three birds

Beautiful temp for the ride in this morning. A little brisk, but I was dressed, so it was perfect.

No chance for any pix since it was dark most of the way.

But the sun was breaking as I hit the pumping station, so I had to stop and take one picture.

Need to get some shots of the canal, the lock and the spillway before the green of spring overtakes it all and it is just a thicket.

I enjoy how winter lets you see through things and beyond. Views you don't get the rest of the foliage-covered year. On roads you travel all the time, secret vistas open up as you see through things..."Wow, I didn't realize we are so close to the river here..."

Coming home I spotted what I thought was a heron in the canal. Then I thought it was a baby heron. Then I wasn't sure what it was. The hooked bill, the odd tale...I thought it was going to fly off while I fumbled for the camera. But it just stood there. Like it was waiting for Mother to come back or something. Not sure if this is the right time of year to see such a "baby" or not. The hook in the bill makes me doubt that it is really a heron...and the legs look too short, too...

Further up the trail I rode past this poor guy. I turned a corner and went about a quarter of the way up a very steep block before I turned around. Then I circled a couple of times. Not sure if I should take a picture or not. Thinking that it might appear too gruesome. But the colors were so beautiful. And the picture doesn't show the yellowish feathers waffling back and forth in the breeze, or the downiness of the spotted feathers in the middle.

And oh, yes, there was a robin on a telephone wire last weekend that just sat there and chirped right at me, so although the sequence might be wrong because I have seen others, we're going to call that one, the first robin of spring.