the Way of the Turtle

12 Mile Ride at the Corning Preserve and Schuyler Flatts Cultural Park
Friday, March 6, 2009

Walked out of work tonight to warm air and sunshine... I had hoped to take my bike over to the bike path along the Mohawk River and ride for a bit, but the travel time was just too much, because I wanted to be back at the school in time for tonight's performance of the spring musical. So instead I headed down to the Corning Preserve and rode along the Hudson.

One of the things I like about the warmer weather - more birds around. Last week when I rode down there, I saw crows, gulls, and mallards. Today I saw robins and red-winged blackbirds, a couple of kinds of gulls, canada geese, and best of all - mergansers. It was getting dark when I finally made it back to the parking lot, but I could still see a huge flock of gulls and an even bigger flock of crows out on the ice... wow.

Only two deer tonight, and they took off pretty quickly when I stopped. But it was still a great day for a ride... I've enjoyed winter immensely, but I'm ready for some warmer weather.

Only minus to tonight's ride is my camera started acting up... pictures came out OK but the screen did some funky things at times when I was using it. Of course, I'm approaching 40,000 (or is it 50,000?) pictures, and it has definitely taken a beating from all I've put it through. Guess I'll see what it does over the weekend, but I may have to decide in the not-too-distant future if I want to pick up the latest model of the same camera (for about $80 less than I paid for this one) or upgrade to a slightly larger one with a better optical zoom (a very attractive option) but no viewfinder (that could be inconvenient.)

JMH