can possibly be.

Cinco de Mayo arrives on Friday. I think I shall celebrate that day with tacos. 

Sikes Spring Sprung With Gosling Flotilla

This final Saturday of the 2023 version of April is being a mighty fine blue-sky day at my Texas location.

I have not done much nature communing the past couple turbulent thuderstorming days.

So, today I made my way a short distance north to walk around Sikes Lake, along with a lot of others out enjoying the return to non-inclement weather.

You know Spring has totally sprung when you see wildflowers blooming, along with freshly hatched goslings, like the flotilla you see above, which I found floating at the west end of Sikes Lake. A convoy with the goose parental units guarding both ends of the flotilla.

A short distance away I saw another goose family, but this unit had only two goslings, guarded by mom and dad...

Windy Sikes Lake Walk With Goslings

Yesterday, after communing with nature at Sikes Lake I mentioned that the geese and ducks were acting frisky.

And that baby goslings and ducklings would be appearing soon.

Well. Soon turned out to be today. Can you spot the pair of goslings above? Guarded by their hissing honking maternal parental unit.

Let's go for a closer look...

I have never been at Sikes Lake and seen a mama goose sitting on eggs, waiting for them to hatch. I have no idea where the maternity ward might be. There is not a lot of cover surrounding Sikes Lake. It is mostly open with, a few bushes that a hatchling might hatch under.. 

No blue sky over my area of Texas today. Total cloud cover. With strong wind blowing extremely gusty at time. Rain on the menu for tomorrow.

Bike Riding With Dozens Of Goslings In Sikes Lake

Rolled my bike to Sikes Lake this second Saturday of the 2021 version of May. A couple days ago I was at this location and saw a few dozen goslings being herded across the paved trail, heading to the lake. Walkers and bikers stopped to watch and not interrupt the passage. 

The guardian geese get quite aggressive with their protecting the babies duty. You get a warning hiss noise with a tongue stuck out and wagging. I have not pressed the issue far enough to see what happens if one presses forward toward the hissing tongue.

I have been goosed by a goose before. I believe that is the correct term indicating being bitten by an angry goose. It is painful. It happened to me in a raspberry patch in Washington when I was a pre-teenager. 

The temperature was in the mid 80s whilst biking. The wind blew strong from the south. So strong it made for slow going in the lowest gear when heading home via the Circle Trail.

I saw a lot of golfers golfing on the golf course east side of Holliday Creek. How does one golf when the wind is blowing 30 miles per hour, with gusts?

Hot Biking Sikes Lake With Ryan Goslings & Pink Evening Primroses

With the outer world temperature heading to the semi-hot 80s I decided it was a good day to take my bike's wheels on a roll on this final Monday of the 2021 version of April.

Soon after arriving at the paved trail around Sikes Like I came upon what you see photo documented above, a fresh flock of Ryan Goslings, soon after hatching, judging by their tiny size.

I think I recently made mention of the fact that this year's crop of Evening Primrose wildflowers is the most prolific I have seen at this Sikes Lake location. See that patch of pink on the other side of the lake? Let's cross the bridge and get a better look.

A couple geese politely posing in the field of pink.

Soon after seeing the above scene I came upon another flock of freshly hatched goslings. I did not stop to photo document them.

The gosling's parental units seemed to be overly protective, with the paternal goose parental unit doing that goose hiss thing at me which often precedes getting goosed.

Sunday Church Walk With Sikes Lake Geese Before McDonald's Cheeseburgers

This Sunday morning, with going to church not an option, unless I wanted to go to the Cowboy Church on Jacksboro Highway, a reality I learned later in the day, I opted to join the throngs of former churchgoers enjoying one of God's local outdoor temples, that being the trail around Sikes Lake.

The Sikes Lake geese seem to have found a new level of liking the humans, what with so many of them visiting their Sikes Lake home due to the COVID-19 increase in visitors.

In the first of today's photo documentation I had just joined the promenade of walkers following the biggest goose family living at the lake. Mom and dad hatched 17 babies this birthing season.

Mother goose has become so used to the humans she no longer does her threatening hissing if you get too close to her babies.

Above we have stopped for a closer visit.

And closer.

And even closer.

That first goose family was walking the trail near the parking lot on the east side of Sikes Lake. The above, much smaller, goose family was on the south side of the lake. These babies were closer to being newborns than the first ones we saw. And their mother was a bit more protective, doing some distant hissing when my co-walker reached out to pet one of the fuzzy goslings.

After walking around Sikes Lake the hiking crew returned to the motorized means of transport so I could drive us to the nearest McDonald's drive-thru to acquire a bag of cheeseburgers to munch on during a drive which ended up driving by that aforementioned Cowboy Church on Jacksboro Highway, south of Wichita Falls.

