Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Muskrats, Otters, and Big Fish
12 mile bike ride along the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Got out for the first ride of the season on one of the road bikes - now there are some muscles that haven't been used for a little while! The Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway was fairly quiet - surprisingly so, given the nice weather.

I'm used to seeing a variety of birds and, in the summer, lots of rabbits along the trail in the evening. But tonight's animal encounters were quite unusual... the first was a muskrat munching on something at the edge of a drainage ditch near the Colonie Town Park. I hoped he'd still be there when I rode back through, but apparently there'd been too much foot traffic.

At the other end of the ride, I stopped along the river at the Colonie/Niskayuna line. The geese on the river were making a fuss, so I walked down to see what was going on. Never did figure out what they were upset about... but I did see some pretty large fish (well over a foot, I think) jumping. In most cases they were almost entirely out of the water. Even more interesting were the four animals that were swimming in the water. From the size and shape, I'm pretty sure they were otters. I'd heard there were otters in the Mohawk, but never expected to see any! Anyway, watched them for about 20 minutes. at which point they swam off and I decided it was time to get back to the car, since itwas getting pretty chilly.

I guess now I have something else to look out for during my evening rides...

JMH
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