Continuing the walk through Hudson Gardens...


A very pretty late-blooming peony.


This was my favorite picture of the day! A bold jumping spider. She was quite big, and had the greenest sheen on her chelicerae that I've ever seen. She was very cool and so cute!


What I'd really hoped for was frogs, because I always hope to see frogs. The little holding pond was a bust, since it's fenced off now. We headed up toward the water gardens. The water lilies were for the most part not yet out, but the reflective terraces are still pretty.

We watched and listened for frogs, but alas.


But there was a pair of ducks!

There was a really cool little orbweaver type spider, but I couldn't get a good picture of her.


A neat little beetle. Despite it being a pretty common type, I'm not sure what kind this is. Shape-wise the remind me of fireflies, but those are a serious rarity here.

We headed back along the other side of the big pond, and finally!

There was an eep, plop from a frog!

He had dived down and darted away as soon as we approached, but then...


Lol, no frog here! (He swam back up under one of the algae mats, and seeing his eyes poking up out of it was very funny.)


He did eventually come back out. We also saw a second frog nearby, so at least we saw a couple!

Then up to the wetlands area.


A turtle!

No snapping turtles this time, sadly.


A very nice damselfly.

Excitingly, we also saw (and heard) orioles! No pictures of them, but they're one I don't see every year, so it's exciting when we do.


A single cormorant, drying his wings off.


Another cool beetle.


The cormorant moved down a little ways, so here it is along with the turtle.


And our frog friend came out a bit farther.

We walked back toward the exit, past the cactus garden. It seems like... less of a cactus garden than it used to be, with more of a mix of plants.


But there was a blooming prickly pear, with a bee! (Not a honeybee... some kind of digging or carpenter bee, I think?)


And a shot of a blooming tree next to the visitor center/gift shop.

It was a lovely day out, and a nice day to have the chance to walk around.