On Monday morning, I wrote a post about how much of a slacker I was over the weekend. However, because my slack was so unbelievably strong, there were no photos to accompany the post. So I waited. But I waited so long that I now find the post more irrelevant and even dumber than my usual dross. So it’s been permanently shelved—the Blog Dogs rejoice.
Since the writing of the unpublished dross mentioned above, my Me Time slack has continued to be strong and thus far has only been interrupted by a couple of trips to the gym to lift heavy things for no reason, a walk around Meridian Park on Tuesday morning, and the normal day to day operations of Soiled Chamois Enterprises, Inc.™ the Cul De Sac Shack.
The walk was in no way a physical workout, but it got me out of the house and in the woods, which are finally showing hints that spring is finally thinking about maybe happening. Of course, having said that, it’s supposed to drop back into the 30s by the weekend. [insert sigh here]
The woods that line the river and surround the park’s swampy pond are slowly coming alive, and more and more birds can be heard and seen during my hikes, which makes for way better photo opportunities during my hikes. After a long cold winter of hiking in the virtually silent and empty dank woods, I’m getting anxious for the turtles, frogs, toads, and snakes to come back from wherever turtles, frogs, toads, and snakes go during the winter (Pittsburgh?) to join the birds; that will make things even better. Looking at the forecast, though, that could be a bit longer.
The highlight of Tuesday’s walk was when a hooded merganser flew in and landed in the pond as I was taking a few photos of some red-wing blackbirds. Ducks and waterfowl are my nemeses for wildlife photography, so getting a photo of a unique-looking and sounding duck like the merganser had me super stoked.
It was also cool to see some Northern Flickers causing a ruckus in some trees along the river. They are such awesome-looking birds, and I don’t see them that often, so it was cool to see a bunch all at once.
I was happy enough to make a couple of laps of the river bank and pond, get a few photos and soak in the warmer temps and sunshine. I was also able to see an American bald eagle chillin’ in its huge nest, but it was just a bit too far and obscured to get a photo of. It’s always cool to see an eagle, though, and it’s great to know they once again seem to be thriving in this area.
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The next couple of months is my favorite time to be out in nature and the woods. Each week brings out more green grass, colorful wildflowers, birds, bugs, and other critters and makes my geriatric photo walks in the woods way more interesting. I don’t know if they’ll make this blog any better, but you never know; stranger things have happened. OK, not that strange.
Later.