The real birds...

So, here is the real thing. I was pretty far away. All the birds with their wings open were coming in for a landing. It was an amazing sight. I wish I could have captured that feeling on camera in a better way. This is the same lake that I posted about recently here. Part of the lake is now thawed, but I love it that the birds were walking around on the ice, almost as if they didn't realize that it's still winter, and they are not actually swimming!

More wildlife downtown??

Here is another sign of wildlife downtown!! This, along with the birds from the other day are part of a park outside that is dedicated to Nebraska Wildlife. I'll show more pictures of the park, and give more information when I have it.

The birds are back in town!!!

It seems like several of us have been feeling somewhat limited in subject matter lately. All we see around us is snow, snow, and more SNOW. While snow pictures are indeed often very beautiful, one begins to wonder what it ever felt like to hold a camera with fingers that are not shivering or frostbitten.
Well, I have good news for you (or maybe just for me) - Spring is right around the corner!!! As I was walking downtown on Sunday, camera in one freezing hand and a hot cup of coffee in the other, I walked over to the wall overlooking the lake that I have shown a couple of times. It took me a few seconds for the honking sound to register. I realized what I was hearing just as the lake came into view - it was the honking of GEESE!! The whole view of the lake was FULL of birds. They were walking around on the still-frozen area, and groups would suddenly take off, and fly around a bit in V-formation, then gracefully land together once again on the ice. It was beautiful, but my favorite part was that the birds (who are lucky enough to fly south for the whole winter) know when it's time to come back. So, I'm crossing my fingers that it means that Spring is almost here!
This great lamp post is part of a park downtown devoted to Nebraska wildlife. I'll show more pictures of the area in the next few days. I also took some pictures of the real birds, themselves, but distance kept me from getting a shot that would do justice to the view that I had - hence the lamp post stand-ins!!

A reflection of the past......

So, I'm excited that I got to be outside for a bit taking pictures on Sunday without freezing. I was walking by the Union Pacific building (I posted about UP here), and snapped this picture. The fun part is that the building in the reflection is the old UP headquarters building. The real buildings aren't quite so different in height as they appear here, but it definitely gives one a sense of the history of the company.

***UPDATE**

Ok, I did a little more research and I'm really sad!!! The area surrounding the building is blocked off (you'd think I would have figured it out), but I just read that it is scheduled for demolition this spring! I know that it is part of what is making Omaha a much more attractive and modern city, but it's a little sad. Part of what I love about the downtown area is the feeling of history. Here is a an article that gives more info on the development in Omaha for those who are interested.

Got Wax Paper????

So, I mentioned yesterday that Wax paper was a necessary item for any trip to the park downtown. Well, ta daaa!!! Here is the reason! These big slides are a blast for children of ALL ages, but they are much MORE fun when you sit on wax paper. With no friction thanks to the wax paper, we used to go down so fast that we would fly off the end - and I mean really fly....several feet....and try to not land on our rear ends. The whole pit at the bottom is sand, so it's not as hard as cement. However, I guess too many people got hurt, so they built the extensions at the bottom, which totally took half the fun away. (My generation survived the falls just fine, but you know how things change.)

Still snow - but this time in downtown!!

We are still buried in snow here, and it is verrrrry cold. Yesterday's photo was from Thursday's blizzard - Omaha had about 12 inches of snow, almost 60mph winds, and it was the first time since 1998 that a blizzard warning was issued in Omaha. Pretty amazing storm. The roads are still not the greatest, and I don't want you all to think that my balcony is the best place to take pictures in Omaha, so I will give you this picture today, that I took last week in the park in downtown. You can see a few of the downtown buildings, one of which houses the Omaha World Herald, our largest newspaper. It's hard to tell, but the lower part in the middle of the park is a lake. You can see a little island in the middle. It's frozen now, (I haven't tried skating on it yet this year, but I did as a child), but in the summer there are lots of ducks. When I was younger, we always had to make sure we had two things when we went to the park: bread for the ducks and waxed paper. Sounds weird? Tomorrow I'll show you what the waxed paper is all about.
**This picture was taken after last week's snowstorm. I can imagine what it looks like now after this past Thursday's blizzard. Click on the link for more details of the blizzard.

Snowed in.....

So, there were a few moments yesterday when I was amazed by the snow, and when I thought that it was pretty. I did NOT, however, feel that way as I tried to back out of my apartment garage and quickly got stuck in the snow in the middle of the parking lot. It took me 45 minutes to fight my way back into the garage. I trudged my way through the snow back to the house, and called work to let them know that I would be in as soon as someone plowed my parking lot.
This picture was taken at about 10:30am yesterday. The darkness can tell you a little about how bad the blizzard was. And there was no fog - all of that is blowing snow!
When I am able to drive around freely again, I promise more pictures of Omaha that do not include snow!