And now, what with the outer world seeming still, as in not windy like it has been for days, methinks I will go on a bike ride to Lake Wichita and join the throngs social distancing there...

Hot Walking With Sikes Lake Goslings

The last time I walked from my abode's location to Sikes Lake I think we were still shivering in the throes of winter.

Today's walk to Sikes Lake, with less than a month to go before the arrival of summer, felt like summer had already arrived.

As in HOT, HUMID heated into the 80s, but feeling way HOTTER.

Strong wind provided some relief.

Today it appeared that all the Sikes Lake's gosling flocks had united in one tribal group, yet still separated into their three family groups, within the tribe.

Above you are looking at the largest flock of goslings. Mom and dad goose apparently were very busy with the procreating.

The smallest family group in the tribe is that which you see below.

When I moved in closer to take photos of the gosling group you see in the top photo, the family in the above photo startled me by honking out of their shore side hideout to quickly float away from me being too close. They did, however politely pose for the photo.

Biking With Goslings After Sikes Senter Voting Before Flying To Arizona

A couple days ago I blogged about Wichita Falls Sikes Lake Primrose Duck & Litter Exhibit in which I mentioned seeing some Sikes Lake litter littering up a small section of Sikes Lake.

And that I expected that litter to be gone when next I rolled my wheels by that location, because de-littering litter seems to be the Wichita Falls norm, unlike my previous Texas location.

Today that prediction proved accurate. The littered location you see if you click the above link is now cleaned up, with a white swan, or swan-like bird, floating by, whilst another white bird rests on the nest of leaves washed up against the concrete wall.

And no litter visible to my eye.

And then a short distance later I saw this Sikes Lake scene.

A few days ago I came upon a flock of five goslings floating on Sikes Lake with parental supervision.

Today I came upon a flock of nine or ten goslings being land lubbers grubbing for food, whilst being gosling-sitted by a full size goose, who I assumed to be a parental unit, likely the mother.

To the right, out of the photo, what appeared to be a male goose honked aggressively non-stop whilst I took pictures. I am fairly certain that goose would have goosed me if I got too close for his comfort.

Prior to rolling my wheels to my favorite Wichita Falls goose habitat I rolled my mechanized wheels to Sikes Senter to early vote YES on all seven of the bond proposals the May 5 ballot.

After voting I rolled my mechanized wheels a few miles further north to the Wichita Falls Public Library to stock up on reading material to take with me to Arizona when I fly out of Texas tomorrow.

Oh, I must explain to those who might wonder what Sikes Senter is. It is a mall, which for non-clever reasons not fathomable to me someone thought it alliteratively clever to name the town's mall with an "S" instead of a "C".

Sikes Center would be so much better, name-wise. The mall itself is a bit outdated. Built back, I think, in the 1970s. The interior, where one early votes, looks as if it has been upgraded. The outside, not so much.

Way back in the 1970s the town I lived in before moving to Texas, Mount Vernon, Washington, built two malls of the Sikes Senter sort. The first one on the north side of College Way. The second on the south side of College Way. One called the Mount Vernon Mall, the other the Skagit Mall.

Those malls lasted a couple decades before both were demolished and replaced with more modern strip mall type business venues, whilst a way more modern mall was built in the next town north, Burlington.

Burlington was the town I grew up in. The new mall in Burlington was named Cascade Mall. Burlington was/is a small town, population around 5,000 back in the 70s, a little bigger now. Mount Vernon population was and is around 30,000.

Due to the big changes in the retail industry, brought about my things like Amazon, the Cascade Mall in Burlington is gradually closing, having lost most of its tenants.

In addition to the Cascade Mall, stores like Costco, Pacific Edge Outlet Center, Fred Meyers, Target, K-Mart and even a Krispy Kreme opened in little Burlington. The town became a sort of shopping mecca, swelling the town's population with shoppers, many of them Canadians.

But, nothing ever remains the same in dynamic fast growing, fast changing parts of America and the planet....

The Windy Cold Caribbean Route To Sikes Lake With Five Goslings

Once again a cold wind from the north is blowing into North Texas, blowing out the hot air which had blown in recently from the south.

Yesterday was hot, I think in the low 90s.

Today, when I went for a bike ride, the outer world was barely 60.

And blowing hard, real hard, making, I am sure, for a chilly wind chill factor.

So, I rolled around my Caribbean neighborhood, past Haiti and Grenada, and then took the Montego route direct to Sikes Lake, where, for the first time at this location, I saw recently hatched birds floating with what I assume were there parental units.

The flock of five goslings seemed to have no trouble keeping up with the floating adults paddling against the wind.

I heard no gosling honking or whatever the communicative noise baby geese make. Then again, if they were honking I likely would not have been able to hear it over the howling wind...