Back From Belgium. Gone To The Dogs!

It was raining in Geel this morning

You can’t have my cake or eat it either, Niki!

You can’t eat the Eurasian Magpie, either…

Or the Eurasian Collared-Dove…

Or the Eurasian Jackdaw..

Or the cute Common Chaffinch!

“What? Are you just going to let me starve?”

Herman took me to aother old church this morning.

There were several of these locked, grated grottoes around the outside of the church with lighted votive candles inside them.

A man driving a small utility truck filled with lighted votive candles in the back stopped and said hi to us and explained to Hermin in Flemish that his job was to keep the candles lit. He had done it for ten years and loved the job.

Nike was watching for us to return from his bed in the garage.

I got back in the late after noon, and returned the rental car. Then we went straight from Enterprise car rental to Trivia at the Irish Pub. There were a couple of Golden Retrievers that came to Trivia Night. The white one really like me, and I had to pet it most of the time. It would put it’s head in my lap when I stopped petting it.

Tristan snuck a picture of me petting the dog. We are not supposed to use phones while a trivia round is in play.

Wildlife Park and Greifvogelzoo Potzberg

I Condor you

We went to the Wildlife Park and Greifvogelzoo (Raptor zoo) in Potzberg about 30 minutes north of Bruchmühlbach-Miesau. The park was conceived in the 1970s as a way to attract tourists, and opened in 1984. Due to financial problems, the park was taken over by private management. The privaate management reinvigerted the park, added conservation programs, breeding of rare and endangered spicies, and reintroducing birds back into the wild. They have so many animals, I took nearly way too many photos. It’s sad to see a lot of the raptors in enclosures, but many, like the Condors, seemed content, wanted to play, and were quite interactive. All the animals were very well taken care of.

While on our morning walk, I thought I finally got the Europen Robin. But no, this bird is a Common Chaffinch.

A European Greenfinch

The ever-present Eurasian Blue Tit.

The hotel at the Wild Like Park

A goatlette crawled under to fence and greeted us.

Red Kites were flying around annoying some of the birds in enclosure

I’m no emo, I’m an Emu

Got it?

Andean Condor

Say Uncle and make the paparazzo laugh!

Foghorn Condor

Two male condors wound follow me back and forth, trying to get to my camera while I was trying to photograph the female condors spreading their wings. They were hilarious.

While we were eating lunch at the castle above Landstuhl, I realized the tower and building (Hotel) on the top of then hill across the way is where the Wild Life park is.

A decent sunset taken from the cemetery across the street.

Love & VD

Sunrise on VD

Besides making a great name for a rock band, Love & VD seemed an appropriate title for VD. The popularity of both in 2026 may be in question as fewer people have been hooking up and shacking up in recent years. For old, married folk, there is plenty of romance to be found in a heart-shaped pizza!

Jake and I walked through a tangled tunnel of love with pink markers this morning, and ran into…

The cranes were not in a loving mood

Jake found himself with a river to the left of him, bosque on the right. There he was, stuck in the middle with tree.

Does anyone remember “Tunnel Of Love” by Dire Straights?

“BIG YAWN! That’s what I think about Love & VD. There’s no way I can love a dawg, especially not a Virtual Dawg!”

We ran into a sweet Bernese Mountain Dog on our evening walk.

The Sandias were a nice VD red at sunset

Quintin & Cruella de Quill

Twilight

Quintin & Cruella de Quill watching the colors at dawn

Cruella: “Hey Quintin! It looks like a pathetic paparazzo is pestering us poor porcupines.”
Quintin: “It seems that way, doesn’t it!”
Cruella: “He can’t leave a pair of porcupines in peace to enjoy the colorful dawn.”
Quintin: “A paparazzo with no regard for porcupine privacy!”
Cruella: “So? What are you going to do about him?”
Quintin: “Uhhh! Like what can I do about him?”
Cruella: “Throw some quills at him! Poof up and act scary like you’re going to attack him, or something!”
Quintin: “You know I can’t throw quills…”
Cruella: “Yeah! But that pesky paparazzo might not know that. Humans believe we can throw our quills at them.”
Quintin: “Il paparazzo is unphased by those tactics!”
Cruella: “You’re going to have to hit him with the heavy artillery!
Quintin: “Nooo! You don’t mean…”
Cruella: “Yes, I do… Set up him the stink bomb!*”

*Cruella de Quill’s weird grammar in her last statement is based on a bad translation of an old Japanese video game. When poofing violently, like they are going to throw their quills, doesn’t phase pesky paparazzi predators, porcupines will drop powerful stink bombs trying to keep predatory paparazzi at bay.

Spunk, Gwendolyn, and Glenda by Laurie

pTerodactyl @ Dusk

Resa’s Wolf Tree and Jupiter