Another week of lumbering is upon me, and, in turn, word salad and crap photos will be thrust upon you like an unwelcome visitor.
I was in the woods and on the trail at 7:20, fully expecting to be the first one in the lot as the sun rose. As it was, the Two Aging Hippies, their dog, and what appeared to be one of their mothers (henceforth known as The Well-Aged Hippie Mother of One of The Two Aging Hippies or T.W.A.H.M.o.O.oT.T.A.H if you’re into lengthy, fairly useless abbreviations lusting to be the birdcall-like acronym “Twam-OHH-Tee-Tah”) were just heading down the park path towards the trails.
I took a few minutes to let them get into the woods and for my Garmin to sync, and then I took off like a herd of turtles, only to see the gang of aged hippies hadn’t even made it halfway down the park path. Twam-OHH-Tee-Tah must have been slowing down the pace.
I passed the friendly gang, exchanged small talk, and then never saw them again. Good thing, because I really didn’t want to keep writing Twam-OHH-Tee-Tah.
There was a hint of spring in the air as I made my way onto the trails, and I was happy to be back doing an actual lumber after two days of semi-slack and photo creeping.
I didn’t see much to photograph until just after the two-mile mark when I caught a glimpse of what I THOUGHT was a hawk on the other side of the river. I got into a good position and realized that it was not a hawk or an eagle; it was an osprey (pandion haliaetus).
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Extreme crop to see the talons, fish beware!
To be honest, I was not 100% that it was an osprey, given that I have no recollection of ever seeing one in the wild, and I KNOW I never got a photo of one… until today.
I was so stoked that I kind of didn’t want to keep hiking; I just wanted to go home and edit the photos. But The 2025 Ignorance is Bliss Tour must lumber on!!
For the next half mile along the river, my head was on a swivel, looking for more birds of prey and other critters, but there was no more to be had.
About 4 miles in, I did see a red-bellied woodpecker high in some trees above, but that was about it for the day’s critter sightings other than the normal, everyday sort.
I ended the hike with 5.32 miles in my feetz, and stoked to get my first capture ever of an osprey.
I may have got a better-quality image using the z6 instead of the z50 and my 600mm lens instead of a 250mm lens (375mm on the crop sensor z50), but I also don’t like to hike 5+ miles with 6 pounds of camera equipment. I’m not complaining; just sayin’.
Later.