We visited the grounds of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation which was created in 1956 by the last will and testament of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, a philanthropist of Armenian origin who lived in Lisbon 1942-1955. It's main purpose is to improve the quality of life through art, charity, science and education. They have a museum, and a Modern Art Center (CAM) which holds the most important collection of modern and contemporary portuguese art; an orchestra and a choir; an art library and archive; a scientific research institute; and one of the most beautiful public free gardens I've ever been to. The gardens were built in the sixties, a project by landscape architects António Viana Barreto and Gonçalo Ribeiro Telle. On their website they say it "is one of the most iconic modern gardens in Portugal and a prime example of Portuguese landscape architecture." It really is a stunning combination of art, design, nature, plants & wildlife. They are doing some pretty extensive renovating in part of it and I can only imagine how spectacular it's going to be once that's done!
Since it was spring there were adorable babies everywhere! This pair of Egyptian Geese kept close watch over theirs as they wandered all over the place.
Most of the young seemed to be about the same age and in the stage of molting their baby feathers, but this little cutie was significantly smaller and still completely covered in soft fluff!
I'm not sure if it just hatched much later or was adopted?
As Jordan walked to the bathroom a few of them came right up to say HI and check him out.
We also ran across a mama duck with her adorable little ones. I watched one of them walk right up to Jordan, look up and squeak what seemed to be Are You My Mother? It pretty quickly realized nope and headed back into the grass to dig some more.
This guy was just busy napping....
I caught a few pictures of a female Eurasian Moorhen and two really small babies, but they went back into the trees pretty quickly. I couldn't believe the size of the feet on those little ones!
And of course these little cuties that were out on an outing themselves to see the babies!
Oh my heck!!!!! Too much cuteness. Those soft fluffy babies make my heart do funny things. 😭❤️ I wish I had seen the "Are You My Mother?" moment!! Sounds so adorable.